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DUBLIN, Ireland -- Ryanair Holdings PLC, Europe's largest discount airline, launched a takeover bid Thursday for its Irish rival, Aer Lingus Group PLC, in a deal that would value the formerly state-owned carrier at 1.48 billion euros ($1.88 billion). Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said his company had bought more than 16 percent of Aer Lingus over the past week and wanted to buy the rest at 2.80 euros ($3.55) a share, a 27 percent premium over Aer Lingus' Sept. 27 IPO share price of 2.20 euros ($2.79). Aer Lingus shares soared 12 percent to 2.81 euros ($3.57) in frenetic...

LONDON (AFX) - Aer Lingus is tomorrow expected to confirm plans for a London flotation that will value the Irish airline at up to 1.2 bln eur, reported the Sunday Times. The deal will be the first float of an airline on the main London Stock Exchange since Stelios Haji-Ioannou brought easyJet to market six years ago. The Sunday Times said it will also bring to an end tortuous negotiations between the Irish government, airline management and unions over the future of Aer Lingus. Only three years ago, the Irish government, which owns 85 pct of the company, said it...

Aer Lingus flight evacuated in Ireland,P. ROBERT BARR Associated Press LONDON - An Aer Lingus flight from New York with 239 passengers aboard was evacuated in Ireland Friday following a threat against the aircraft, airport authorities said. Aer Lingus Flight 112 was evacuated during a scheduled stop at 2:50 a.m. EDT at Shannon airport in western Ireland, said airport spokesman Eugene Pratt. The plane was en route to Dublin. The threat "came to a police station in Dublin, and referred to some explosives aboard that specific flight," Pratt said. No trace of explosives was found in the initial search.

2 Executives, at Irish Bank and Airline, Resign Amid Scandals By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: May 30, 2004 DUBLIN, May 29 (Agence France-Presse) — Two of Ireland's top executives, the chairman of the national airline Aer Lingus and the chief executive of the Bank of Ireland, resigned Saturday as a result of separate bank scandals. Tom Mulcahy, the chairman of Aer Lingus, resigned in a letter to Seamus Brennan, the transport minister, after widely being named in the media on Saturday in connection with a tax-evasion scandal at Allied Irish Bank. Michael Soden, chief executive of Bank of Ireland, stepped down...