Easyjet announces further expansion
No-frills airline easyJet broadened its wings today by announcing further expansion plans.
The budget carrier - Ryanair's biggest rival in the market - is already in takeover talks with rival Go, a former British Airways subsidiary in a deal that could be worth around £400m (€642m).
Today, easyJet announced it had agreed an option to buy BA’s German subsidiary Deutsche BA at any time up to the end of March next year in a deal worth around £30m (€48m).
EasyJet chief executive, Ray Webster, said today his company hoped to conclude the Go deal ‘‘within the next few days’’.
He added: ‘‘Critics have said that by acquiring Go we will put prices up. That’s furthest from our minds. We have no intention of changing any aspect of our business model.’’
On jobs, Mr Webster said that as far as the Go deal was concerned there would be ‘‘very few job reductions’’. As far as DBA was concerned he said some staff might be displaced including administration and secretarial posts.
He said that easyJet was determined to continue to operate its own services from Luton and Go’s from Stansted airport in Essex, while the DBA operation would remain distinctly German.
DBA has 16 aircraft and operates seven routes within Germany. As part of its cost-cutting exercises, BA had put the German company up for sale.
