Alec Burnside of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, counsel to Aer Lingus, explains how in an astonishing 29-hour period no fewer than six decisions and judgments paved the way for the sale of Ryanair’s minority shareholding in Aer Lingus, to which Ryanair had clung since 2006. That sale cleared the way for the merger of Aer Lingus with International Airlines Group (IAG), owner of British Airways and Iberia.
The nine year legal battle repeatedly stretched the boundaries of EU and national merger control law, Ryanair’s determination to stay on the Aer Lingus share register throwing up a series of untested issues. Ten different courts and competition agencies were involved, yielding as many as thirty decisions, judgments and orders. Alec Burnside will give a retrospective at IBC’s Competition Law in the Transport Sector conference in London on 27 January 2016*.
*This is a two day conference taking place on the 27th and 28th of January 2016 in London. Day one has an aviation focus and day two has a shipping focus.
