Aer Lingus cuts could have been worse, hotels’ federation chairman contends

AER Lingus’ decision to cut transatlantic flights to Shannon for the first 11 weeks of next year is not exactly positive but it is understandable and the cutback could have been significantly worse.

That’s the view of Michael Vaughan, chairman of the Shannon Branch of the Irish Hotels’ Federation.
Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday he said, “I would really urge people to lift themselves and not consider every announcement another blow to Shannon. We take the view that it gives Aer Lingus an opportunity to rationalise its operation and to make it profitable. We were expecting it to be far worse, that it would be cut for a greater length of time,” Mr Vaughan said.
He said Christoph Mueller, Aer Lingus CEO, had indicated he was very uncertain about the airline’s prospects at Shannon. “When I attended a meeting with him in January, he said that they may not ever make a good profit out of Shannon. I’d look at the glass as being half full no, it could have been worse and it opens up new possibilities for Aer Lingus at Shannon. The cut in flights isn’t exactly welcome but it’s understandable,” he added.
Last weekend, Micheál Martin announced plans for the creation of a certificate of Irish heritage, which will be made available to people of Irish descent living abroad. Mr Vaughan said he was very much in favour of the scheme, which would boost links with the Irish diaspora.
“It’s something that people in tourism would warmly welcome. Up to 40 million people in the US have Irish heritage and around 70 million worldwide. They might not want to go through the formal process of getting a passport but they would wish to be associated with Ireland,” Mr Vaughan said.
He added that he expected that a lot of the certificates would be sold around Christmas time and he said there was a need to develop closer ties with the diaspora.
“It has been mooted that there would be a diaspora centre in Clare, ideally at Bunratty. There are plans being made for an event called the Gathering, that would happen in 2011 or 2012 and tourism agencies would be calling on the diaspora to make it a unique year.”
He said the possibilities that could accrue from developing links with the diaspora were huge. “The potential of it is only limited by the resources that we put into it,” Mr Vaughan concluded.