01 December 2008

Ryanair makes fresh bid for Aer Lingus

Ryanair has returned with a renewed offer for Aer Lingus valuing the carrier at 748 million euros (Ã&#pound;619 million).

A previous bid which valued the airline at 1.5 billion euros was blocked by the European Commission on competition grounds.

Ryanair, which already has a shareholding of almost 30% in Aer Lingus, wants to merge the two airlines into a single Irish airline group under common ownership.

"Similar to previous European airline mergers such as Air France/KLM and Lufthansa/Swiss, both airlines will operate as separate companies, with distinctive brands, thereby preserving the best features of both, including RyanairÃ¢â¬â¢s low fare, high punctuality operations, and Aer LingusÃ¢â¬â¢ special brand, service culture as well as its long haul operations," the bid document said.

The deal would see a doubling Aer LingusÃ¢â¬â¢ short haul fleet to 66 aircraft and creating 1,000 associated new jobs in the airline over five years.

Ryanair would secure the Aer Lingus Cork and Dublin take off and landing slots at Heathrow, as well as Heathrow connectivity at lower fares for Ireland.

The budget carrier also pledged to upgrade and develop Aer LingusÃ¢â¬â¢ long haul product and service.

Ryanair CEO Michael OÃ¢â¬â¢Leary said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœThis proposed merger of Ryanair and Aer Lingus will form one Irish airline group with the financial strength to compete with EuropeÃ¢â¬â¢s three major airline groups - Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe world has changed dramatically over the past two years, as high oil prices and deep recession have caused a flood of airline bankruptcies, consolidations and capacity cutbacks.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœAer Lingus, as a small, stand alone, regional airline has been marginalised and bypassed as most other EU flag carriers consolidate."

by Phil Davies