nicolas75

Aerlingus expects once again to resist the hostile bid from Ryanair. Colm Barrington, the chairman of the airline confirmed to the daily Irish Times "his willingness to get rid of the threat” posed by the first European low-cost company. The group is seeking to prevent Ryanair, which already holds 29.8 % of the capital of the airline company, to take control.

Aerlingus intends to find a new partner, but is aware that this is not the right time to do so because of the financial crisis. The chairman of the group confirmed that he did not see any "perfect partner" in the current landscape of air transport, but he said that Air France-KLM may be one. The group is considered by many analysts as a potential buyer. "From a consumer and Irish point of view, Air France-KLM would be a better option than Ryanair", said Colm Barrington at the Irish daily," but we have not received any phone call yet", he said. Air France-KLM which is currently under discussion with Alitalia, would have therefore not yet cleared its position towards Aerlingus.

Murphy93

I really hope they do go to AF-KL, is the deal that they join SkyTeam, or AF-KL buy a large percentage? Then they will beat the LH monopoly!

layz

Aer Lingus voluntarily left oneworld so I can't see them being interested in SkyTeam. EI has become more like a LCC over the years due to the competition with FR, at least on the shorthaul.

I can't imagine EI will survive on their own particularly with O'Leary's repeated takeover bids. However, I can't see any advantages for AF-KL in purchasing EI. AF has CityJet feeding their CDG hub from Dublin and Shannon.

nicolas75

Slots to the US

Henry III

... and it would annoy FR's Leprechaun-in-Chief!

Dambus

Slots at Fortress LHR.

Agree re the survival point however.

irishguy28

It would be fantastic if AFKL bought a controlling stake in Aer Lingus. Particularly if they integrated all Aer Lingus flights into Flying Blue! (Platinum here I come!!!)

dg4255

While I don't see a huge market for Ireland, especially given the poor economy now, there could be some good things for both EI and AFKL if AFKL were to buy EI. I think the slots at LHR are perhaps at the top of the list. Second, if AZ were to also be bought by AFKL, surely they would have to get rid of those awful MD80s. I can see AFKL using a few EI A320s there instead. The Italian market is far more profitable and valuable.

layz

I quite like the MD80's. A 2-3 config in Y which is ideal if there's two people travelling and of course the business class seats are much better than the convertible seats in the A321.

Of course, the MD80's have to go, they're too expensive to operate, but given a choice I'd rather fly the MD80 any day. Although the first exit row on the AZ A321 has excellent legroom.

Would buying EI be a good thing for the Irish? Would AFKL continue the existing EI codeshares (with BA and probably others) into LHR? If not then the market on that route would mostly be point to point traffic. How many LHR slots would AFKL switch to different routes?

dg4255

Well, as to the LHR slots, I think that since AFKL sold/gave/donated slots to NW and DL to use, they could hold onto the slots until the economy improved, then implemented new routes to/from LHR to US/Canada and elsewhere.
As for new routes, I think Ireland is a saturated market at the moment with several daily flights to/from US on CO, DL, AA, US, and EI. Perhaps using a long-haul aircraft or two for new routes to/from CDG or AMS. We all know that KL has a big shortage of long-haul aircraft. I can think of a few US cities that could do well for AFKL, such as DEN and PHX. Especially DEN now that LH has pulled their MUC flight and UA has seasonally cancelled their LHR flight. That leaves just BA to LHR and LH to FRA for nonstops to Europe.

Supersonic Swinger

To mine, this would be reason alone to justify AFKL's investment

irishguy28

You all talk as if EI's LHR slots are just hanging around, unused.

Remember the uproar when EI terminated its SNN-LHR service (in order to start up its BFS-LHR service)? I don't think the Government or anyone else would be pleased if EI cut back on its existing services from Ireland to LHR - so although EI has the 4th most slots of any airline at LHR, I'm not sure how easily they could be stripped from Aer Lingus to be deployed amongst SkyTeam if AFKL did come on board.