There were five low cost airline carriers in the UK: Easyjet, Go, Buzz (owned by KLM), Ryan Air and BMIBaby. Easyjet has just announced that it is paying £374m ($524m) for its rival, Go, (which used to belong to British Airways before they sold it to a Venture Capital fund).

The consolidated airline will still be called Easyjet and all Go planes will be resprayed with the orange Easyjet livery and logo. The Chief Executive says that prices will not rise and they expect to face more intense competition from traditional airlines such as British Airways and Air France.

Both companies are still operating exactly as they did before the deal was announced. They will continue to accept bookings over the phone and via their websites. Go and Easyjet will probably continue with their separate bookings systems until at least the end of October 2002. Between them they fly 78 routes. Easyjet says there is little overlap and they have no intention of dropping any of the destinations. They will also continue to operate from their all their existing UK bases.