Aer Lingus to be allowed to continue operating London City-Dublin service
Aer Lingus’s takeover of London City – Dublin flights that were previously operated by CityJet has been approved by competition watchdogs.
The Competition and Markets Authority has cleared the agreement between the two airlines after finding that no other airlines would have been interested in taking over the route after CityJet stopped operating it.
Aer Lingus operates the flights under a wet-lease arrangement, under which CityJet provides Aer Lingus with aircraft, crew, maintenance services and insurance to operate the route.
However, the CMA investigated the agreement as, in addition to the wet lease, Aer Lingus acquired CityJet’s landing slots at both London City and Dublin Airports. Customers who had already booked flights on the route were also transferred to Aer Lingus, and CityJet’s website also redirected potential new customers to the Aer Lingus homepage following the agreement’s announcement.
The CMA launched an initial, Phase 1, investigation in October to consider the impact of the deal for passengers flying between London and Dublin.
It cleared the agreement today, saying that CityJet had taken the decision to stop providing services on this route prior to its agreement with Aer Lingus and, while CityJet did not market this business to other airlines, its detailed investigation showed that no other airline would have been interested in taking over the business.
"For that reason, without the agreement, the assets transferred by CityJet to Aer Lingus would have instead been used to operate other routes, resulting in a loss of capacity and therefore less choice for customers on the London to Dublin route," it said.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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