O’Leary says Wizz Air and easyJet must merge or be taken over

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary believes rivals Wizz Air and easyJet will need to merge or be taken out by other carriers as the airline industry consolidates following the pandemic.  EasyJet revealed on Thursday it had rebuffed a takeover approach from an unnamed suitor, which a person familiar with the talks confirmed was Wizz Air. The approach is the first sign of dealmaking in a European industry that has suffered 18 months of disruption and long been seen as ripe for consolidation. “Both easyJet and Wizz will either need to be taken out or . . . coalesce together,” O’Leary said. He suggested that large flag carriers such as the British Airways owner IAG, Lufthansa or Air France could eventually try to buy rival airlines, be they low-cost rival or smaller network airlines. "Consolidation needs to happen and will happen. It’s an inevitability, particularly coming out of Covid,” he added. O’Leary believes that airlines need huge scale to survive, and that the fragmented European market is unsustainable in the long-term. Many European governments have been unwilling to lose their national airlines and — to O’Leary’s horror — unveiled sweeping aid to help their struggling carriers survive the impact of the pandemic. Following the interest in his airline, easyJet’s CE Johan Lundgren also said the pandemic could drive industry tie-ups in Europe. “I think that everybody would agree that when you go through situations like this, that there are consolidation plays happening,” he said on Thursday.<br/>