This is the likeliest reason.

If Ryanair had an add on to have pilots get your buggy for you for a 5er would you select it? This is the reason Aer Lingus has been loosing Billions through the years this is the reason Ryanair is very successful nobody would expect that kind of service or indeed pay for it

That’s the kind of customer service that I pay for when I travel, Ryanair focus more on that stupid bell than on their passengers, fair play to the pilot :)

But Aer Lingus aren’t losing money!!!

And someone doing something nice for a customer that costs nothing does more for a brand then cheap unfriendly service!

Ehh no Cosa Nostra, I believe it was just perceptive intuitive customer service, willingness to help, and understanding of the fact that the buggy is more use to a parent at the airplane than in the baggage hall.

Wendy Ryanair did the same in Manchester airport about 4 years ago, they pulled out of the airport because they would not reduce the landing fees. 2 years later Ryanair return to manchester with more routes than ever, they are chancing their arm, Bullies.

Agree.

Ryanair with international routes might be a great idea if they turn Dublin airport into a lowcost transatlantic hub, taking advantage of Dublin’s preflight immigration and pumping millions into the economy of this country.

“Intercontinental”? Well yes they have a few routes to the US but it isn’t a major network. Surely the Heathrow slots would be a more strategic asset as they are very hard to get.

Aerlingus is number 3 airline with slots at Heathrow behind BA & Virgin.

If topic a bit, but airport coordination (http://www.acl-uk.org) , who manage the slots at LHR have a different view as to the expected slots this summer.. now BM have been dismembered since the scheduling so in reality we should see EI number 3… a lot better than the footie!

BA – 4198 (The flying pension fund ;) )
LH – 776 (Lufty)
BM – 461 (BMI – pre breakup)
EI – 330
VS – 330 (Virgin)
SK – 272 (SAS)
AA – 250 (American Airlines)
UA – 238 (United/ Continental)

I agree. This will be bad news for competition in the Irish market. Be careful what you wish for…….

Maybe it’s the cynic in me coming out, but this offer to buy AerLingus’ stock is going to dramatically increase the AerLingus share price over the next few days as greedy people & companies buy buy buy in the hope to make a fast turnaround by selling it on to Ryanair at €1.30.. but is it a genuine offer? ..or will Ryanair sell all their stock once the EU says no and the share price is up at €1.20 ??

The attraction for Ryanair are those precious Heathrow spots!

The break up value is over 2 30 c per share.
The 13 double slots at Heathrow are worth 300 m as continental airways paid 100 m$ for 5 doubles a few years ago

@Anthony I believe your analysis is correct

RTE speculating along the same line as Anthony. That this may be a strategy by Ryanair to offload it’s holding at the best possible price.
Perhaps this would be the best time for the state to offload it’s stake.

O’Leary sees Aer Lingus as a trophy and he is willing to gamble his company’s cash to stroke his own ego. Much in the same way as Denis O’Brien will stop at nothing to get his hands on INM. In both cases the loser can only be Joe Public.

Ryanair are arguing that all the reasons that they were blocked for before have now changed.

peter, you would have received an invoice too, wait they have your card number, it’s a receipt … ;)

I how so. I have some shares.lol

•hope

agreed 100%. greedy o’leary has been itching to get his grubby paws on Aer lingus for years purely to control the competition for Irish owned airlines. offering a service Ryanair won’t fly to, pah! he just sees dollar signs proceeded by a chi-ching sound

Have you over flown cross atlantic with Aer Lingus? Service is very poor compared to other airlines like BA or Lufthansa.
Also why do people think they will turn Aer Lingus into Ryanair? O’Leary has already said that they would keep the same name and brand.
Finally your comment about Americans not putting up with bad service, you do know that Ryanair’s model is based on SouthWestern Airlines which is a very successful no frills American airline?

Yes Ian I have flown across the Atlantic on Aer lingus. It’s the only way I go when i fly home to dublin from the states. I did fly British airways once and they have great service.
As for southwest- I don’t hear any complaints about them regarding service.

BA & Lufthansa are 2 of the worse airlines to travel with, i flew aerlingus to New York and enjoyed the service.

