Originally Posted by
BCAR Section L
That's an interesting article on the monopoly situation. Some quotes:
- "The German cartel office said it expected the European Commission to take a close look at the deal."
- "Ryanair (RYA.I) CEO Michael O‘Leary has called it a “stitch-up”, saying it would give Lufthansa a 95 percent share of the German domestic market."
- "Lufthansa has said it has a market share of 34 percent on routes to and from Germany, while Air Berlin had 14 percent. With the takeover of parts of Air Berlin that will remain below 48 percent, which Lufthansa says is equivalent to Ryanair’s market share in Ireland."
Ryanair was operating Berlin-Cologne, but with the recent spate of cancellations, that one got cancelled. Maybe German domestic flights aren't all that profitable? There's the high-speed rail system, the fact that the central airports Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich are at capacity, that anyone who has slots there (including Ryanair) can more profitably use them to operate international flights (European or intercontionental), and that with the cost development in air travel, many smaller airlines and regional carriers have not been able to operate profitably (obvious examples would be Niki Lauda selling Niki, and Air Berlin going bust). So the options for domestic air travel seem to be either a) Lufthansa doing most of the flights, b) nobody doing them, or c) tickets getting a lot more expensive, which would allow for competition to be profitable again, but creates the situation that competition is meant to avoid.
I think it's much ado about nothing.