Madam, - As someone who spent 20 years in post-war London trying to persuade the British travel industry that the Irish could not only run an airline but run a damn good one (and we succeeded), may I comment on the question currently under discussion in your Letters page: why privatise Aer Lingus?
We are told that the only way to raise the vast amount of money needed to purchase a new fleet and to plug the hole in the pension fund is to sell off this valuable public asset. But I see no debate on the merits of leasing rather than buying aircraft; and we realise surely that venture capitalists will be more concerned in making profits than in providing the service that has been so valuable to our island State. I am assuming that the Irish public this time round will not be so foolish as we were in the case of Eircom!
Really, your columnist Fintan O'Toole said it all in his column of March 7th and this article should be compulsory reading for all concerned. We know there is no reason why the State should not invest in Aer Lingus (as it does in British Airways, Ryanair etc).
Surely such an investment would be far, far better than allowing this great national asset to fall into the hands of venture capitalists - for good, practical reasons, not sentiment. We must have learned something from Eircom, even from the B+I. - Yours, etc,
WJ MURPHY,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.