Ryanair to make ANOTHER take-over bid for Aer Lingus

Gone Drinking

Boombastic wrote: »

They are segregated - they fly other airlines


At the airport the other day, a women in front of me ripped the whole side of her massive LV suitcase trying to get it in to the thing they have for measuring bags - funniest thing I've seen in a while and I doubt she'll be flying with them again:pac:

I saw a queue of girls putting on half their clothes, trying to get their suitcases into it. I actually think someone recorded it and put it on youtube.

AL are usually around the same price when I've checked, and I prefer them overall

kingtiger

mcmoustache wrote: »

I worked for Aer Lingus back in 2003/2004 cleaning airplanes

so did I

it was some laugh of a job and got pretty good at pool while being paid for it

I remember cleaning the trans-atlantic's if you where on a six o'clock shift and didn't finish by at least 12 you where being "screwed" by the lads that handed the jobs out

murpho999

Makes me laugh.

Everyone criticising Ryanair and praising Aer Lingus whist it's Ryanair who are the larger and more successful company and Aer Lingus are struggling!

bee_keeper

The Orb wrote: »

This should not be allowed to happen. A monopoly in the hands of bully would be bad news for customers, very bad news.

i doubt o leary is the only CEO of a major company who is a bully , its almost mandatory in order to get the gig

Chips Lovell

Competition is good.

One of the reasons Aer Lingus is now fairly competitive on prices is because of competition from Ryanair.

I can't see why people are getting excited about that competition being removed.

DEFTLEFTHAND

murpho999 wrote: »

Makes me laugh.

Everyone criticising Ryanair and praising Aer Lingus whist it's Ryanair who are the larger and more successful company and Aer Lingus are struggling!

Aer Lingus are not struggling they made half a billion profit last year.

Tom

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Aer Lingus are not struggling they made half a billion profit last year.

Out by a factor of 7 - they only made €71million on revenue of €1.2billion.

marcus2000

murpho999 wrote: »

Makes me laugh.

Everyone criticising Ryanair and praising Aer Lingus whist it's Ryanair who are the larger and more successful company and Aer Lingus are struggling!

I think I read recently that Aer Lingus had overtaken Ryanair as the largest carrier out of Dublin Airport. (obviously on headcount only), but it shows they are going in the right direction.

Ryanairs global footprint is great, but their seats dont recline .....there is just no getting past that!!!:cool:

Eurovisionmad

While I fly Ryanair fairly often and I agree they've done a great job in making flying more affordable, across every airline not just in Ryanair. However Ryanair and Aer Lingus control almost all flights in and out of this country, if they were amalgamated, it's hard to see how Ryanair would keep all of them, and there'd be no competition at all for Ryanair so where would the incentive be to keep fares low if you own the monopoly?

Blowfish

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Do you honestly think O'Leary is going to still charge €20 to fly across the channel when he has kicked out competition. He can charge what he wants to when he wants to as many have experienced.

Think about it for a second. 30 years ago Aer Lingus had a monopoly and were overcharging. This is exactly why Michael O'Leary was able to do what it did and grow enormously. If Ryanair ended up with a monopoly and decided to ramp up prices, you'd inevitably have someone enter the market to do to them what they did to Aer Lingus. O'Leary is smart enough to realise this, hence he's likely to keep prices low.

ejmaztec

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

Competition is good.

One of the reasons Aer Lingus is now fairly competitive on prices is because of competition from Ryanair.

I can't see why people are getting excited about that competition being removed.

...and where there's no competition on a particular route, Aer Lingus does what it did pre-Ryanair, i.e. robs people blind.

Eurovisionmad

ejmaztec wrote: »

...and where there's no competition on a particular route, Aer Lingus does what it did pre-Ryanair, i.e. robs people blind.

But if Ryanair and Aer Lingus are one entity where's the "Ryanair competition" going to come from?

