Madam, - In all that has been said about this subject a few uncomfortable, or perhaps inconvenient, truths have been missed or avoided.
As a public company with responsibility to its shareholders, Aer Lingus is compelled to grow its business and expand wherever it can to provide these shareholders with value for their investment. The Heathrow slots are crucially important assets in this exercise. How they are deployed and in what context is pivotal to any expansion strategy.
In the case of Shannon, Aer Lingus could not afford to look on these slots in isolation, but had to examine how they could be used as the centrepiece of further route expansion. Unfortunately, the realities of its Shannon operation did not permit this, because its own cost base there was excessively high. In considering what routes the airline could build around its Shannon-Heathrow operation, it became obvious that it could not compete with Ryanair.
Competing with Ryanair out of Shannon is a non-starter. Ryanair offers the only scheduled air service to Europe (other than Heathrow) and this is because its fare structure has either blown everyone else away or dissuaded potential entrants from taking the plunge. The emerging Ryanair monopoly at Shannon arises from the "sweetheart" deal they got from the new Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) in 2004 (a deal not offered to Aer Lingus then or since but now being belatedly shoved out in an effort to hold on to the Heathrow service).
It is important that while we welcome the selection of destinations offered by Ryanair, we recognise what the shape of the economic equation really looks like. Ryanair is now in a position to dictate terms for future expansion in Shannon and the SAA will have no option but to cave in to these demands. So the airport that was set free, in a sort of a way, in 2004 to grow and prosper will grow, but not prosper.
The local region will benefit but the greatest beneficiaries - and we should not forget this - will be Ryanair shareholders. Every penny of below-cost service provided to Ryanair by the SAA will flow to the Ryanair bottom line and the taxpayer will continue heavily to subsidise Shannon Airport.
In this context, the Aer Lingus decision to launch a Belfast base with far lower costs and much greater opportunity for route development makes sense. It may not achieve the "yellow pack" cost profile in Belfast that it was seeking, but costs will be more reasonable than at Shannon. The remarkable fact is that this move represents a strategy on the part of Aer Lingus to avoid confrontation with its biggest competitor and, incidentally, its biggest shareholder. - Yours, etc,
LIAM MEADE, Bellewood, Ballyneety, Co Limerick.
Madam, - After reading Aidan McGrath's letter of September 7th, I hadn't a clue what it was about.
It is not unusual to find restrictive conditions in articles or memorandums of association of a commercial company, such as, in this case, not "to dispose of" of the Heathrow landing slots. All this means is that the company cannot sell, give away or transfer out of its ownership the landing slots mentioned.
It doesn't restrict the company from leasing them out to others or transferring them to anywhere in the world where it operates, such as Dubai. The company could, if it wished, relocate its main operating base to Dubai and there is little or nothing anyone could do to stop such a move. The company is now a free agent answerable only to its shareholders - and the public holds only 25 per cent of the issued share capital.
I feel it's about time the Aidan McGraths of this world, the shareholder employees and pilots, their unions at the company, those in charge of Shannon airport and the whinging and whining local politicians realised, and accepted, that the company is no longer a well-padded semi-state company there to be manipulated, but a commercial venture, owned, controlled and run for its shareholders.
The old ways of doing things at the airline, I'm afraid, are gone forever. Once the employees took the "silver shilling" in the form of 12.5 per cent of the shares, they opted to have change. In coming years the company will become leaner as it sheds unwanted staff, and meaner as it sheds unwanted work practices to be ready for tough competition in the marketplace.
The days of the "free lunch" at Aer Lingus are over. Long live Aer Lingus. - Yours, etc,
TONY MacGABHANN, Herbert Road, Bray, Co Wicklow.