Ryanair presses for Air Berlin slots and eyes potential German bases

Ryanair is pressing the EC to make available take-off and landing slots in Germany after the failure of Air Berlin, with a view to opening new bases there, the company’s CCO said Thursday. The Commission has extended a deadline for examining Lufthansa’s planned acquisition of Air Berlin units Niki and LGW to Dec. 21. It is concerned about Lufthansa’s potential dominance in Germany and is seeking feedback on concessions put forward by the airline. “We believe that the regulatory authorities should ensure that sufficient slots from the Air Berlin failure should be made available to Ryanair,” said the carrier’s chief commercial officer, David O‘Brien. A source familiar with the process said Wednesday that Lufthansa’s current concessions included divesting some Niki slots in Germany but keeping those in congested Munich and Berlin Tegel. While the German carrier plans to give up some Niki slots in Duesseldorf, LGW’s portfolio also includes peak-time slots there. “Ryanair is interested in access to slots -- not slots contrived to deliver an inefficient operation, but sufficient slots to run a modern, efficient low-cost operation out of, for example, Munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Berlin Tegel,” O‘Brien said. Ryanair did not enter the bidding for Air Berlin assets, but rival easyJet is starting new German domestic routes after buying Air Berlin operations at Berlin Tegel. O‘Brien said that Ryanair, which is currently taking delivery of 40 to 50 planes a year, could station 10 aircraft at those four German airports within a year and would look at domestic routes, though international destinations are more likely.<br/>