IAG BMI
 

The final EC decision on the IAG & BMI takover due today at 1800 UK time.

merger cleared according to Bbc news

Latest from WPS:

Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of British Midlands (bmi) by IAG subject to conditions

Brussels, 30 March 2012 - The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the UK airline British Midlands Limited (bmi), by the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), the holding company of British Airways and Iberia. The decision is conditional upon the release of 14 daily slot pairs at London Heathrow in order to facilitate new entry, and upon IAG's commitment to carry connecting passengers to feed the long-haul flights of competing airlines out of London Heathrow. In light of these commitments, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns.

Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said: "The Commission could clear this transaction in the first phase given the commitments package offered by IAG which addresses the competition concerns we identified. The commitments package includes an appropriate number of very sought-after slots at London Heathrow as well as far-reaching feeder arrangements as regards connecting passengers. We are therefore satisfied that the competitive dynamics will be maintained so as to ensure choice and quality of air services for passengers."

The Commission’s investigation found that the transaction, as initially notified, would have led to high market shares and even monopolies on a number of domestic, European and international routes out of London Heathrow airport. The Commission also analysed whether there was a risk that IAG would prevent passengers from connecting on long-haul flights operated by competing airlines out of London Heathrow.

During the first-phase review, IAG submitted commitments to release 12 daily slot pairs at London Heathrow which could be used on the specific routes of concern, including the UK domestic routes, as well as on other European routes. In addition, two Heathrow daily slot pairs will be leased to Transaero for use on flights to Moscow. These slots and other incentives such as the acquisition of grandfathering rights after a certain period of time should facilitate new entry. Furthermore, IAG committed to entering into special agreements with competing airlines which operate long haul flights out of London Heathrow to provide these airlines with connecting passengers, including from UK domestic routes and other European routes. Passengers will therefore continue to have a choice to use other airlines than IAG when connecting at London Heathrow.

These commitments adequately address all competition concerns identified by the Commission. The Commission therefore concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or a substantial part of it.

The transaction was notified to the Commission on 10 February 2012.

Companies and products

The undertaking International Consolidated Airlines Group ("IAG" - United Kingdom) is the holding company of both BA and Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. bmi is currently owned by Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Both IAG and bmi provide air transport for passengers, air transport for cargo, airport ground handling services and maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

Merger control rules and procedures

The Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation) and to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it.

The vast majority of mergers do not pose competition problems and are cleared after a routine review. From the moment a transaction is notified, the Commission generally has a total of 25 working days to decide whether to grant approval (Phase I) or to start an in-depth investigation (Phase II).

A non-confidential version of today's decision will be available at:

Europa - European Commission - Competition - Mergers - Official Journal ... e=2_M_6447

Toothless :=

How much will it now cost to fly to those only served by BA...i guess there won't be many future sales :ugh:

What a joke. 14 slot pairs. The EU should be ashamed. I'm guessing lots of back handers have been involved. Sad day for British public.

Best outcome in my humble opinion.

I'm fairly certain Branson/Virgin would have raped BMI for their LHR slots and shut the airline down if they'd got their fingers on them.
LH would have just shut the airline down and sold the slots if the sale was blocked.

This way, BMI will most likely be absorbed into BA and fewer jobs will be lost.

Still, shame to see BMI go.

The next target is already in the sights!:E
And look out for a change of name on the BMI hangar it may not be BA!

gaspath, that is too cryptic for me. And I do the hard crosswords. :confused: Give us a clue?

To those wagging fingers above, how much competition on those routes would there have been if BMI had been allowed to go bust? err - the same as there will be now. :ugh:

Can we look forward to the startup of a shorthaul VS operation, say, LHR-ABZ as their boss seems so keen on competition?

Now, will all those parties who want to operate domestic routes into Heathrow please form an orderly queue.....

The name on the hangar? My money's on Lufthansa Technik.

Why would that be doug ? After all , who is lined up to handle LH engineering support at lhr ? the clue is in a teacup.....

Why?

If IAG had been required to give more than 14 slot pairs, they would have pulled out of the deal and Lufthansa would have allowed BMI to fold - to all intents and purposes tonight, with the associated job losses and all round grief, which has thankfully been avoided.

Yes, their slots may well have been distributed elsewhere but it would have resulted in IAG having a monopoly on a number of routes simply because no one else would or could fly them. As for SRB taking on some of the extra slots, he can't acquire new longhaul jets any quicker than anyone else so likely as not wouldn't be able to operate them anyway - and that's assuming he has the money, which I doubt. As always, lots of noise and not a lot else.

Was there ever any doubt if Lufthansa are involved ??

Let's see.....

You wanna buy Swiss ?? No problem....

You wanna buy Austrian ?? No problem...

You wanna buy Luxair ?? No problem....

You wanna buy BMI ?? No problem....

You wanna buy Germanwings ?? No problem....

You wanna buy SN Brussels ?? No problem....

Now you wanna sell BMI to IAG ?? No problem....

The only thing to wonder about is whether IAG would have been allowed to buy BMI if it had not already been owned by Lufthansa....

One World/ Star Alliance
 

These airlines are obviously key players in opposing alliances, does anyone know what kind of implications this will have on the acquisition?

That's a very good point Hussar 54, the Lufthansa peeps obviously have a lot of sway with the EU regulator, what a corrupt world.

Remember the EU Regulator ONLY had to consider where the sale might impact on competition. The hard reality that the public fail to recognise time and time again is that NO airline can make money operating domestic services out of LHR. Not BA, not bmi and most certainly not VS. RB will have to put his money where his mouth is now or forever hold is silence. The sale INCREASES competition at LHR to the far east. A little but significant point which most seem to miss.

If bmi had gone bust the slots would have been lost and there would have been a far bigger impact on competition between Scotland and Heathrow. Thank god it did not.

A sad day.

More like, we have you over a barrel, cough up..

Thought they were bound by contract to buy it, even if not wanted.

SCOTTIE & NUTLOOSE....

You're correct, of course....

Although the same EU ( totally unbiased, of course ) authorities seem to belive that there is adequate competition between Frankfurt and...oh, let's think....Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Linz, Luxemburg, Brussels....And probably others that I can't think of just now, because slots at Frankfurt are just as difficult and expensive to acquire as at Heathrow....

I think the point that I was trying to make, but re-reading my post this afternoon, didn't make it as clear as I was thinking when I posted, is that I'm sure that Lufthansa's desire to sell BMI made it an awful lot easier for IAG to complete a deal rather than if IAG had wanted to buy BMI directly from Bishop a couple of years ago when Lufthansa first did the deal with him, as Lufthansa seem to have very good friends in much higher places inside the EU than just about any other European airline....

Do you want to be in a job ? do you want to them to be in a job ? You want one or the other:ugh: Tis peoples lives here Members:mad: