We should thank the European Commission competition authorities for doing the obvious, something that the Greek authorities did not do, for the usual reasons of collusion and corruption. I am of course talking about the proposed merger between two of Greece’s largest airlines, Aegean and Olympic Air. The competition authorities declined the proposition on the grounds that it would create a monopoly. They state,
“This would have led to higher fares for 4 out of 6 million Greek and European consumers traveling on routes to and from Athens each year.”
It is interesting that the commission rarely uses its veto on mergers. You may read the article here.
