Lufthansa-Airberlin deal challenged by Ryanair

Ryanair is challenging a deal between Lufthansa and fellow German airline Airberlin on competition grounds.

Lufthansa subsidiaries Eurowings and Austrian Airlines recently agreed to hire 38 craft and their crew from Airberlin, another German carrier backed by Etihad, to fly routes for them.

Ryanair’s chief operating officer, David O’Brien, confirmed the Irish carrier plans to challenge the deal with both the local and EU merger regulators.

"We will shortly be submitting complaints to the Bundeskartellamt [the German competition authority] and to DG Competition at the European Commission, " he said.

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Mr O’Brien pointed out the deal gives Lufthansa and Airberlin combined control over 63 per cent of German capacity and most of its top 20 domestic routes. He described the arrangement as a blocking manoeuvre.

Hamburg and Nuremberg

Ryanair is growing its business in Germany, recently opening bases in Hamburg and Nuremberg, and it plans to expand further in the central European country.

Lufthansa and Airberlin announced their agreement last month. It is part of a plan backed by Airberlin’s biggest shareholder, Etihad, to restructure the German airline, which has been losing money. It is due to come into effect in February, but is subject to regulators’ approval.

At the same time that it revealed the Airberlin leasing deal, Etihad announced a codeshare deal with Lufthansa, allowing the pair transfer passengers between each other’s services.

Etihad chief executive James Hogan highlighted both the Airberlin-Lufthansa agreement and the codeshare deal, when he was speaking in Dublin this week. Etihad owns 29 per cent of Airberlin, one of a number of investments the Gulf airline has made in European carriers.