Irish airline Aer Lingus has rejected a 1.48bn euro (£1bn) takeover offer from budget rival Ryanair. A combined Ryanair/Aer Lingus group would have a 78% share of the London-Dublin route, raising concerns over competition issues. Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary said the move was a “unique opportunity” to form a “strong Irish airline”, carrying more than 50 million passengers each year. If the bid was successful, he said the plan was to continue to operate the two airlines separately and compete on the 17 routes which both use.
During the security clampdown while the boss of Ryan Air was planning to sue the government for imposing unnecessary restrictions he also said in an interview that he had the idea of allowing mobile phones to be used in flight. When a reporter asked if that wouldn’t annoy some passengers O’Leary’s response was that he couldn’t care less if it makes money.
I don’t know why you refer to ‘our friends’ at Ryan Air, if you look at the websites for passenger approval ratings you will see that their reputation is quite in line with their boss’s attitude: the passengers are just there to line his pockets.