Aegean Olympic takeover

Greece's Aegean Airlines has won European Union approval to buy loss-making rival Olympic Air at the second attempt, after a new antitrust investigation found Olympic would close down if the deal was blocked.  It is a similar scenario to the BA takeover of bmi.

"It is clear that, due to the on-going Greek crisis and given Olympic's own very difficult financial situation, Olympic would be forced to leave the market soon in any event", EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

"Therefore we approved the merger because it has no additional negative effect on competition", he added.  European airlines will continue to compete on international routes but the internal Greek market will be left very much in the hands of Aegean.  The regulator's approval marks the first time it has cleared a deal it previously rejected.  The combined airline will carry around 8.4m passengers this year, the two fleets compatible, Olympic now a mainly regional operator with Q400s and Aegean flying Airbus A320 series aircraft. www.aegeanair.com

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