IAG moves to appease Virgin over Aer Lingus deal

IAG is understood to have offered to connect passengers from Ireland with rivals’ long-haul flights from London to allay EU competition concerns over its bid for Aer Lingus.

The move is designed in part to assuage Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic, which has expressed concerns about the deal.

IAG has not made any offer to surrender London Heathrow slots of the combined group.

Buying Aer Lingus would win IAG take-off and landing positions at Heathrow, as well as opening up transatlantic routes via Ireland.

The European Commission said yesterday that IAG had offered competition remedies to help win approval for its planned €1.35bn deal. The EU’s competition regulator extended its preliminary deadline to review the accord to July 15.

The concession would build on IAG’s pledge in 2012 to feed competitors’ long-haul flights from Heathrow as it secured the EU’s backing for its takeover of BMI. IAG said its engagement with the commission i s ongoing and declined to comment further.

Virgin Atlantic said its position hasn’t changed and that guarantees need to be made to ensure IAG works with Aer Lingus’s existing partners.

The commission declined to comment.