pazza

I have been a frequent traveller to the UK (flight most weeks) for the last few years and have always specified a preference for Ryanair (where there is the option e.g. Birmingham or Manchester early mornings). My rationale for this is:
1. They fly when they say they will - I recall even during the snow that I went to the airport and heard an announcement that Aer Lingus flights to Birmingham were cancelled...the airport was in turmoil, yet I went down and boarded my Ryanair flight to Birmingham.
2. If you check a bag - it is our on the belt quickly. experiences with AL are very poor, even T2 had "Last bag delivered XX:XX (time)" and belt stopped an hour waiting and still no bag (it did eventually come out).
3. Boarding is understood, you queue up, and get on in the order of the queue (Priority first then all others). With AL, you have seat numbers and zones and Gold and all others....
4. Was on a recent flight to USA (3 weeks ago) and had a very rude AL hostess...so perceptions of an airline that cares...well gone now, while this is not a pro for Ryanair, my point is that where people think there is a difference in service standards. And from regular UK flights, I don't see any difference.
5. So what it Ryanair tries to sell stuff - what I want is to get where I'm going, cheaply and safely. I agree with an earlier posted who said that sometimes Luton or other are better options, this is very true for me, I don't look for flight transfers so Heathrow is a pain - longer delays, car hire (you have to get a bus to it), traffic problems getting there etc.
6. Arrived at airport (Gatwick) and tried to change my AL flight to the earlier one as I finished earlier than expected and there was a ridiculous fee to change flights (can't remember exactly - but something like £145)...so no diff that Ryanair...
7. Injured a leg and couldn't take a flight to Rome with my wife - on refund from AL of taxes of €126 only got €46 as the rest was eaten up in Admin fees to process the refund...great eh!

In terms of the future - if there is the opportunity, new players will enter the market. This is the American model, bigger players buy smaller ones, and new smaller ones start leaner and on the good/profitable routes.

Air transport costs are only going to go one way - with the rise in the cost of fuel - so accept the cost of the real low-cost, cheap travel will be a thing of the past. What people will need to do for travel is get smarter:
Book earlier
travel lighter
Don't change anything - and if you do, understand it will cost so don't think your story is more worthy etc....just accept it
Buy only what you want - ignore what you don't want. I have heard the complaint that "Ryanair try to sell you everything" (or such words) and yet the same people love the buzz of places like Bangkok and other bustling places that have loud vibrant markets (and try to sell you everything and anything - you have a choice to ignore).

I think that Ryanair are to be admired, AL were never a great airline (yes, there was comfort and all that - but not for the masses) - what do we want from them, get where we want, on-time, safely and cheaply.

Safe travelling ;-)

ejmaztec

Eurovisionmad wrote: »

But if Ryanair and Aer Lingus are one entity where's the "Ryanair competition" going to come from?

There's always Wizzair :eek:


http://www.wizzairsucks.com/

Beefy78

pazza wrote: »

6. Arrived at airport (Gatwick) and tried to change my AL flight to the earlier one as I finished earlier than expected and there was a ridiculous fee to change flights (can't remember exactly - but something like £145)...so no diff that Ryanair...

I had the opposite experience. Got into Heathrow in January hours earlier than planned due to an early connecting flight so a lovely lady at check-in bumped me forward two flights gratis and then when boarding another lovely lady offered me an emergency exist aisle seat instead of the seat on my boarding card.

Prior to that I'd flown Ryanair probably four times a month for three years but since then I've moved to Aer Lingus. I used to quite enjoy playing the Ryanair game - do everything exactly as you should and you'd get a bargain flight. Trouble is they've changed the rules too much in the past few years. Now there's next to no price differential so I'm going with Aer Lingus, a company who at least pretend to value my custom.

Beefy78

ejmaztec wrote: »

There's always Wizzair :eek:


http://www.wizzairsucks.com/

Ha! I used Wizzair last week on the way to Poland for the football. First time I'd used them. They were great. I didn't know what to expect from the name and the horrid looking website.

pazza

Beefy78 wrote: »

I had the opposite experience. Got into Heathrow in January hours earlier than planned due to an early connecting flight so a lovely lady at check-in bumped me forward two flights gratis and then when boarding another lovely lady offered me an emergency exist aisle seat instead of the seat on my boarding card.

Prior to that I'd flown Ryanair probably four times a month for three years but since then I've moved to Aer Lingus. I used to quite enjoy playing the Ryanair game - do everything exactly as you should and you'd get a bargain flight. Trouble is they've changed the rules too much in the past few years. Now there's next to no price differential so I'm going with Aer Lingus, a company who at least pretend to value my custom.

This makes it worse, that depending on who you get...I did miss a flight back from Heathrow recently and to get on the next flight with AL cost £86...but can't believe that they sometime allow passengers to get earlier flights ... and just not me....its a conspiracy (...I'm all for conspiracy theory, I met a senior Director in AL socially on day, and asked why it takes so long to get my checked bags when I fly with AL, and then next week on a flight to Manchester, my bag took almost an hour to get our...in Manchester. I think this is personal...certain conspiracy at play here ;-) ).