Current Account is continually amused about all the talk regarding floating or trade selling Aer Lingus. Is there seriously anybody in either Government or the airline that believes it is a saleable commodity at anything other than a knockdown price.
There is little investment interest in full-service airlines such as Aer Lingus and the other European flag carriers, and only rigourous cost-cutters like Ryanair, or to a lesser extent Easyjet, appeal to investors. So that's the IPO option well and truly off the table for a long time. Why should investors be interested in a €500 million (£393.5 million) company when the whole investment pattern has been away from small capitalisation stocks?
The chances of finding a trade buyer for Aer Lingus are remote. Aer Lingus has too much baggage (excuse the bad pun) for any airline to have serious interest. Its reputation as a weakly managed and union-dominated company goes before it, and who is going to buy a company that has become a battlefield between competing trade unions, and where the chief executive and the board are involved in a court battle.
Aer Lingus has, of course, certain attractions - profitable transatlantic routes, 14,000 takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow, and a positive image abroad.
British Airways (BA) has been touted as a logical bidder for Aer Lingus, given that both are members of the Oneworld alliance that is supposed to be Aer Lingus's salvation.
According to London analysts, BA already gets alliance benefits via a stream of Irish traffic from Aer Lingus feeding onto its intercontinental routes out of Heathrow, so it is in no hurry to even buy a minority stake.
The only factor that might usher BA into a more formal link-up with Aer Lingus is if BMI - the rechristened British Midland - tried to woo Aer Lingus out of Oneworld and into the Star alliance, of which BMI is a member and where Lufthansa is the major European component. But, given the size of the Star alliance - undoubtedly the most successful of the global airline alliances - it's difficult to see what Aer Lingus brings to the table.
