Shannon-Heathrow discussion [merged]

highlydebased

Last September the A380 came.

hobie

great unwashed wrote:

Is this decision going to get reversed at the EGM?

btw, can the Airbus 380 land at Shannon?

see this link ....

http://www.limerickblogger.org/blog/?p=2169

highlydebased

There are plenty of photos on my own site www.shannonairportenthusiasts.net click on photos


I dont know if LHR need be the solution to this problem- CDG, FRA and AMS are much easier airports to connect through. Plus, they would be good for leisure/business traffic also

If BCY were to start a LCY route that would be a treat

hobie

I dont know if LHR need be the solution to this problem

I do and so do 99% of everyone who has international operations in the Mid West ......

and would you believe, so did all the parties involved in the privatization of EI ..... LHR slots into the Mid West were recognized by all as being critical to the continuing development of the area ......

dloob

hobie wrote:

I do and so do 99% of everyone who has international operations in the Mid West ......

and would you believe, so did all the parties involved in the privatization of EI ..... LHR slots into the Mid West were recognized by all as being critical to the continuing development of the area ......

I don't understand why they can't connect through the other hubs?
What's so special about Heathrow, can't almost all its destinations be reached through the other hubs.

My preferred solution would be to get BMI on the route, Ryanair already provide a cheap no frills London service who needs Aer Lingus.

smokinp

In my opinion Willie O Dea and PP should resign from fianna fail and show the people of limerick that they are not just all MOUTH n no action.

Comment?

sioda

They are all mouth and no action.

I hope this finally ends WOD election monopoly in this town.

Amazotheamazing

I don't see the FF Government members threatening to either leave FF or bring down the Government, which considering their numbers, they could easily do. Cowards and tricksters.

Liam Byrne

Classic moment on Clare FM's Livewire yesterday......Brian Flynn played Tom Petty's "I won't back down" especially for WOD and Tony Killeen

Seriously (and unfortunately) though....at the end of the day they probably will....once you get into Government in Ireland your principles are only expressed in words (to look good) and not deeds (to actually get things done).

highlydebased

IF we get BMI, and Cityjet, and if Ryanair leave them live, it would prove incentive for other major carriers to come to the airport, such as Lufthansa, Iberia, SAS etc etc.

Cityjet looks very possible, they have said should the right incentives be available they are all for it

BMI, have not heard much about their possible entry

ninty9er

Willie has resigned the party whip before and it made **** all difference, so I can't blame him. On the other hand there has been grassroots chatter of a Blaney style IFF along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Willie has previously resigned the whip and has also been expelled, neither of which were particulary worthwhile or event changing and just caused grief afterwards.

Both are working behind the scenes, which let's face it is the only place anything will be achieved for all the image boost Jan O'Sullivan gets for speaking at a rally in Shannon.

They're all working on this and resigning the party whip just leaves Limerick with no government representative!! now wouldn't that be fun!!

ninty9er

Neon-Circles wrote:

IF we get BMI, and Cityjet, and if Ryanair leave them live, it would prove incentive for other major carriers to come to the airport, such as Lufthansa, Iberia, SAS etc etc.

Cityjet looks very possible, they have said should the right incentives be available they are all for it

BMI, have not heard much about their possible entry

As AL won't be able to compete with BMI on quality on the Heathrow route in Belfast, they'll start a race to the bottom on price at which stage BMI will beat them or move to Shannon where they can pretty much charge whatever they like as it's a corporate bill for the majority of passengers in reality and those going to Oz aren't going to complain about the cost of a flight to LHR...interesting times ahead

hobie

I would be delighted to see BMI fly the Heathrow slots but for them to do that they would need four slots......

where are they going to get them ? .....

give up some of their other destinations? ......

buy some more? .... 120 million euros might buy 4 slots if anyone wanted to sell ........ LHR slots are like Gold ....

Can they run a viable Shannon service with 4 flights a day? .....

sioda

ninty9er wrote:

They're all working on this and resigning the party whip just leaves Limerick with no government representative!! now wouldn't that be fun!!

At this stage I dont think it would make a bit of difference

ninty9er

sioda wrote:

At this stage I dont think it would make a bit of difference

just because people aren't seen to be working doesn't mean they aren't. do you think the government portion of funding for the University Arena was a random mistake etc....

hobie

I noted some senior local FF guys using the words " Cabinet collective responsibility" in the past few days .....

think about it ..... :rolleyes:

I guess it means if the Cabinet vote against the 'West' it's not my fault !!!! ..... :mad:

If the EI decision was revealed before the election we would not have the present Government .... fact !!!!

If the Shannon slots were known to be at risk at the time of EI's flotation we would not have the present Government ..... fact !!!!

If it was known before the election that the Government would not use it's strategic share holding to protect the LHR/SNN slots we would not have the present Government ...Fact !!!

If the present Government decides to screw the West ..... there has to be a way for them to reap a just reward ....

ninty9er

hobie wrote:

I would be delighted to see BMI fly the Heathrow slots but for them to do that they would need four slots......

where are they going to get them ? .....

give up some of their other destinations? ......

buy some more? .... 120 million euros might buy 4 slots if anyone wanted to sell ........ LHR slots are like Gold ....

Can they run a viable Shannon service with 4 flights a day? .....

Depends on if they be flying Schippol, CDG and Frankfurt Main too...that'd really stick it to Aer Lingus...plus I imagine they'd get a lot of midweek breaks and weekend breakers to CDG and Schippol...Might urge Ryanair to put the decent daily service to Brussels back on

hobie

ninty9er ..... Just how many Mid West FF TD's are there? .....

