Ryanair to appeal decision to block merger with Aer Lingus

Ryanair was then required to seek approval for clearance of the deal from the European Commission. However, following an eight-month investigation, the Commission blocked the merger, in what Ryanair claims was a "politically-motivated" decision.

“We have filed our appeal with the CFI today asking them to overturn the Commission’s … politically-motivated decision to block Ryanair’s merger with Aer Lingus,” said Ryanair’s head of regulatory affairs Jim Callaghan.

“This merger, which accounts for less than 5% of the EU air transport market, was clearly pro-competition and would have been the first merger in history to guarantee fare reductions, which would have saved European consumers more then €100m p.a.”

Mr Callaghan went on to claim that the Commission made "manifest errors" and "ignored" evidence submitted to it from Ryanair, and also alleged that submissions made by the Government and Aer Lingus were accepted "without question".

“The Commission made several manifest errors in its assessment of the merger and ignored evidence from Ryanair demonstrating the numerous benefits that the merger would bring to consumers.

“At the same time, the Commission accepted, without question, … submissions from the Irish Government and Aer Lingus.

“Ryanair also offered unprecedented commitments to the Commission to address any possible competition concerns, including giving up more than half of Aer Lingus’ Dublin-Heathrow slots, as well as over 1,700 additional weekly slots – several times what has been offered in any previous airline merger.

“However, the Commission refused these commitments, preferring instead to block this pro-consumer, pro-competition merger for narrow political reasons.

“We are confident that the CFI will overturn this decision in the interests of consumers and the competitiveness of the industry.”