Swissair went bust in the nineties, BA is a private company since the eighties and is now part of the same company that owns Iberia. Air France and KLM are the same company and so on. The “national” airline is a romantic notion that ceased to exist a long time ago everywhere else.The notion will sink in here too, eventually. The world will probably have moved to the next model then:)

Ciaran I stand corrected. I did not know. Thanks for updating me.

Lol… Swiss air is a subsidiary of Lufthansa they bought them out 5 or 6 years okay

I work for BA, they are good but expensive! Aer Lingus is very reasonably priced across the Atlantic and provide a bloody good service for what you are paying, you get more on an Aer Lingus flight (food wise anyway, I know the booze isn’t free) then you do on BA! When Aer Lingus flew to the west coast you got two hot meals and a snack mid flight! You get feck all on BA after the first meal!

Aer Lingus is a company we should be proud of. It went form a national drain to a sustainable profitable carrier that represents the Irish well abroad!

There’s a key differential all those countries aren’t small island nations with one major air link to the rest of the world, Dub-Lon is the worlds second busiest air route for a reason…

I flew BA alot, i can get a hotline ticket, but now the hotline ticket discount is not much less than the actual fare on the website.

They cannot be stopped unless another airline comes in or the EU puts a stop to the takeover.

Deirdre, how many Aer Lingus flights do you take every year? How many Ryan Air flights do you take every year?
Aer Lingus is as good as finished. If any other airline other than Ryan Air buy it, it is guaranteed to be stripped of its asses and routes and sold on, with all its workers on the dole.
Ryan Air have committed to keeping Aer Lingus operating, and no redundancies. Sorry, i dont want to see all the Aer Lingus staff on welfare.
If RyanAir are so damn bad, how come so many people apply to work for them? how come they are growing and growing. They are by far, Europes largest passenger airline. Instead of dissing one of Irelands most successful businesses and one of Irelands largest employers, try and support it.

Cal1 if ireland only had 1 airline your airfares will go up. Ryanair fares have already increased 20% last year, gone are the days of €0.99 e.w then €9.99 e/w the cheapest fare today is €30.99 e/w to London that’s when you book in advance. I fly to Dublin at least 10 times a year and in the last year i did not fly ryanair. I flew Aerlingus, BMI and Air France. Many people will avoid flying ryanair if they can.

Mark,

I just went onto the web-site and you can still get flights to Luton for 9.99… stick on the taxes etc and you are still only paying 42 euro return.
Compare that to the cheapest aer lingus has.
Also, Aer Lingus is going to be sold and all its assets stripped by some other airline and look at how many more people will end up on the dole.

Prices will go up if Ryanair takeover Aer lingus. We need the competition.

Compare ryanair prices to locations that they don’t have competition on and they are significantly higher. I take nearly 50 flights a year and Ryanair is only cheaper on about half the time.

Cal1 Aer Lingus is not “going to be sold and all it’s assets striped and everyone on the dole”! What sort of uneducated and ignorant comment is that?

Aer Lingus is profitable. Other airlines are interested, it’s a going concern.

And for the record , Ryanair employ very few people in Ireland and I’d say even fewer of them are actually Irish! Trust me, I know!

Seriously David …
Anyone who makes comments like this one…
‘
So once you have been resident, for say 7 years, you receive a payment.
Scrap all welfare
Scrap student grants
Scrap business startup grants
Scrap tax free allowances
Scrap or drastically reduce minimum wage
Modify tax band to compensate’

CANNOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

Finally someone with intelligence. The comments above have however highlighted again why our country is in so much trouble. Uninformed uneducated fools making comments without any basic understanding of the realities of either company or what competition really means.

Ryanair have bases all over europe, it is a private company. Aerlingus was state owned since the start of operations. It has union problems, pension problems. Ryanair does not have any of this. Also they pay alot less to employees they fly to airports in the middle of nowhere. And the fairs are going up alot in the last 6 months.

Sorry fares.

Mark you are stating exactly why the Govt should sell Aer LIngus to Ryanair MOL knows how to run a successful airline, create jobs and make money the Govt don’t

I’ll take the racecar!

Mothballing planes? All their planes are brand spanking new Boeings with more on the way.

Get your facts right before slating, Ryanair are very successful and their model is working fine whilst Aer Lingus is struggling and only recently made profits after switching to Ryanair’s model!

Actually Ian, they are mothballing planes..,,,brand new ones Infact! Suggest you get your facts right before going off on one!

