akerosid
9th Jun 2004, 16:33
With talks on the possible EU/US Open Aviation Area now due to take place on Friday, the Irish govt is once again holding out for a phased reduction in the SNN stop policy, arguing for FOUR :mad: years. How many have they had already and how many more will they be looking for. Are these people constantly going to be whining?
If the Irish govt is allowed to get away with this, it will effectively mean that Aer Lingus will be the only airline in Europe (and Dublin the only capital city in Europe) affected by this kind of nonsense. It's absolutely unacceptable.
Of course, it does have to be seen in the context of the European elections on Friday; the govt is obviously anxious to be seen as supporting the west (which of course only means SNN) ahead of the election. With the talks due on Friday, they can always come out and say "oh, we did our best, but it wasn't enough". Am I being unfair to them? I don't think so. We've seen prevarication, spinelessness and obstructionism month in and month out; the EU Open Skies deal is our best way out of this and now, they're trying to undermine the effect of this.
By all means, help SNN; I've never been against that and nor have those who have supported direct flights, but once and for all, regardless of what the SNN lobby dictates, understand that you don't help SNN by holding DUB back; they are two different markets. Stand up to them, as they've done before and say, yes, SNN has a market and maybe, it needs some help in building business, but holding DUB and EI's Open Skies access back, is not the way to do it.
If the Irish govt is allowed to get away with this, it will effectively mean that Aer Lingus will be the only airline in Europe (and Dublin the only capital city in Europe) affected by this kind of nonsense. It's absolutely unacceptable.
Of course, it does have to be seen in the context of the European elections on Friday; the govt is obviously anxious to be seen as supporting the west (which of course only means SNN) ahead of the election. With the talks due on Friday, they can always come out and say "oh, we did our best, but it wasn't enough". Am I being unfair to them? I don't think so. We've seen prevarication, spinelessness and obstructionism month in and month out; the EU Open Skies deal is our best way out of this and now, they're trying to undermine the effect of this.
By all means, help SNN; I've never been against that and nor have those who have supported direct flights, but once and for all, regardless of what the SNN lobby dictates, understand that you don't help SNN by holding DUB back; they are two different markets. Stand up to them, as they've done before and say, yes, SNN has a market and maybe, it needs some help in building business, but holding DUB and EI's Open Skies access back, is not the way to do it.