UK low-cost airline Ryanair announced recently that it has put in an offer to buy smaller rival Buzz for £15.6m; $25.7m. Buzz is currently owned by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, flying to 21 destinations in France, Germany, Holland and Spain, and, like Ryanair, who currently operate a network of 100 routes across 15 European countries is based at Stansted airport, north of London.

It looks like the UK low cost carriers are beginning to consolidate. Last year, we saw Easyjet buy Go, the British Airways owned low cost airline. So now it seems that there will only be two main low cost carriers in the UK, as opposed to the four we had last year.

The deal is expected to be completed by April 1. Details of new timetables, fares and new routes and frequencies will be announced before the end of February. If the deal is successful, Ryanair said that it would cut a number of Buzz's unprofitable routes, while increasing the frequency on 11 of its existing services from Stansted, including Frankfurt, Milan and Barcelona and reducing the cost of other routes.

Ryanair is on a bit of a high recently, as it recently announced it was to open its ninth European base at Stockholm's Skavsta airport. They also announced five new routes from London, starting at the end of April that are to include Reims and Pau in France, Maastricht in Holland, Haugesund in Norway and Dusseldorf in Germany. In addition, Ryanair are about to buy 22 Boeing 737 planes and had taken out options on a further 78 in order to meet its expansion plans.

The Beetle liked Buzz. They were the last low cost airline that had not sunk to the usual low cost “standard” of pile ‘em in, give ‘em no service. Anyone interested in starting a Save Buzz protest?