The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

RYANAIR is reported to have offered to sell the landing slots used by Aer Lingus at London’s Heathrow Airport in a bid to win European Commission approval for a takeover of the former Irish State airline.

The European Commission has until July 4 to decide on Ryanair’s offer, which was made two weeks after the Aer Lingus float last October.

The bid originally valued Aer Lingus at ?1.48billion.

The European Union anti-trust regulator has rejected previous proposed solutions as insufficient to overcome competitive problems with the deal.

The Commission said in March that Ryanair would gain unacceptable dominance at Dublin Airport with an overwhelming majority of slots.

But it is now believed that Ryanair has offered to sell Aer Lingus’ slots at Dublin and Heathrow for flights between the two airports.

They plan to sell them to British Airways and to Air France’s Cityjet, which flies from Dublin.

The plan is among Ryanair’s new series of proposals.

However the Heathrow slots are regarded as important assets and the reduction would most-likely meet with opposition from shareholder groups including the Irish Government.

The government has a 25.1 per cent stake in Aer Lingus.

Ryanair withdrew its bid for Aer Lingus pending the European Commission decision.

However chief executive Michael O’Leary said last week that the company would consider a second bid if Ryanair received a favourable outcome from both the EU review and the Irish takeover panel.

Meanwhile Ryanair revealed that eight passengers so far have won pay-outs since the launch of its Price Guarantee last week.

Until June 12, any passenger who finds a cheaper fare on the same route with a competitor airline is entitled to receive double the difference between Ryanair’s fare and the competitors.