Ryanair: Lufthansa Air Berlin rescue is conspiracy. Alcohol is bad, too
Staff Writer |
Ryanair has officially objected to plans for Lufthansa to rescue rival budget carrier Air Berlin after it yesterday filed for insolvency.
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Air Berlin's main shareholder, Etihad Airways, refused to provide further financial support, with the airline saying that talks were ongoing with Lufthansa to buy parts of its business.
However, Irish budget rival Ryanair filed a complaint with EU competition authorities in an attempt to block the Lufthansa takeover.
It lodged complaints with German officials and the European Commission, calling it an "obvious conspiracy" between the German airlines and their government.
Germany's largest airline Lufthansa said it was "already in negotiations" to take over parts of the Air Berlin group. In January German cartel authorities allowed Lufthansa to lease Air Berlin planes, helping it to develop its Eurowings budget subsidiary, a Ryanair rival.
Air Berlin said the German government will provide a bridging loan to allow all scheduled flights to operate as planned.
Ryanair called on UK airports to take necessary measures to prevent excessive alcohol consumption, in the wake of increased disruptive behaviour from passengers travelling from British airports.
The CAA reported a 600% increase in disruptive passenger incidents in the UK between 2012 and 2016 with most “involving alcohol†and Ryanair urged the airports to take more responsibility for this safety issue by:
Banning the sale of all alcohol in bars and restaurants before 10am.
Introducing the mandatory use of boarding cards when purchasing alcoholic drinks in bars and restaurants (in the same way a boarding card is needed for airport purchases) and limiting the number of drinks per boarding pass to a max of two.
Controlling the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants to passengers during flight delays by limiting the number of drinks per boarding pass to a max of two.
Ryanair has already taken a number of measures to prevent disruptive behaviour on its UK flights, and customers are not permitted to consume their own duty-free purchases on board. ■