Ryanair to appeal against take over decision
Irish low cost carrier Ryanair is to appeal against the EC decision to block its take over of rival Aer Lingus.
It described the decision as "unlawful and politically motivated" and said it had lodged its appeal with the European Court of First Instance.
Ryanair, which now has a stake of 29.4% in its rival, bid €2.80 per share for Aer Lingus.
It said shares had since fallen to €2.50.
Ryanair said that after an eight month investigation, the EC had “blocked the merger following pressure from the Irish Government and Aer Lingus.”
Aer Lingus in its own statement, said it was in "no doubt that the appeal…will fail and Aer Lingus will assist the Commission in upholding the decision before the Court."
It said that the attempted take over "presented greater monopoly problems than any other airline case ever examined by the Commission."
Pegasus signs deal with StarCite
IT distribution company Pegasus Solutions has signed an agreement with StarCite, a meetings management company.
Under the deal, Pegaus will provide StarCite will its UltraDirect distribution technology for e-connections to hotel reservation systems.
The agreement links StarCite to Pegasus's portfolio of more than 78,000 hotels.
Mike Kistner, Pegasus chief operating officer and president, reservation and distribution services, said: "This agreement with StarCite is extremely significant for Pegasus.
"Expanding into the meetings space is a key component of our overall strategy to open new distribution channels.
"The meetings market continues to grow and represents a great opportunity for both hotels and travel distributors as an emerging frontier for online bookings."
"Silverjet in talks with airline at Heathrow"
All business class carrier Silverjet declined to confirm or deny a UK newspaper report that it was in talks with a European airline about gaining entry to Heathrow.
A spokesman for the British airline said it was "focusing on its service from Luton to New York but talked to people in the industry about any opportunities which might arise for it."
The report in the Sunday Telegraph said Silverjet was talking to a "major European carrier" and had consulted adviser about selling itself to either Air France or Lufthansa, both of whom have slots at Heathrow.
KDS picked for UK government contract
French IT company KDS said its end to end product KDS Corporate has been selected to manage online travel booking for the UK government.
The Paris-based company said it was part of a consortium led Capgemini UK which had won the contract to design and manage a new electronic travel booking service for UK government departments.
Group Captain Andy, team leader of travel modernization at the Ministry of Defence which will be the first department to use the product, said: "This service is a key component of modernising travel within the Department, which will simplify the travel booking process by allowing journeys to be arranged online."
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