Greece’s Aegean Airlines will find out by April 9 whether its second attempt to buy Olympic Air will be cleared or blocked by the European Union regulator, the Dow Jones news service has reported. The European Commission, which is reviewing the 72 million euro ($94.4 million) deal, said on its website that it would give the final answer by that date.
The commission rejected Aegean’s initial bid in 2011 to snap up struggling Olympic, arguing that the combined company would be too dominant for the small domestic market in Greece.
Aegean’s falling market share and Greece’s dire economy could, however, cast the merger in a different light, the news agency said. Meanwhile, in a sign of the tight regulation of the airline industry, the European Union’s competition chief, Joaquin Almunia, vetoed a third attempt by low-cost carrier Ryanair to buy its Irish rival Aer Lingus,, saying that merger would create a near-monopoly in Ireland.
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