Ryanair in another takeover bid for Aer Lingus

I wonder how many flights they have each made with FR this year, compared to other carriers…then it would not necessarily be ‘hatred’, more like ‘hypocrisy’!

I cannot speak for Skymonster but I have never flown on a so called “low cost carrier” and never will, so thats your hypocrisy taken care of, and frankly I resent the label! I have never worked for one of them but spent 10 yrs or so of my 22yr aviation career working alongside one of them and witnessed first hand the dreadful way they treated their staff and suppliers, the relentless driving down of wages and conditions as well as the shoddy way they treated, and still do treat, their customers. One of these “wonderful” outfits was also instrumental in the premature ending of my career 7 yrs ago…bitter? no, I have moved on into another aviation sector and I am very happy, I have very good reasons to hold the views I do ref these carriers, but sir, I am certainly no hypocrite:mad:

Ryanair suffers double setback in Aer Lingus bid

Ryanair’s hostile takeover of Aer Lingus has suffered a double blow as the target’s chairman said he would seek a “white knight” investor to defeat the approach and regulators blocked parts of the offer.

Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington said he would seek a friendly investor to take a majority stake in the airline and stave off Ryanair’s 750 million euro ($989.3 million) bid.

His comments came as Ireland’s Takeover Panel ruled out elements of Ryanair’s offer, saying sweeteners included in its initial proposals could breach takeover rules by favouring one shareholder, namely the government.

The Takeover Panel said Ryanair’s pledges to give the state control over Aer Lingus’ landing slots at Heathrow, and to provide bank guarantees to cut the carrier’s fares and abolish fuel surcharges, would favour the government.

“Consequently, the panel has given a direction to Ryanair prohibiting it from extending these undertakings,” the Panel said in a statement.

The Panel also said Ryanair should drop promises to recognise trade unions at Aer Lingus and restore flights between Shannon in the west of Ireland and Heathrow — unless it can clarify to whom the pledges have been made and that they meet takeover rules.

1L.

I wonder how many flights they have each made with FR this year, compared to other carriers…then it would not necessarily be ‘hatred’, more like ‘hypocrisy’!

I can guarantee in Andy’s case it will be none! 😀

Paul

I love the general hatred of RYR that comes through on topics like this (Skymonster, IF IL62)…

I wonder how many flights they have each made with FR this year, compared to other carriers…then it would not necessarily be ‘hatred’, more like ‘hypocrisy’!

This has opened up air travel to a lot more people, and why shouldn’t those people have the right to travel?

Ah, because this will in turn upset the tree-huggers/eco-mentalists and other like-minded idiots to wage a war on air travel…:rolleyes:

What plans have they got then?

The following are some of their plans:

i) Continue to operate as two seperate airlines, with seperate an unique product offerings, with EI retaining a higher level of on board service focusing on business travellers and those needing the connectivity offered by a legacy carrier, including frequent flyer scheme etc;
ii) Continue with EI’s long haul operations;
iii) Ring fence slots at LHR and effectively hand these over to the Irish government to be used exclusively by EI. This will include the removal of BFS-LHR and the reinstatement of SNN-LHR.

FR will be ruthless when it comes to cutting costs at EI and making the business more efficient, but the intention is to retain a seperate product between the two airlines.

If you think that this will drive out competition then bear in mind that FR is one of the only airlines in the world that truly operates in a Contestable Market theory, that is to say that it is the threat of entry which keeps the fares low, not the actual presence of a competitor. This would be applied to EI too, and therefore whilst there may be less competitors on some routes, the fares will still be low to ensure nobody else comes in to steal market share with lower operating costs/fares.

The Commission are on rocky ground with this one. Permitting mergers between carriers such as TAP and PGA set a precedent which they have then gone against on this takeover proposal. In Portugal these were pretty much the only two regular scheduled carriers too.

I love the general hatred of RYR that comes through on topics like this (Skymonster, IF IL62), yet they are one of the only airlines delivering growth in Europe, and still consistently delivering profit. They have reduced the cost of travel substantially, and if you’ve ever bought a cheap ticket with them then you cannot criticise their strategy as you’ve subscribed to it. If you haven’t flown with them out of principle, but do like the fact you can fly with BA to Europe for £50 then stop and think about why you can now fly with BA for £50? It’s not because the management thought this would be a generous thing to do..it’s because they were forced to by the threat of competition from airlines such as RYR and EZY. What these airlines, and RYR in particular have done is to remove the cream from the top of profits, applying economic theory to this they have removed the ability of airlines to make Super-Normal profits (i.e. inflated profits) and instead make only Normal profits (i.e. a fair amount). This has opened up air travel to a lot more people, and why shouldn’t those people have the right to travel?

