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Ryanair calls government’s bluff
Read more about: Agriculture and Rural, Connaught-Ulster, End of Shannon-Heathrow, Government, Munster, Northern Ireland, Transport, Travel & Tourism
What does a company do when a majority of its ownership wants to pursue a particular policy? This is the issue that Aer Lingus in theory faces with 50.3 percent of its ownership claiming that the Shannon-Heathrow route should be maintained. Thus the hot potato that Michael O’Leary has tossed towards the government.
The government owns 25.3 percent of Aer Lingus and Ryanair owns 25 percent, a legacy of its unsuccessful takeover bid for the company. [Denis O'Brien is sitting there with another few percent, by the way]. In this letter and statement, Ryanair has mischievously proposed to Bertie that the two large shareholders jointly request that Shannon-Heathrow be maintained.
Now the extent of O’Leary’s seriousness is perhaps evident in that most of the letter and statement accuses the government in general and Martin Cullen in particular of lying, in using the claim that a Ryanair-owned Aer Lingus would dump Shannon-Heathrow to argue against their bid, including to the European Commission (which blocked it).
The whole thing is such a tangled web at this point that one could find multiple motives for every partner in the affair. Does Ryanair just want Aer Lingus out of Aldergrove to keep its Belfast City service more lucrative? Is Aer Lingus looking for an all-Ireland monopoly on connections to long-haul flights (a business that Ryanair has little interest in) — something that the Irish and UK Competition regulators might want to sit down and talk about? And it was really envisaged when Aer Lingus got its Heathrow slots as the Republic of Ireland’s flag carrier, that these could be transferred outside the Republic of Ireland?
Finally, is this an issue that the voters in the West might have liked to know about before the last election?
Ryanair don’t fly belfast London. So moving Heatrow slots would not effect them.
Ryanair is starting from Belfast City and so will be competing with an Aer Lingus hub at Aldergrove. In fact it’s a bit odd how close the 2 announcements were — as if one airline was looking to scoop the other.
People were suggesting on Newstalk that Ryanair could move into Shannon and take the place of Aer Lingus’ Heathrow flights.
I assume they’re not planning on doing that based on this letter.
O’Leary is well known for being mischievousness but there’s plenty of method to his madness - like all good businessmen he won’t let his own rivalries get in the way of profit so there are probably plenty of good reasons for him doing this.
It can probably be explained in a number of ways, for example him looking to protect his Belfast service, him figuring that there’s no profit to be made in replacing AL in Shannon and him also seeing a chance to both bash his rival, the Government and the EU while appearing to Joe Soap as the good guy in all of this.
Michael O Leary is right to home in on this opportunity, whatever his motive, Shannon requires a direct link to LHR, whoewver the carrier, perhaps Shannon Airports should approach BA, Air France.co.uk or BMI to take a route.
Another thing occurs to me. Irish Aid (the aid section of the Department of Foreign Affairs) is being decentralised to Limerick. I thought that the one logic for that move was that they could still do all their necessary travel to recipient countries (mostly in Africa) from Shannon via the Heathrow connection.
Your sure P. The website lists liverpool and 2 other places but not london from Belfast. Easyjet,BA and BMI baby fly that route
I WONDER WHAT THE DUBLIN WORKERS SHAREHOLDERS THINK OF THIS GREEDY POLICY?
The Ryanair flights are coming on 30th Oct
http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0725/ryanair.html
ya but according to that they are going to Liverpool, East Midlands and Glasgow.
I suspect that O’Leary is looking at the other flights Aer Lingus is promising from Aldergrove — Barcelona, Geneva, Rome, Budapest, Malaga and Faro — and therefore thinking that there’s a second motive, of running a low-cost hub from Aldergrove that would compete with any expanded Ryanair service from Belfast City.
possibly but he is already competing with easyjet there. Then again the less competition the better. With the workers Ryanair, the government probably own more then 55% of the company