DUBLIN (dpa-AFX) - Ryanair Holdings plc. (RYA.L, RYAAY) said it urged the German Bundeskartellamt and the EU Commission to block the stitch-up between the German Government, Lufthansa and Air Berlin plc. (AIBEF.PK) to carve up Air Berlin's assets, while excluding major competitors and ignoring both competition and State Aid rules, and called for immediate action to block this anti-consumer take-over.
This insolvency is being timed to allow Lufthansa to take over a debt-free Air Berlin (its major German competitor) which will be in breach of all German and EU competition rules, and this Lufthansa monopoly has been supported by the German Government providing €150m of State Aid, so that Lufthansa can acquire Air Berlin, as Lufthansa moves from a 68% share to a 95% monopoly, which will result in German customers and visitors suffering higher air fares. Competitor airlines will struggle to get slots in major airports such as Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, where Lufthansa will control over 80% of peak time slots.
Ryanair also urged all Berliners to vote 'Yes' on 24th Sept to keep Tegel Airport open. The new Brandenburg Airport will have a capacity of only 27m passengers, which is less than Dublin (a city with one-third of Berlin's population).
With almost 33m passengers already travelling through Berlin's 2 existing Schonefeld and Tegel airports last year, the planned closure of Tegel will leave Berlin with less airport capacity than its existing traffic.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX