Why do the Gov not want Ryanair to take over Aer Lingus?

Nody

I honestly don't think O'Leary wants AL. Oh I know he's made his "bids" and what not but in reality I don't think he'd be that interested in the take over. We're talking the whole fight with the unions on pay, staffing and then the added complexity of airplane support etc. on top of it.

To him AL is much bette run as a state sponsored poor alternative that he can take pot shots at and drum up nice headlines about for free ad time then having to deal with the whole crap around it. If he wanted to go into atlantic flights it would most likely be cheaper, and far more effective, to start from scratch taking only the routes of interest.

Soldie

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Firstly another poster has already pointed out the roughly 20 other airlines that operate out of Dublin. And this is still limiting the discussion to air travel. If one wants to consider international travel (which one really should) one should also include ferry services out of Ireland in ones analysis.

Ryanair already has a so-called monopoly in Knock airport. Aer Lingus operate only one route from Knock--to Gatick--whereas Ryanair fly from Knock to several UK destinations, and also to Spain and Portugal. Curiously, though, Ryanair are not charging extortionate prices for these flights. I wonder why...

We should look no further than Bord Gáis and the ESB if we want to identify some real monopolies.

Liam Byrne

seclachi wrote: »

I`m guessing because Aer lingus is the national carrier and that if ryanair was in charge it would cut any non profitable routes, which may not serve the country's interests.

Well, the country's interests don't matter to the current Aer Lingus; they moved Heathrow slots out of Shannon to Belfast and didn't give a crap about the "country's interests".

Diarmuid

AllecEiffel wrote: »

This will result in a scenario resembling the AerLingus monopoly of the eighties; fewer flights and higher costs for the consumer.

You do know that highlighting certain words does not mean you are correct?

AllecEiffel

The European Competition Authority carried out a detailed analysis of the Irish market at the time of the most recently failed Ryanair attempt at a hostile takeover bid.

They determined that Aer Lingus and Ryanair together constitute over 80% of commercial aviation operations in Ireland. The figure approaches 90% when Dublin Airport is considered in isolation.

I wonder what would happen to the average Ryanair 'fare' if they controlled that proportion of the market? Perhaps they would reduce fares and increase scheduled flights out of some inherent charitible sense of generosity?

My use of bold lettering and italics was with respect to their common function; communication of inflectional emphasis to the reader.

Happy new year.

Dob74

old boy wrote: »

aer lingus cannot survive, take jfk, how many people staff one check in point, the last time i went through it was 4, i had a pre booked wheelchair, no sign of it, i asked at the desk, i may as well ask bertie for handout info, i litherly had to crawl through security, which felt sorry for me, and left me through the short aisle, but then terminal 4 is busy they could do no more for me, a nice jog from there to the plane, in flight entertainment, a drop down moniter between a few seats, the indo at oleary prices, i am off there in 2010, not al definitely, the new security check in shannon, why cant they use it, i have used ryan air, they are not the worst, it does what it says on the tin, which aer lingus does not, happy ? new year folks.

Would like hear any stories of a pre booked wheel chair with Ryanair.
Nearly all the staff in US airports are contract staff.

SkepticOne

O'Leary said that if he took over Aer Lingus he would continue having them compete against each other. I think this is highly unlikely. I'm sure Murdoch said much the same thing when he bought out BSB back in the early nineties.

Here's what I think would happen:

1. Gradual removal of flights that duplicate destination cities keeping the one that flies to the cheapest, farthest airport. Cite lack of economic viability for these changes.

2. Eventual rebranding of short haul Aer Lingus to Ryanair for remaining flights that have not been eliminated.

3. Finally rebranding of Aer Lingus transatlantic flights to Ryanair.

Like the Sky buyout of BSB, there might be some intermediate name for the combined airline before being dropped for simply Ryanair.

This does not mean the move should be blocked by the government. What is needed is more real competition from genuinely viable airlines and policy should be developed to encourage this.

Flamed Diving

So let's say Ryanair takes over Aer Lingus and decide to raise prices. A European-based carrier sees an opportunity to steal market share by opening routes in/out of Ireland at lower prices than the main carrier. Competition ensues and Ryanair is forced to lower its prices.

Why is this above scenario highly unlikely? Some people here seem to imply that it is not an option.