Schuhart

TDs know this isn’t an issue worth leaving the party over. They don’t need to read the Tribune to know the complaints are overdone.

The most pertinent example of this comes from a finding in the Ibec survey on the impact of the ending of the Heathrow link. Almost half the companies surveyed claimed the decision would "impact on their ability to transfer freight abroad"

However, Aer Lingus hasn't operated a short-haul freight service for years.

The Government view has already been clearly stated. They’re already doing some re-spinning to bring some context to the description of the route being full and essential for business.

the Government believes the study on the impact of axing the Shannon-Heathrow flights will sort out reality from the "myths". According to statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the number of standard passengers on the Shannon to Heathrow flights has dropped by 11 per cent over the last three years, while the number of business passengers dropped by 34 per cent.

Armed with facts like that (and I don't doubt 'second strike' material currently being assembled), plus drawing attention to what developments the NDP will be delivering for the Mid West, and the campaign crumbles. Remember that it really is just Clare and Limerick where this is any kind of an issue – Shannon’s difficulty is Knock Airport’s opportunity and they haven’t been slow to grab it.

Whenever Bertie finally resurfaces, he bat the question off with one of his out-of-body ‘dhey shouldn’t have done dat’ replies and that will be it.

You just won’t find your TDs going out on a limb for something they know is a nonsense. Local councillors will, of course, be quite happy volunteering the TDs to sacrifice themselves. But the most that will happen is FF will lose any chance of getting a third seat in Clare. That probably wasn’t in the frame anyway.

In five years time Willie will get his 2.3 quotas again and everyone will have forgotten the strange rainy August of 2007.

highlydebased

With BMI buying BMed, no doubt there will be some slots freed up from that.

The service is obviously viable....- They also have the right sized aircraft- A319/20/21's which would be suited to light and heavy loads

phog

I'm a long time voter for FF but not a memebr and certainly not a supporter of Willie O'D but in fairness what can be gained by anyone person resigning from a political party.

Willie was expelled from the party at the time of the closure of Barringtons because he voted against the government or something like that and within a few weeks Barringtons closed.

Can anyone give me an Irish example where someone resigned from government or their party over a local issue and this resulted in the party/government doing a U Turn?

I'd much rather see this government support the state agencies in seeking new employment for the region and giving their support to the Shannon Airport Authority in seeking new airlines and destinations.

sioda

At the end of the day politicans are out for themselves.

WOD and PP are working in the background woo hoo in other words they are doing sfa in the eyes of the people.

I have really had it with some or even most politicians getting elected getting paid and doing nothing.

UL got their funding mainly due to corpoate backing.

Amazotheamazing

But the Midwest TD's could bring the Government down, if they wanted, but the won't because they've too much to lose.

phog

Amazotheamazing wrote:

But the Midwest TD's could bring the Government down, if they wanted, but the won't because they've too much to lose.

And will a new government make Aer Lingus change their decision?

On another point should governments be brought down on a local issue? Surely this would ensure we would never have a stable government again in Irelnad and that would hardly be good for employment or our economy.

sioda

IMO the government should be forced to sell their share in Aer Lingus because they have now proven that they are not holding a vested interest in keeping the companies routes in ireland by alllowing the heathrow slots to be moved to belfast which is part of the uk

chuckles30

am I the only one who thinks the govt may have already used their shares to influence the EI decision?? I reckon Bertie promised the north their heathrow slots as part of the peace deal and has used his influence to get them to set up the base up there........hence his silence now

sioda

Chuckles I have thought of that but God would hate to see it come true

Amazotheamazing

phog wrote:

And will a new government make Aer Lingus change their decision?

On another point should governments be brought down on a local issue? Surely this would ensure we would never have a stable government again in Irelnad and that would hardly be good for employment or our economy.

No, but the threat of it would focus Bertie's mind pretty fast. How do you think Healy-Rae gets all the good deals for Kerry?

hobie

sioda wrote:

IMO the government should be forced to sell their share in Aer Lingus because they have now proven that they are not holding a vested interest in keeping the companies routes in ireland by alllowing the heathrow slots to be moved to belfast which is part of the uk

And guess who would buy the shares .....

Ryanair of course .....

and maybe that's not a bad thing ...... It certainly can't be any worse than Aer Lingus's treatment of the Mid west ..... :rolleyes:

vkid

working behind the scenes is no good for anyone unless it achieves something and be honest what has either of them really achieved for Limerick city - highest unemployment rate in the country, no boundary extension, massive crime issues (that don't seem to be tackled unless a cop gets shot at), poor infrastructure and the best bit of infrastructure in the region is slowly being given away to Belfast (a city in another country)..watch the US flights go very soon. It will happen.

So apart from medical cards and "on the ground" stuff, pulling planning permission etc what has either of these numpties achieved ? Successive FF governments have done sweet fanny adams for Limerick so having them in government achieves little.When was the last major jobs announcement for Limerick..the focus is on Cork and Galway in that regard. As far as I can see FF have zero interest in this region, none. Apparently the greater Dublin region is to hit a population of 2.5 million by 2031, how is that going to be achieved. By moving us all up there because the way things are going its looking likely.

They might achieve more as Independants..look at Healy Rae's hold over Bertie. By the way the same goes for Tony Kileen, Timmy Dooley etc. What the hell are they doing behind the scenes because it is achieving feck all in fairness. Willie O'Dea is a very weak minister at best..and seems to have no influence on anything

Give me a break with the behind the scenes crap..more waffle