European Court Dismissal of Aer Lingus Injunction

[White Cap]

Ryanair News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News Release
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

19.03.08
Ryanair Welcomes European Court Dismissal of Aer Lingus Injunction

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline, today (Wednesday, 19th March 2008) welcomed the European Court of First Instance’s (CFI’s) dismissal of Aer Lingus’ request for an injunction against Ryanair, which was part of Aer Lingus’ effort to force Ryanair to sell its minority shareholding. The European Commission had already confirmed that since Ryanair has neither de facto nor de jure control over Aer Lingus, there are no legal grounds for such a compulsory disposal.

Ryanair’s lack of influence over Aer Lingus has been highlighted by the two separate refusals by the Aer Lingus Board to hold an EGM at the request of Ryanair, which would have allowed shareholders to consider Aer Lingus’ abandonment of its profitable Shannon-Heathrow route.

Speaking today, Ryanair’s Head of Regulatory Affairs, Jim Callaghan, said:
“We welcome the European Court’s rejection of Aer Lingus’ request for an injunction against Ryanair. The European Commission had already decided on this issue and found that Ryanair has no control over Aer Lingus and it therefore cannot force Ryanair to sell its minority stake.

“This is just another waste of legal costs by Aer Lingus and an attempt to deflect from the fact that, their fares and fuel surcharges continue to increase, whereas Ryanair had committed to reducing Aer Lingus’ fares by 10% and eliminating its unjustified fuel surcharges, saving consumers over €100m. p.a.

“Ryanair looks forward to overturning the Commission’s unlawful prohibition of Ryanair’s merger with Aer Lingus at a time when far larger airline mergers are being approved by the European Commission (such as Lufthansa/Swiss, Air France/KLM and Air France/ Alitalia). There was no justification for the Commission’s nakedly political decision to prohibit this merger between two Irish airlines which between them account for just 5% of EU air travel.

“It is about time that the European Commission began promoting pro-consumer consolidation, such as the Ryanair/Aer Lingus merger, which guaranteed lower fares, the removal of fuel surcharges and improved services for Irish consumers, instead of protecting high fare, fuel surcharging flag carrier mergers”.