If O’Leary gets Aer Lingus, he may demand control of airports as well

IN deciding to bid for Aer Lingus, Ryanair and its management were looking at three motivating reasons. All three made absolute sense from Ryanair’s point of view. All three demonstrate what a disastrous political decision it has been to sell off Aer Lingus.

Twice in the recent past I’ve written about the privatisation of Aer Lingus. And on both occasions I’ve wondered what, if anything, was to prevent Ryanair from buying it. I admit I didn’t think they’d move this fast, but it always seemed logical to me that Ryanair would move to eliminate competition.

That’s what smart entrepreneurs do. They talk up the need for competition when they want to get into the market, and they try to stifle it when they become powerful themselves.