Aer Lingus still playing games with Shannon

AER Lingus is still playing games with Shannon, as the Oireachtas Committee on Transport has learned in recent weeks along with Shannon Airport director, Martin Moroney. That’s the view of Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, who says that he has a great deal of sympathy for Mr Moroney’s position in the complex situation.

“From first-hand experience recently, the members of the Transport Committee would have a great deal of sympathy for the airport director as he, unlike Transport Committee members including myself, is not in a position to speak out when Aer Lingus led us all up the garden path,” said Deputy Breen, who is also a member of the European Affairs Oireachtas Committee appointed Rapporteur on the in-depth review of civil aviation in Europe.
Referring to the November hearing regarding the latest financial crisis at the airline, Mr Breen said committee members were not slow in noting that the level of representation from Aer Lingus had changed dramatically from the previous meeting. Previously, the Aer Lingus chairman and the chief executive attended, when the issue of the Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus was on the table.
“In November, the level of seniority had been substantially diluted. It was probably understandable that the airline’s director of human resources, Michael Grealy was assigned to attend, as he could answer questions about redundancy proposals, as well as major changes in pay and conditions including pension rights, which are to be tackled at a future meeting. But at his side was the director of corporate affairs, Enda Corneile, the man whose job it is to present all aspects of the airline’s affairs in the very best light,” said Mr Breen.
Deputy Breen said Mr Corneile “spun a very fine web” of what appeared to be most positive prospects for Shannon and especially about services to the US, which were of urgent concern.
“He stated that the airline was in deep discussions with the Shannon Airport Authority on a series of initiatives including stepping into the gap in east-bound flights, which will be left when Ryanair pulls out 70% of its flights at the end of March. But what was most heartening of all was the statement from Mr Corneile that indicated that Aer Lingus had been listening to what Shannon interests have been saying and that the airline was looking at the possibility of bringing a small capacity aircraft onto the New York run from Shannon and also contemplating the earlier departure time that business interests in particular have been calling for.”
Deputy Breen said that while Mr Moroney was constrained in what he could say when he briefed the Mid-West Regional Authority a couple of weeks later, the overall thrust of his remarks was more than hopeful and indicated a new beginning in relationships between Shannon and Aer Lingus.
Mr Breen voiced disappointment at the fact that soon after, those hopes were smashed by the new Aer Lingus chief executive, Christoph Mueller when he came to Shannon.
“He shot down all that had been floated by senior Aer Lingus management to an Oireachtas committee and by his own team involved in the discussions with the Shannon Airport Authority.
“It has become transparently clear that, yet again, Aer Lingus is using Shannon as a pawn in a much more sophisticated strategy. The carrot of further initiatives and services at Shannon is held out when the airline is looking for concessions from the trade unions or from airport authorities. But when it comes to commitment time, the carrot that was dangled is abruptly taken away,” Deputy Breen maintained.
The Clare deputy acknowledged that Aer Lingus’ problems lie in the fact that it has pinned its profit-making on long-haul services, which propped up the short-haul routes where there was fierce competition from low-cost airlines led by Ryanair.
“The world business slump meant that while airlines slashed back capacity, even with 80% seat occupancy, long-haul services could not turn a profit in 2009. The outlook is even grimmer for 2010 with the International Air Transport Association predicting losses of €3.8 billion for European carriers. For a small airline like Aer Lingus, the news is even worse because IATA is also forecasting that it will be 2012 before air traffic gets back to the levels of 2008,” concluded Deputy Breen.