EU Competition Law Developments in the Aviation Sector from 4 July to 31 December 2013

The second half of 2013 has seen continued activity in the aviation sector, particularly on the part of the European Commission ('Commission') which issued five new merger decisions. 1 At the start of 2013 we saw the Commission prohibiting Ryanair's second takeover bid for Aer Lingus. Some no doubt wondered if the Commission would also prohibit Aegean Airlines' second takeover bid for Olympic which had previously been prohibited in January 2011. Also of note was the UK's Competition Commission ('CC') issuing its Final Report into Ryanair's minority shareholding in Aer Lingus This article considers the UK consultation relating appeals of licence conditions imposed on operators of dominant areas at dominant UK airports, reviews the ongoing and closed investigations, reviews relevant judgments of the European Courts (the General Court and the Court of Justice), 2 as well as those cases awaiting judgment and concludes with a review of some relevant State aid decisions. Somewhat surprisingly there do not appear to have been any aviation mergers notified to regulators in the EU over the last six months.