Although we are not competition experts, it does, from the surface, appear that FR did indeed act unjustly in substantially reducing its airfares from DUB to BHX and return. But did just BHX benefit from a huge reduction in price? No: many airports, such as STN, LTN, LGW, MAN and LPL, also had .50 Euros or £0.50p deals to and from DUB. Therefore, it could be argued that the reduction in airfares to and from BHX was a part of a wider promotion instead of a direct attack against MTL. (Note: this promotion has, I believe, now ended.)
The launch of both GRO and MJV from BHX are much harder to justify. Nevertheless, it could be aruged that GRO was expected due to FR serving this Spanish destination from other UK airports (such as STN, PIK and BOH). But why MJV? It currently does not feature widely in its network. As such, it could be a mere one-off or it could be a part of a wider plot to rid MTL of valuable market share and to gain its all-important consumers. I put my money on the latter.
All of this is, of course, just speculation. Accordingly, we will have to wait until the officials investigate the situation - if indeed they do.
Last edited by 'PlaneHappy; 21st Aug 2003 at 06:45.