Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary on Tuesday attacked EU plans to veto its hostile bid to take over Irish rival Aer Lingus, calling the move politically motivated to appease Dublin.
The European Commission intends to block the approach by Europe's biggest budget airline on Wednesday, sources familiar with the issue have said. O'Leary's comments revived a nine-month war of words with Aer Lingus which has strenuously defended itself against a take-over ever since Ryanair's approach last October.
"Michael O'Leary has sought to 'take out' his closest competitor and he has failed," Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion said in a statement. "He is now lashing out in a vain attempt to disguise that failure."
O'Leary repeated on Tuesday that he would appeal against the expected bid veto by going to the EU's Court of First Instance. "This decision is politically motivated, designed to appease the narrow interests of the Irish government, which was the only party - other than Aer Lingus itself - to object to the merger," O'Leary told reporters. "The decision is manifestly in error since it is based on the Commission's inaccurate claim that there are barriers to entry at Dublin Airport," he said.
The European Commission responded by saying it was obliged to be "completely impartial and objective" and pointed out that all its merger decisions could be challenged in EU courts.
"This is the first time that we have been looking at a proposed merger where the two airlines operate out of the same home base airport," European Commission's spokesman for competition Jonathan Todd told reporters.
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