Aer Lingus management have reiterated that any future sale of the airline is a matter for Government, but the company favours placing a stake with private institutions rather than flotation.
Chairman Mr Tom Mulcahy said the airline had not held discussions with any possible buyers. He said the Government had received a document outlining its views several months ago.
After the results presentation, chief executive Mr Willie Walsh confirmed the document favoured a private placement with institutions over a flotation. But he emphasised the ultimate decision was for the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan. He said the Department was believed to be drawing up an options paper on the airline's future ownership.
He said management was not concerned about future ownership right now and was more interested in keeping costs down and maintaining low fares in a "challenging" environment.
Mr Walsh said the airline's costs were still out of kilter with low-cost operators all over Europe. "Competition within the European market is intense and we anticipate further low-cost competition on key routes during the course of 2004."
He said the whole airline business had changed since the September 11th terrorist attacks and previous levels of business might never return. His colleague, Mr Séamus Kearney, chief operations officer, said premier class bookings fell from 13 per cent in 2001 to 7 per cent in 2003.
He said in 18 months to two years, premier class on short-haul flights might "fall off the map completely". He said business-class travel on short-haul routes had "never really recovered from September 11th". He said that, while premier class bookings were down, this did not mean fewer business travellers were flying with the airline overall.
