I couldn't see what all the fuss was about when I first heard about this deal and why it is so significant, but apparently it will allow Ryanair, or some other low cost carrier, to fly directly from Shannon into any airport in the US that they want to.
Most of the smaller US airports are for domestic travel (i.e. N America) only and as they don't have customs and agriculture facilities, international flights cannot land there.
This deal will allow Ryanair to do what it does in Europe, fly into small airports, 50 - 100 miles away from the major city it is serving, where the charges are far less than in the major airports.
Given that the transatlantic routes are the most profitable for Aer lingus, this is going to be potentially very damaging for them.
I find it hard to have too much sympathy for Aer Lingus.
I'm one of those people who can remember back as far as 1980, when they had a monopoly/duopoly on the Dublin/London route with British Airways. They were then forever telling us that they couldn't possibly fly us over and back to the UK for less that £300 a go, and even then, you had to book the flights a long time in advance, and had a meal on your flight that lasted less than an hour.
This was at a time when £300 was about 4 - 5 weeks take home pay for many, and the high cost being charged on the route, ensured that many Irish emigrants, who were forced to leave Ireland because of the state of the economy, couldn't come home for Christmas etc.
The high cost of flights also meant that this country as a whole couldn't properly benefit from being in the EEC as we were far too expensive to get to, except for the most determined traveller.
Now I wonder just how far the cost of flights to the US can fall
Murt
Most of the smaller US airports are for domestic travel (i.e. N America) only and as they don't have customs and agriculture facilities, international flights cannot land there.
This deal will allow Ryanair to do what it does in Europe, fly into small airports, 50 - 100 miles away from the major city it is serving, where the charges are far less than in the major airports.
Given that the transatlantic routes are the most profitable for Aer lingus, this is going to be potentially very damaging for them.
I find it hard to have too much sympathy for Aer Lingus.
I'm one of those people who can remember back as far as 1980, when they had a monopoly/duopoly on the Dublin/London route with British Airways. They were then forever telling us that they couldn't possibly fly us over and back to the UK for less that £300 a go, and even then, you had to book the flights a long time in advance, and had a meal on your flight that lasted less than an hour.
This was at a time when £300 was about 4 - 5 weeks take home pay for many, and the high cost being charged on the route, ensured that many Irish emigrants, who were forced to leave Ireland because of the state of the economy, couldn't come home for Christmas etc.
The high cost of flights also meant that this country as a whole couldn't properly benefit from being in the EEC as we were far too expensive to get to, except for the most determined traveller.
Now I wonder just how far the cost of flights to the US can fall
Murt