I thought some were going/have gone to British Airways?

Indeed, G-EUUH and G-EUUL are both ex-EI.

1L.

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 would not be at all surprised to see them pull out of LGW altogether to be honest….. and also if Virgin are successful with their consortium bid to buy LGW, as they have said they would launch more services from LGW if they do get it!

I think you might be right, I can imagine a day when BA no longer operates from LGW.

Does this Virgin consortium actually exist or is it just the SRB publicity machine? There was that very strange thing where he said Easy were in on it and the next day Easy denied it! Also Virgin don’t need to own LGW in order to operate more flights there.

1L.

It must be a no news day at Sky News, this is ancient history within BA.

1L.

year in, year out. They make a profit.

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

1L.

I think the more interesting part of this article was

He also warned staff they should expect little relief from the Lufthansa takeover, which is expected to be completed in mid-January.

“Be under no illusions, they will not be prepared to sit back and watch us lose money,” he said. “They will, and do, expect us to reshape the business to remove unprofitable flying to the greatest extent possible.”

BMI would freeze pay in 2010, he said, and the directors would have no pay increase in 2009.

Sounds like interesting times to come at bmi.

1L.

I’ve never really been able to keep up with things since the name Britannia disappeared!

Am I right in thinking that the newly formed Thomson Airways is still part of the World of TUI?

Just been looking at the combined fleet on Jethro’s. It’s a right old mixture of types and liveries!

1L.