Ryanair CEO calls his carrier the winner in Lufthansa-ITA deal

Ryanair Holdings Plc’s CEO Michael O’Leary said the low-cost carrier will emerge as a winner from rival Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s E325m investment in Italy’s ITA Airways, as more slots come up for grabs to secure regulatory approval. “We support Lufthansa buying ITA,” O’Leary said in an interview in Rome on Tuesday. “It will create more growth opportunities for Ryanair in Italy.” Under the deal, the German airline would initially buy 41% of the successor to failed flagship Alitalia from the Italian state, with an option to acquire the rest at a later date. O’Leary made the comments ahead of a move by European Union watchdogs to open an in-depth probe into the transaction. Paving the way for more slot concessions, regulators said a package of commitments offered so far by Lufthansa was “insufficient, in terms of both scope and effectiveness, to clearly dismiss” its competition concerns on long- and short-haul connections. Aside from helping Ryanair, O’Leary warned that if the deal goes through, the German carrier “will increase all the airfares,” on the routes involved. “Rather than growing routes to and from Italy they will just use it to feed the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt.”<br/>