Michael O’Leary freed the Irish (and a lot of other Europeans). Aer Lingus was for the “better offs” and free perks for their staff. He should be included in the 1916 celebrations.

Tony that would only be a limited offer for a limited period, you’d probably have to fly overnight, and taxes are not included in that figure. Most likely an average flight would be priced 20-30% cheaper than Aerlingus, but as usual with Ryanair you will not be flying into the most desirable airport in your destination city. Dont get me wrong though, the competition is welcome and should drive down fares generally.

Typically overnight flights are more expensive than daytime flights, especially in business class. Business people don’t want to waste a productive day away from their homes and families in the air.

I think they will fly from Dublin, not sure MOL can cope with the success of Aer Lingus from Dublin but rock bottom fares won’t happen IMO, much higher costs with T/A operations.

They would have guaranteed full seats from here with the amount of Irish living in the U.S. .

I refuse point blank to fly with them until their sexist charity calendar comes back!

Michael….. Dublin is a hub…..750000 passengers travelled through Dublin en route to North America last year…….over 2 million passengers used Dublin to fly to North America last year…

Shannon is shorter, would be better for us mid west dwellers. Love flying Shannon when possible, such a rat race flying from Dublin.

As long as you do not want to fly home for a holiday at Christmas, Easter, St. Patricks Day, The All Ireland, or any weekend(except the second week in December) and travel back on a Wednesday (in January), book six months in advance, have your own printer, are five foot six inches tall,( only with short legs) and can put up with Michael O’Leary, you might be lucky enough to get a back row area and travel cheaply, just like the subway in New York.

+1 They are what they are, efficient if spartan. Most people here are too young to remember the kind of prices people had to pay to fly even to the UK before they came on the scene.

No Cork Gatwick flights that I can see. Dublin Gatwick 25% dearer by Aer Lingus. Ryanair air can be 1/4 the price close to flying. Aer Lingus real rip you off for last minute flights.

I fly home to London every other week. I pay aroud €80-€90 with Aerlingus to heathrow booked in advance. With Ryanair it would cost around €40-€60. But the train fare from Gatwick is £30.

When u have a monopoly – price increasing & price fixing generally do happen. You also get a fall in standards.

Also they then will have a large say in landing rights of other carriers into Ireland as being in a position of monopoly.

Ha, I’m a troll for destroying your diatribe in a single sentence am I? It has nothing to do with what people want, Ryanair are not allowed to buy aerlingus for the reason I gave – EU antitrust blocked the acquisition because it would monopolise the Irish market. Just because you have no idea what you’re talking about doesn’t make other people trolls, it just means you’re desperately uninformed.

Did Aer Lingus not have a monopoly before Ryanair started?

Colin, yes they did, every European country had state airlines that had monopolies over local markets. We have been breaking up these monopolies since the 80s as ordered by the EU to ensure competition in the interests of consumers. That is why Ryanair attempting to monopolise the Irish market again was met with such resistance in Europe.

Egg Head is right, price will go up, routes frequency could reduce.

At least with IAG having Aer Lingus and Ryanair it puts Aer Lingus into a much better position to compete with Ryanair when they start T/A operations. In saying that Aer Lingus is in one of the best positions of all EU and US carriers to take on Ryanair.

From my understanding doesn’t the DAA say who lands and who doesn’t – also, with Dublin being a hub for T/A flights surely competition in the Irish market will not be just between Aer Lingus and Ryanair but between all the various European airlines flying in and out of Dublin. Aren’t we part of a European market now rather than an Irish market? If I want to fly to Denmark for example I look at SAS/Aer Lingus/Ryanair and Norwegian airlines for flights. These are our competitors now – not between our own airlines. Right/Wrong???

Real people agree with you ? Trolls don’t is that it ?

No Robert, the DAA do not have a say as to who operates into Dublin.
Under EU rules an airline that meets the required operational standards may apply to operate a specific route (with the eu or Atlantic market under open skies) with the national transport authority and if granted they then go into discussion with the DAA over landing slots and costs.

If it is an airline looking to operate a route which is not covered by an open skies policy such as that which exists within Europe or the Atlantic then it is down to the respective governments on the route in question (much like the upcoming Ethiopian airlines flight from addis to LA via dublin) and again has little to do with the airport operator who is simply a custodion of the facility which at the end of the day has to make money.

I am no fan of the IAG takeover of Aer Lingus as I work for an IAG company and know exactly what they are all about however it is a much preferred option to a Ryanair takeover as it would prevent a monopoly to Ireland which would kill other airlines who attempt to compete. It’s a small small market to Ireland! They would seat dump on any route with competition by offering slashed fares, kill the competition after a short time and then hike the fares when they are left as the solo carrier.

Ryanair are famous for that! Notice how we don’t have easy jet in the republic anymore!!!!

Hi Tony Stanley,

Thank you for taking the time out to provide such a detailed explanation of the aviation industry to me.
I feel a lot more empowered about the discussion now and your response is exactly the informative opinion I was looking for from someone who has obvious experience of the industry.

@theJournal, your site in my opinion would be a much more power tool for your readers if you encouraged a culture of informed and well presented comments such as Tony’s.

Egghead…..wrong……Ryanair would monopolise Shannon because it only has 1.7 million passengers annually. Most of the flights are Ryanair apart from a handful of transatlantic flights per day during the summer and 3 per day in enter….Cork has less reliance on Ryanair. 50% of Dublin’s traffic is Ryanair but most are on different routes to aerlingus.

Because Ryanair laid out their business plan last time….it involved selling off 3/4 of Aer Lingus to 2 UK airlines.
Ryanair and Aer Lingus control 80% of flights out of Ireland. Thus a takeover would create a monopoly…… which is what Ryanair was originally set up in the late 1980′s to challenge.

…by someone on 3 euro an hour, why would you go to the third world when the USA has a permanent underclass who have no choice.

I was in NY last week. 3 star hotel cost from $210 a night. A bottle of beer was $6 plus tip up to $10 in clubs. Eating out for 2 people $75. You can get cheaper options just like in Ireland.

Hope you take out health insurance in US. For if you have to attend a hospital you’ll know all about bills.

Maybe about five years ago when a euro sometimes got you $1.60.. A euro only gets you about $1.04 now. Going to New York in June. Gonna be rip off central. Absolutely no value in it.

Travel insurance is dirt cheap you’d me be mad not to take it out going outside Europe.

I should read the article properly

That gave me a giggle!

Bj, knob comment.

This was discussed further up. See my reply “… prices in the US are maybe 50% of what they are here. Eating out, a hotel room, a beer, a concert, car hire, petrol etc.. a fraction of the price of here. A bottle of Jameson is $10 in the US. A festival like Glasto which costs €300 is $80 in the US.”

Barbara you realise they are the largest airline and have more flight from and into Dublin airport than any other airline

We really have all of our self-esteem in recent years, haven’t we?. Put me in a sardine can for six hours, I’ll sleep through it. After all, I don’t deserve any better, I’m just a humble peasant. Why would I aspire to more?

*really have lost