Despite the fact that it could theoretically harm competition, it's good that Ryanair, a sane company, is a major shareholder in Aer Lingus. I don't actually think that Ryanair would be anti-competitive if it took over Aer Lingus (such a takeover would probably give it control of most flights within Ireland and between Ireland and other countries), because nobody would know what to do with the extra money. Getting back to the point, Ryanair hit out at Aer Lingus a few days ago for, to put it bluntly, being rubbish. I found this extract particularly pleasing:

Ryanair believes that Aer Lingus's Belfast base has been a financial failure. As the attached CAA traffic statistics (Jan-June 2008) confirm, Aer Lingus's load factor at its Belfast base is an uneconomic 50%. Some of Aer Lingus's Belfast load factors are truly awful, with Paris at 31%, Amsterdam at 36% and Nice a very poor 38%. In all cases it would appear that Aer Lingus's load factor is considerably lower than that of Easyjet or Jet2, its competitors at Belfast International Airport.

Of course, I'm still pretty annoyed by the lack of flights from Heathrow to Shannon due to Aer Lingus making a Belfast base. The Heathrow-Shannon route was profitable and had a load factor of something like 80%. As everyone but the people at Aer Lingus predicted, the Belfast base has been a massive failure. Now the interesting bit comes - will Aer Lingus continue the base, and attempt to improve its load factor and profitability? Will Aer Lingus revert back to the perfectly good routes it used to have (like Heathrow-Shannon)? Or will, as some people suspected, Aer Lingus pull out of Belfast and move all operations from there down to Cork? I hope for the second option, expect the first, and fear the third (there would have been even more local outrage if Aer Lingus had moved operations directly from Shannon to Cork, rather than from Shannon to Belfast).
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:57 WEST | Category: Ireland
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Comments:

RF
Ryanair angry with Aer Lingus...
I believe Aer Lingus will not come back to shannon. Their load factors out of Cork have improved due to the number of people from the mid west driving to Cork to fill there flight.
I for one will not fly Aer Lingus again. Our best hope is of persuading another airline such as BMI to run at least two flights a day.
This should gaurantee high load factors and reasonable prices.
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:10 GMT

Mark Hogan
Ryanair angry with Aer Lingus...
I completely agree with you. Aer Lingus will not go back to Shannon, just as Ryanair will never go to Heathrow. Your BMI idea sounds good. However, the CityJet flights to Paris CDG which were started in response to Aer Lingus leaving Shannon, are more representative of Ireland's political direction over the last few years...
That may make them the more permanent solution in the long-term.
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:47 GMT

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