Ryanair to sell Aer Lingus stake to IAG

Ryanair has just announced that is accepting the £961 million IAG (parent company of British Airways) bid for Aer Lingus. The bid that was already blessed by the Irish authorities was already a precursor for the complete takeover of Aer Lingus and integration into the IAG network. The trans-Atlantic flight routes from Dublin are too hard to resist for Heathrow slot starved IAG. Ryanair owns 29.8% of Aer Lingus and wasn’t really a willing party to sell out the stake. They tried thrice to buy over Aer Lingus but failed in all their bids due to stiff opposition from all ends. I guess no wanted Ryanair to dominate the Irish market leaving them with no other option but to sell out.

We may soon see a lot more trans-Atlantic flights coming from Dublin which may serve to feed the growing demand for the passenger traffic currently blocked by limited number of slots available at Heathrow. I for one am definitely looking forward to fly on these routes more often via Dublin compared to the bustling Heathrow and hopefully that will make transit process way better experience than it is now with pre-clearance for US available at Dublin. With EU also approving the deal, there seems to be little stopping IAG to go ahead and expand its network now.