The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says it has approved a wet-lease agreement between Irish carriers Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin International) and CityJet (WX, Dublin International) covering the Dublin International-London City route.
Under the proposed partnership, CityJet withdrew from the route on October 27, 2018. Aer Lingus would then assume the route albeit using ARJ-85s wet-leased from CityJet. In addition to the wet-lease, Aer Lingus had also acquired CityJet’s landing slots at both London City and Dublin Airports.
The CMA then launched an investigation into the agreement so as to consider the impact of the deal for passengers flying between London and Dublin.
In its decision announced on December 21, the CMA said it had decided to approve the deal given CityJet had ceased plying the route prior to its entry into effect. In addition, the CMA's research had shown that no other airline would have been interested in taking over the service.
"For that reason, without the agreement, the assets transferred by CityJet to Aer Lingus would have instead been used to operate other routes, resulting in a loss of capacity and therefore less choice for customers on the London to Dublin route," the regulator said.
Aer Lingus currently operates the route 4x daily.
