O'Leary to save Shannon-LHR ?

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AJC

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Ryanair said today it has written to the Taoiseach offering to work with the Government to request Aer Lingus to maintain its Shannon-Heathrow services.
Aer Lingus today confirmed it is to drop its Shannon-Heathrow routes...

Ryanair claimed the Government had "lied" in public statements during its takeover bid for rival airline Aer Lingus last October.

Ryanair quoted then Minister for Transport Martin Cullen on October 2 nd 2006 saying Heathrow served a "unique role in ensuring connectivity to/from Ireland" and that this connectivity is "fundamental both to provide connections to/from Dublin, as well as to/from the regions".

The airline said the Minister had then said he considered that four London-Heathrow slot pairs for services to and from Shannon would be "critical to ensuring connectivity to these airports, because this is the minimum necessary to ensure a spread of flights throughout the day".

The Government owns 25.3 per cent of Aer Lingus and Ryanair owns 25 per cent. Ryanair said it believed that, on this basis, the board of Aer Lingus would find it difficult to refuse a joint request from Ryanair and the Irish Government to maintain the "critical" connectivity between Shannon and Heathrow.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the then Minister for Transport "assured the Irish people that the Government would not allow a privatised Aer Lingus to reduce its current operations between Shannon and Heathrow".
"As usual this Government's promises are worthless. I believe this Government also lied to the European Commission when - in opposing Ryanair's offer for Aer Lingus - it claimed that the preservation of services from Shannon to Heathrow by Aer Lingus was vital for Irish consumers," he said.
"Today's sacrifice of Shannon in favour of Belfast reduces that competition and proves that both Aer Lingus and the Irish Government lied to the European Commission. Had Ryanair's offer for Aer Lingus been successful, Shannon today would continue to enjoy four daily flights to Heathrow, as Ryanair's offer committed it to maintaining Aer Lingus's Heathrow slots."
Mr O'Leary said Ryanair looked forward to "an early and positive reply" from the Taoiseach, who could save the Shannon services by taking up his airline's offer.

"Sadly on its own Ryanair cannot prevent this closure at Shannon because with just 25 per cent ownership, we do not have any power or influence over Aer Lingus," he said.
 
whats O Learys angle ? Ryanair caring about social services ? I couldnt find the punchline ?
 
Publicity.
Putting the government in a difficult position.
Preventing a "competitor" moving to a more profitable route.
 
It's an interesting angle from Ryanair. They can safely make noise from the sidelines and say "Well if the Govt really cared about the whole Shannon thing, they could put their votes with ours and make a difference . . ." safe in the knowledge that it's a win-win for them.

If the Govt don't do anything then FR get to make more margin on their flights from Shannon to London by soaking up the ex-EI passengers with no alternative - win for FR. They also appear to be trying to help Shannon out - win for FR in the region.

If the Govt somehow do force the issue and somehow manage to EI to change tune then they have succeeded in splitting the EI slots into Heathrow so that they can't offer a good service from either Belfast *or* Shannon - win for FR.

The best Shannon can realistically hope for is EI flights to Gatwick (which isn't so bad from an onwards connection perspective). It will be very hard to see EI back down on the Belfast route and there are only so many Heathrow slots available. They could also possibly benefit from flights to Amsterdam - at the moment Shannon seems to be very lacking in flights to anywhere with any sort of long haul connections other than Heathrow - like Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, etc . . . Well I guess you could fly to New York to connect to the Far East if you *really* like flying a lot, but it wouldn't be my first option.

z
 
Expect more of this - e.g. Distribution hubs of Supermarkets to re-locate North of the Border (every little helps)!
 
Just Ryanair twisting the knife a bit ... only PR stuff really.

It's worth noting that one of the reasons why Aer Lingus are pulling off Shannon - Heathrow is because of the arrival (which was welcomed by a lot of the same people who are complaining now) of increased Ryanair services at Shannon which eroded their yields - Aer Lingus flights on the route may be full, but they're not making much money as the average fare isn't that high.

Ryanair won't fly to LHR ... and I doubt any other airline would use valuable LHR slots to fly to Shannon unless some sort of deal was agreed ... who knows what will happen.

Agree with Zag - I wouldn't have been 100% surprised if Aer Lingus started Shannon-Gatwick ... maybe they will yet.
 
AL have two Heathrow slots leased out to other airlines. Perhaps they should use these and fly twice to LHR from Shannon - at increased prices as the locals appear very anxious to keep the route. What I find slightly puzzling is that Belfast is well served on the LRH route and from looking at the Al website it appears they are going to 7 other destinations in Europe but with the exception of Budapest they will be in competition with Easy jet and Jet2 on the other routes. Taking on either of those two budget airlines is either foolish or brave. Time will tell.
 
cuchulainn said:
What I find slightly puzzling is that Belfast is well served on the LHR route
Click to expand...

Actually surprisingly there are no airlines flying from Belfast (Aldergrove) to Heathrow I believe. British Airways used to but dropped the route a few years ago (to much fuss at the time if I recall correctly). BMI/British Midland still fill to Belfast from Heathrow but they use Belfast City Airport rather than Aldergrove. Easyjet do Luton, Gatwick and Stansted from Aldergrove - but not Heathrow

So Belfast to London is much less competive (though probalby a smaller market) than Dublin - London

Aer Lingus might do alright in Belfast - they've survived head to head against Ryanair out of Dublin for long enough ... and Ryanair are generally much more agressive than Jet2 or Easyjet - just look at how Ryanair beat Easyjet off the Irish routes they operated (including Shannon).
 
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