Why would the country grind to a halt?
I fly about 50 times a year. About 40 of those flights are not with Aer Lingus or Ryanair.
Tell us where you fly, and who with. Are you talking about European destinations, UK in particular?
I can guarentee you that as soon as Ryanair controls Aer Lingus they will start a war of attrition, starting with all Europe/UK competition into Dublin, with the aim of turning it (and later Cork and Shannon) into an exclusively RyanairLingus dominated base.
Transatlantic routes will follow within weeks. The only competitioin he has there are lame duck legacy US carriers.
It's the very ESSENCE of the Ryanair model to
COMPETE AGGRESSIVELY to drive out competitors. Its the nature of the beast.
Of course it'll be dressed up in the usual garbage about 'great deals for the consumer' (perhaps so, in the short term) 'we're promoting competition' etc.
But their eventual complete domination of Irelands air routes will be very very BAD for consumers, and competition in the long term.
Yes, yes, I know you'll say it won't happen - he's such a great guy, we can
trust him - but the history of O'Learys behaviour has ALWAYS been to attack and eliminate ALL competition. Buzz, easyjet, GO, and lately Alitalia - all have been driven out of Dublin by Ryanair - or swallowed up and dismantled.
Ryanairlingus will have 70% to 80% of traffic into London from day one.
After a year - it'll be 99.9% on that specific route. No question.
Then the squeeze really comes on - government and consumers held to ransom by a private monopoly.
Do you think O'Leary will continue to allow 'de guvmint' to dictate to him when he has the countries only air transport links in his hands?
In that future monopolistic scenario the country is LITERALLY at the mercy of O'Leary - or even his unions in a strike scenario.
Personally I avoid using Ryanair whenever I can as I try to fly in and out of where ever I am going on the same day and the cattle car type waiting areas in Ryanair dominated airports are a big turn off. That said I see no reason why Ryanair should not be allowed to buy Aer Lingus. They both compete with other airlines and do not compete with each other on many routes.
Well if the above scenario doesn't even vaguely worry you - party on.
At the moment, if you have a ticket dispute with Ryanair and O'Leary tells you to 'feck off' - you CAN!
What will you do when there's NO ONE ELSE to 'feck off' to? Swim?