SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 6-K
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the month of January 2008
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
(Translation of registrant's name into English)
c/o Ryanair Ltd Corporate Head Office
Dublin Airport
County Dublin Ireland
(Address of principal executive offices)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F..X.. Form 40-F.....
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information
contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the
Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934.
Yes ..... No ..X..
If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant
in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82- ________
EASYJET CLEARED TO BUY GB AIRWAYS
ANOTHER APPROVED EU AIRLINE MERGER EXPOSES COMMISSION BIAS
Ryanair, Europe's largest low fares airline today (Wednesday, 23rd January 2008)
again questioned the EU's politically motivated prohibition of the Ryanair / Aer
Lingus merger, following the latest approved European airline merger between
Easyjet and GB Airways.
This Easyjet / GB Airways merger (which was cleared by the UK's Office of Fair
Trading last week) is the latest in a long sequence of approved European airline
mergers (11 since 2002) and exposes the European Commission's double standards
in applying a unique and discriminatory set of rules to block Ryanair's bid for
Aer Lingus, (which combined represents less than 5% of EU air travel) while
approving much larger mergers such as Air France / KLM and Lufthansa / Swiss.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| APPROVED EU MERGERS |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1990 | AF / Air Inter / UTA (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1993 | BA / DanAir (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1996 | LH / SAS (Co-op ag.) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2002 | SAS / Spanair ( 74%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2002 | LH / Austrian (Co-op ag.) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2003 | BA / IB / GB Airways (Co-op ag.) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2004 | AF / KLM (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2005 | LH / Swiss (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2005 | LH / Eurowings (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2006 | AB / DBA / LTU (Ger - BKA) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 | Flybe / BA Connect (UK - OFT) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 | EZ / GB Airways (UK - OFT) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 | AB / Germania (Ger - BKA) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 | AF / KLM - VLM (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2008 | AF / KLM - Alitalia (100%) |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PROHIBITED EU MERGERS |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 | Ryanair / Aer Lingus |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| | |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
By prohibiting the Ryanair / Aer Lingus merger, the European Commission broke
all airline merger precedents and ignored its own competition rules, in order to
serve the narrow vested interests of the Irish Government. Since the
prohibition, Aer Lingus has increased its fares and raised fuel surcharges,
whereas the pro consumer terms of Ryanair's bid guaranteed a fares reduction and
the removal of Aer Lingus' unfair fuel surcharges, saving EU passengers at least
EUR100m p.a.
Speaking today, Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary said;
"This latest approved European airline merger (Easyjet / GB Airways)
makes the European Commission's decision to block Ryanair's bid for Aer
Lingus untenable. The continuing wave of European airline consolidation
clearly demonstrates that the European Commission is applying unfair and
discriminatory rules to Ryanair, while encouraging all other European
airlines to merge and consolidate. The prohibition of Ryanair's bid for Aer
Lingus, which guaranteed over EUR100m p.a. in passenger savings including
the removal of Aer Lingus' unjustified fuel surcharges was a biased,
politically motivated, anti consumer decision.
"As always with the European Commission, there is one set of rules for
the flag carriers and a discriminatory set of rules for Ryanair. We again
call on the European Commission to end this politically corrupt bias
towards Ryanair by applying to it the same competition and merger rules
they apply to Europe's flag carrier airlines.
"The spotlight on the European Commission's bias will intensify
further when it rubber stamps other mergers such as the ones presently
contemplated between Air France/KLM and Alitalia and/or Lufthansa/Swiss and
British Midlands".
Ends. Wednesday, 23rd January 2008
For Further Information:
Peter Sherrard - Ryanair Robert Marshall - Murray Consultants
Tel: 00 353 1 812 1228 Tel: 00 353 1 4980 300
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, hereunto duly authorized.
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
Date: 23 January 2008
By:___/s/ James Callaghan____
James Callaghan
Company Secretary & Finance Director