Would anyone here like to see Ryanair purchase Aer Lingus ?

I certainly would not like to see it, and I don’t think that the creation of a “Shamrockflot” would be in anyones interest in the long term.

it would be interesting to note the average age of the RYR fleet compared to – say – flybe’s…

Once the Jungle Jets are gone from FlyBE (which will be soon, and which weren’t FlyBe’s originally anyway) I’d bet the two will be broadly similar. FlyBe will be all Dash-8-400s and EMB-195s, Ryanair 737-800s.

Like most airlines, Ryanair are on target to make a loss this year.

Current public prediction break-even (presentation by Ryanair at last week’s Future of Air Transport conference in London).

Would anyone here like to see Ryanair purchase Aer Lingus ?

Nope. The less infestation by Ryanair, the better the industry overall will be.

Andy

I don’t think Cloud 9 is too far off the game here. Will the EU block it? I would say yes, on the grounds that if they don’t, they will be seen as very inconsistent. However, remember that there is always a bigger picture – what is happening with Alitalia and Olympic, what are BA/IB/AA/QF up to, what about KL/AF etc etc. The EU will have to put up a good case for treating FR/EI differently.

In the consumers’ interests? Jury’s out. I would say that FR will make a great fist of it, and will really sort EI out – but in the longer term, let’s assume that MO’L departs, and the new boy loses focus. FR goes a bit septic (and trust me it will, all organisations, like all empires, wax and wane), then the Irish government have a sick airline with NO effective competition – cf, AZ etc etc.

This will not be done as some sort of snapshot exercise, but as a long term, “what if” scenario plan.

TA

Would anyone here like to see Ryanair purchase Aer Lingus ?

Well yes, I think it could be a good thing for quite a few reasons…

Firstly, FR have stressed that if they are successful in gaining control, then it would be run as a completely separate operation, and they would also keep the Aer Lingus brand…so all we are talking about here is a change of ownership, surely this cannot be a bad thing, can it?

Back in 2007 when FR’s then £1bn (1.5bn Euros) deal was blocked, the reason given was because ‘it would cut choice and probably lead to higher prices’ and so the Commission said it had to ‘safeguard Irish consumers’…

Now, I dont know exactly what EI’s financial position is like at the moment, but I would hazard a guess that its probably not in as good shape as FR’s, and knowing how well FR are at being able to stripe out unnecessary cost burdens, I would say it would be a step in the right direction because it could help to re-ingnite EI and help to turn it into a lean, ‘green’ (as in the colour of the livery, not environmentally speaking, just to make that one clear!:D), money-making machine…

I just think that people are being a bit too ‘over-protective’ about their ‘national’ airline to be honest, simply because they know its Ryanair, but more importantly, MoL that wants to buy it! For the Commission to block the initial bid on the grounds that ‘it would cut choice and probably lead to higher prices’ I think is flawed in all honesty…I think it would in fact lead to lower prices and in turn offer more choice to consumers as more flights/services can be offered to/from Ireland. Also, to say it had to ‘safeguard Irish consumers’…I think at the end of the day it will be the ‘consumers’ who will ultimately have the final say on the matter, and knowing what people are like in such a price-driven market, I think they will see it as a good opportunity and opt for it to go ahead.

Just my thoughts though.:)

Like most airlines, Ryanair are on target to make a loss this year

Bet you they don’t.

Ryanair is playing a cannier game than most people realise. Trust me on this, I make my living in airline strategy!

TA

Would anyone here like to see Ryanair purchase Aer Lingus ?

year in, year out. They make a profit.

Like most airlines, Ryanair are on target to make a loss this year.

1L.

they are one of the UK’s rubbishest airlines

Well starting with the thought that Ryanair is not a UK airline, it would be interesting to note the average age of the RYR fleet compared to – say – flybe’s…

Also, RYR do the one thing that ALL airlines are supposed to do, and they do it year in, year out. They make a profit.

55m passengers a year can’t all be wrong!

TA

Goodness couldnt Ryanair just leave it??

They should be improving their aircraft and service as they are one of the UK’s rubbishest airlines before they even think of buying another!

The EU will try to block it, even though they were on shaky territory last time!

Aer Lingus say no again…