Shannon-Heathrow

Purple said:
You're right, apologies. It's not as if the last few posts have been off topic of anything. :rolleyes:
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By the way, did you mean that I should have mentioned the flights from Pakistan and Afghanistan with connecting flights to Cuba? You can’t get that anywhere else in Ireland either.
The security checks are also a breeze; you can get a hatchet right up to the plane as well. :p
 
Purple

No need for an apology, I'm sure from reading your many posts that you were only lightening the discussion.

You are right, I started the thread and it certainly has gone off the point.

Still nobody has addressed my main point of the Governments committments.
 
ubiquitous said:
Fair enough so, but can you then explain why public figures in the North East have been loud in their support for the Aer Lingus move?
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For votes?

Of course it will benefit some people, the same as any new piece of infrastructure will benefit any area, be it a new hospital, railway line, hotel or whatever. However in this case I think the benefit will be small and no major improvement over whats available already in Dublin and Belfast airports.

If this move results in a more frequent service from Shannon to one of the major hubs in Europe then that will do me fine.

There is another factor here too, Aer Lingus are way overstaffed in Shannon, they are way overpaid and the unions want to fight management every inch of the way. None of the politicians will mention this but thats the root of the problem.
 
PMI said:
Purple

No need for an apology, I'm sure from reading your many posts that you were only lightening the discussion.

You are right, I started the thread and it certainly has gone off the point.

Still nobody has addressed my main point of the Governments committments.
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I thought I did that;
They were wrong to give such commitments and rather than being honest about it that have damaged their own credibility even further. In my opinion they should not have sold off Aer Lingus but having done so they can't ham-string it by exerting political pressure when the company tries to make a commercial decision.
Shannon should stop trying to be a major international airport; the population is not there for it to serve. It is a regional airport and has to accept the limitations that this brings. The situation in Shannon up until now has been totally artificial, what happens in the future will be commercially driven.
 
Notice my previous post was deleted. All I really stated was that Shannon does not have a given right to a Shannon/Heathrow connection. No more than Aer Lingus have a right to exist. Both have to maximise their positions and in A/L case they have made a decision to open a Belfast Int./Heathrow run. afaik the only flights to Heathrow are from the city airport and not from the international airport. On the North East angle . I am from Dundalk. and would much prefer to use Belfast. harder to get to admittedly but you park in close proximity to the terminal building and its much less crowded etc. However it is usually much cheaper to use Dublin airport so I just put up with the car parking miles away and awful crowding etc. Belfast international is a pleasure in comparison, but usually more expensive,.( example dublin/leeds 8th december.ryanair, around €80 return including all taxes belfast/leeds (jet2) £93 return. Presumably Aer Lingus have done their homework and intend to charge what the market will bear. and no doubt their markup will be greater than they were able to extract from Shannon.
 
The Government didn't spot the loop hole through which Aer Lingus moved the Shannon-Heathrow slots (in addition to not anticipating a Ryanair takeover), they should have demanded a u-turn and given the Board a kicking. Really they should just sell off the 25% now as it's pointless holding on to it.

The Shannon problems shouldn't be surprising as the Government tend to mess up and then patch up everything they do. They didn't foresee that when they sold Eircom there would be a dearth of investment in broadband infrastructure, that the Belfast agreement would lead to a flood of non-nationals from all over the world landing here in the final days of pregnancy to secure an EU passport for their offspring, that electronic voting cannot work, that super-trucks wouldn't fit in the port-tunnel (really they should have just moved the port north of Dublin and saved time and money), the M50 & West-Link mess, they built two LUAS lines which don't connect, all this PPP nonsense . .

. . really the list of wasteful and incorrect decisions is endless with the Aer Lingus sell-off being just one of the more recent on a never ending list (it's Laurel and Hardy stuff - can't help whistling the tune as I type) - anyway, enough.
 
Really they should just sell off the 25% now as it's pointless holding on to it.
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I disagree - if the government have a 25% shareholding doesn't that mean as shareholders we profit (as in the monies issued to shareholders) - as this money is going into the country's coffers doesn't this mean that any profits from Aer Lingus can be included as part of income for the government to use to invest in pensions/ roads etc...
 
PMI said:
Still nobody has addressed my main point of the Governments committments.
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The government was naive when making those committments. As far as I know they have the power to block AL from selling their slots at Heathrow but do not have the power to block the company from relocating slots to different bases i.e. there is nothing to stop Aer Lingus from from moving the slots currently used in Cork to Dublin. They just never saw this coming.

Personally I don't see why everyone is so hung up on using Heathrow as a gateway to the rest of the world. As a regular flier, I go out of my way to use other cities like Paris and Amsterdam for long haul flights. Shannon should spend its time and money enticing airlines to fly to these airports and let Ryanair service people wanting to fly to London from Shannon.

The fact that BMI decided not to enter the route despite what I am sure were very attractive enticements shows that the route is probably not as economically attractive as people claim. Having said all that I do think it is shame that Aer Lingus made the decision especially if we are looking to grow Ireland's regions.
 
michaelm said:
See Jus Soli and the Irish Constitution. A Government created mess that required a referendum to fix.
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Then and now I fully supported these changes. Do we want to be like that most morally reprehensible of countries Switzerland where guest workers can have children and those children can live all their lives in the country of their birth but not be entitled to citizenship? The day we sink to the level of the Swiss, the international repository for blood money and financier of genocide, is the day I pack up and leave.
 
I know a thread fizzels out eventually but going from what is a serious issue for people in the Midwest to Nazis and belgian chocklate is rediculas. Where are the mods.
 
PMI said:
I know a thread fizzels out eventually but going from what is a serious issue for people in the Midwest to Nazis and belgian chocklate is rediculas. Where are the mods.
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Firstly; the fact is that Shannon airport exists in its current form for political reasons only. There are no economic and very few social reasons for a major international airport in Shannon. Cork is our second city and should have the trans-Atlantic flights. The next in line should be Galway.

Secondly; there is nothing funny about the Swiss ;)
 
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