EU court rules against Ryanair monopoly

RYANAIR has been firmly told by the European Court of Justice that it cannot take over Aer Lingus and create a monopoly service into and out of the country.

But Aer Lingus was told by the same court that it has to live with the fact that the low-cost airline owns 29.8% of its shares.

Three years ago Ryanair wanted to merge with Aer Lingus but the EU’s competition watchdog said this would have created an airline with a dominant position on 35 routes, accounting for about 80% of all intra-European traffic.