Aer Lingus business strategy

Madam, - Ireland now boasts the most deregulated aviation environment in Europe

Madam, - Ireland now boasts the most deregulated aviation environment in Europe. In consequence Irish airlines find themselves in a downward spiral as costs and services are slashed in what has been termed a "race for the bottom".

We typically hear that customers like lower fares, but increasingly they say that customer service reductions are going "too far". But how far is "too far"? There seems little doubt that airlines will have to go as far as market forces dictate - and that means much further, much lower. Until someone shouts "Stop" we will continue in this mindless race towards the bottom.

The fundamental question everyone needs to consider is what "the bottom" will actually mean for the aviation industry, its customers and the Irish public.

Perhaps one day our airlines will be based in other European countries, or will employ workers drawn predominantly from Eastern Europe. Who knows? One way or another, the reverberations will be widespread and will continue to affect Irish society in unexpected and disagreeable ways. The market will dictate and we will have to accept. In the meantime, a small number of individuals will earn vast sums of money.

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But is it really necessary to reach "the bottom"? Is it really a place we wish to go? Is this society committed to the notion that the answer to these questions must always be dictated by the lowest common denominator in a completely deregulated market? - Yours, etc.

Captain EVAN CULLEN, President, Irish Airline Pilots' Association, Corballis Park, Dublin Airport.

Madam, - While Mr Willie Walsh has worked transcendent wonders with the sclerotic behemoth that was once the iconic airline, there should be concern about current developments. The old saw, "There is room for only one airline in a small country", was never true, but what is probably true is that there is room for only one Ryanair, and Aer Lingus could be skating on thin ice in trying too hard to be the other.

It is the easiest thing in the world to forget what one's business is. Ryanair has not lost sight of what its business is, which is the carrying of the largest number of people to places that they wish to go at prices they are prepared to pay. Its business is transport, and transport should be the business of Aer Lingus also.

The worry is that Aer Lingus may be seduced into the idea that its business is taking on - and eventually seeing off - Ryanair. This course can end in only one way - tears, yelling, probably broken glass, and no winners anywhere except the foreign asset-strippers who inevitably show up whenever there is such a corporate bloodbath.

Every market divides into two broad sectors: what you might call coach and Pullman; Ryanair is by any measure "coach" and Aer Lingus should aim for the Pullman end of things. Put another way, Ryanair is a low fares, no-frills outfit; Aer Lingus is tailor-made to be a low-fares outfit with some frills, some gracious touches.

As Southwest Airlines served as a template for the Ryanair operation, so perhaps I might suggest that Jetblue - recently arrived, sizeable, well run, profitable and steadily expanding - might furnish a useful case study for Aer Lingus.

The fact is there is no reason why both should not prosper in their respective market sectors, and both be major airlines in their own right.

As for the people who keep saying that Ireland is only a small country, might they please explain Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong (population 6 million) or Singapore Airlines and the island city state no bigger than Co Louth of which it is the flag carrier? - Yours, etc.,

JOHN CULLY, Ardenza Terrace, Monkstown, Co Dublin.