Ryanair have no new planes on the way, they did want to order 220 new aircraft but could not get a cheap deal off boeing or airbus, they are looking at a chinese and russian aircraft makers to secure a good deal.

@Mark, thats great! Do Niether Russia nor China have an aircraft to match Ryanairs requirements right now. How long does it take to develope an aircraft from scratch to development to testing? Probably anything between 5-8 years (the A380 was first thought up in the early 90s but only entered service in 2008!) so Ryanair are really in there for a quick expansion soon!!!

@ Tony

http://businessforum-china.com/news_details/items/ryanair-boss-praises-chinese-jet.html

Both airlines have their niche in this market but if Ryanair takes over it would be a sad day for Aer Lingus as this company offers that little extra.
And I am willing to pay that little extra.
As many will agree.
O’Leary would turn Aer Lingus into another cattle-truck.

The government never wanted ryanair to take over Aerlingus.

Perhaps if the Government wanted control over the ownership of Aer Lingus they shouldn’t have privatised it. Keeping the 25% was silly. They have no influence on the company and have just lost money in the process. Should have kept it all or got rid of it all.

The government should have kept all the shares in Aerlingus until it found another airline besides ryanair to take it over. But with the pension problems at Aerlingus that was the problem. I fly BMI from Heathrow to Dublin alot, now BA has taking over BMI its fares have gone up. I could get a flight with BMI for £52 return if i booked in advance, the cheapest fare with BA to Dublin is £90.

The fact is, Aer Lingus won’t be turned into a mini Ryanair. People see that O’Leary wants to but AL and instantly thinks he will do the same there. Why would he create a duplicate company doing the exact same as Ryanair, thus creating competition between two companies he owns and reducing profit margins for both?

Aer Lingus has its own unique selling points which would be maintained under a Ryanair takeover. Newer and more comfortable fleet, same friendly workforce with a more business oriented market. Not the short distance budget traveler and holidaymaker with 3 kids and the rest of the family in tow that Ryanair targets.

You said its all about choice….yet in hoping that Ryanair buy Aer Lingus you are eliminating that choice! Kinda contradicting yourself there.

I assure you if Ryanair succeed in creating such a monopoly (I imagine it would be close to 90% of flights into and out of Ireland if it happened) you will only be paying 5 Star prices for 2 star service!

Daniel, you said it “It’s all down to choice.”
Where would the choice be if Ryanair took over Aer Lingus? Bad service, bad attitude and higher prices across the board.

Are you serious? A 12 hour flight to the West coast with RyanAir? Absolute hell. Ok for short hops but definitely not long haul.

Define a reasonable fare? You will find it hard to get cheaper than AerLingus to the states. No other carrier from Dublin is as cheap as them and I don’t really think Ryanair could do it much cheaper to be honest. Just my opinion.

New York return for €299 including taxes is bloody cheap!!!!

O’Leary did say he would shake up the trans-atlantic route and would offer fares from €99/£99 e/w from Dublin and Stansted to New York.

O’leary cannot use his current fleet of planes – they pretty much max out at 3.5 hrs flying time

if he wants to do longer, he would probably set up a separate company to do the long haul – if only to ensure any liability does not kill the golden goose

personally I think this is a spoiling tactic on his side…

Explain why a monopoly of the Irish aviation market is something you want to see succeed????

Cos if you think that greedy O’Leary fella wouldnt take advantage of it you are a fool! Just look at the routes Ryanair do have monopolies on, I assure you that they are not “Low Fares”!

You really believe that? Oh dear!

so you would rather the likes of BA take it over and do what they are currently doing to BMI??stripping away the brand and jobs?.this deal could create badly needed jobs and mayb fill the ghost terminal that is T2.

It doesn’t need taking over! As been said here, it’s making a profit. Ryanair want it just for the fact O’leary is greedy.

Aer lingus brought back SNN-LHR a long time ago. Have you ever used it?

Shannon to heathrow has been back over two years. Just goes to show that the people who use services at Shannon don’t really need those services if it goes unnoticed for that length if time………

And I really don’t think Ryanair would use a valuable heathrow slot for such a mediocre route to be honest. Do your homework before making silly comments.

Eh if the sale went through there would be no competition!!!

You’re hoping it does or it doesn’t go ahead?