Aer Lingus, Shannon and the Heathrow Slots
August 10, 2007
As has been fairly well shown in the Shannon-Heathrow debacle, the 25% stake the government continues to hold in Aer Lingus is valueless to the population at large. The government either cannot, or doesn’t wish to use it to influence their strategic policy – so, bar comforting the Aer Lingus unions there, why should we keep it?
Rather, what has been shown is that the real issue is not the airline, but rather the slots. While I appreciate there are difficulties with the ownership of slots, and potential changes in Heathrow, what I would propose is that the Irish government seeks to sell its 25% stake in the company back to Aer Lingus – in return for some form of deal which would include ownership of a number of their strategic slots i.e. those at Heathrow. These slots could be continued to be used by Aer Lingus for routes from Ireland, but if they closed down a route those slots could then be rented to other airlines for services from Ireland.
What puts this issue into further light was that on the radio the other Jeffrey Donaldson suggested that the competitor with Belfast for the Aer Lingus hub was Birmingham. Whatever about giving business north, moving it truly abroad is a different matter. Certainly, something worth considering, and possible a damn sight more useful than having a minority share in the company.
Further research obviously would be needed, particularly with regard to issues relating to the true ownership of the Heathrow slots and also Brussels competition law, but it is definitely something worth looking at.
Edit: One of our own, Dan O’Sullivan proposed something similar a year ago. Pity event proven him right. Indeed, Olivia Mitchell was raising concerns about the Heathrow slots and possibly retaining them going back to 2005.
Entry Filed under: Aer Lingus, Air Travel, Author - John Carroll, Brussels, Economics, FG, Irish politics, Limerick, Mid-West, Semi-State, Shannon Airport, ireland. .
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1.
Bernie Goldbach | August 10, 2007 at 12:23 pm
From a day trader in NYC I know there’s good value in buying then leasing slots at LHR, ORD, ATL and FRF.
2.
John Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 12:37 pm
There was a proposal from Moore McDowell that the local county councils in the region should club together to buy some slots at Heathrow and lease them to whoever would use Shannon.
The important thing is to have a service to Heathrow, not who is operating that.
3. The Limerick Blogger » Blog Archive » Aer Lingus screws the west: Day 5 | August 11, 2007 at 2:18 am
[...] Aer Lingus, Shannon and the Heathrow slots – The Library Bar Forum [...]
4.
Petition | August 19, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Sign this petition if you think Aer Lingus is right in it’s decision to move the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast.
We shouldn’t let a private company be torn apart and governed by Ryanair and local politics.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Shannon/
5.
black touch | August 25, 2007 at 7:38 pm
<a href=”http://www.friendster.com/redirect.cgi?b=Z29vZ2xlX3NlYXJjaA==
6.
Alan O'Kelly | August 27, 2007 at 6:18 pm
this argument baffles me a little bit, i have to say. Aer lingus is a commericial entity, it made a commercial decsion based on its own commercial information, which like any other business it is entitled to do. Does it really matter whether Aer lingus runs these routes themselves. If they are profitable then some one else will take them up, if not the government could always set up a some sort of subsidy scheme ( as it does at present for several airports) to ensure the continued service at shannon.
7.
Dan Sullivan | September 1, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Alan, I think you missing a basic point about the slots which is that there is a finite amount of them. You have to not only be able to fly out of Shannon (which is not that problematic) but have somewhere to land.
Interestingly the suggestion now appears to be that Cork is in fact getting the LHR slots that Aer Lingus were using from Shannon, and that the Cork time slots in turn are going to Belfast. Whatever about Birmingham being a potential alternate hub for Aer Lingus it was not an alternate point of origin for the slots into LHR. The traffic in the UK can be bad but not that bad that someone would fly from Burmie to LHR.
I tend to agree about the interference with a commercial company but the problem goes back to the basis on which that commercial company was set up. I have suggested that that government could still fix the problem by but I think it is unlikely to act at this point.
What does make this that bit more interesting is that Terminal 1 and 2 are due for a revamp in the near future with T2 due for demolition (as I recall reading) and with the new building to envelope T1 and T2 leading to the capacity to handle more slots that may be coming on stream with another new runaway and also a propose to increase the number of landings allowed.
For those that suggest Ireland is a small country and that you don’t need an air link every 100 miles into Heathrow, most people from the Mid-West wouldn’t be up in arms over this if we had the road/rail network such that someone could leave their house in Limerick/Clare and be certain of being in Dublin Airport at the check-in 2.5 hours later which is what the comparison time for a little over 200km would be with a properly serviced national infrastructure. Instead you would expect to just get to the Red Cow in 2 hours from Limerick city and then have to allow 2 more hours to get to the check-in from there traversing the M50 and the car parking mess at the airport site. In a way this mirrors why people want general hospitals in every county, the road network isn’t sufficient to practice the specialisation model we want to follow.
8.
Slots | July 24, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I think you mainly right. This argument annoys me a little bit, but don’t be naive Aer lingus is a commercial entity with own commercial goals. If they are profitable it is still OK.
9.
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10.
icejobjob | January 18, 2009 at 8:24 pm
就職氷河期、それも超就職氷河期と言われる時代に突入しようとしています。
この、就職活動は並大抵の努力では乗り切ることが困難と言われています。
世界同時不況とも言われている今回の不況、それこそ数年間にわたって、世界経済にインパクトを与え続けるでしょう。
この時期の、今のあなたが直面している就職活動というイベントは、あなたの人生、就職人生の大きなウエイトを占めることとなります。
昨年までの就職活動状況とは180度転換した就職氷河期、絶対に後悔しないように全力で戦いましょう。