Aer Lingus anxious for US expansion

[akerosid]

Despite the recent tribulations in the US market and on t/a flights, Aer Lingus is anxious to increase access to the US and is encouraging the Irish government to renegotiate access to the US. Speaking at an Irish Mgmt Institute conference in Killarney, Willie Walsh, EI CEO, said that the airline could double its US traffic within two years and had indentified no less than 16 US destinations suitable for expansion, such as SFO, STL and DEN. Mr. Walsh also pointed to the likelihood of investment in new aircraft and frontline staff if that were to happen.

There have been positive moves this week, with Transport minister Seamus Brennan all but conceding that the stopover is on the way out. The EU governments are expected to cede the right to negotiate US bilaterals (and others) to the EU by the Summer and it's expected that this will be accompanied by a significant compensation package for the Shannon region.

Although Mr. Walsh emphasised the importance of increased transatlantic access, he added that it would not all be from Dublin and said that there would be significant opportunities for growth from Shannon, which had considerable tourism and business potential.

[starone]

Carrot and stick eh?, i would have thought that a scheduled mco or tpa service would have been top of the list, or even a vegas flight. there are enough irish people on the vs flight each week. he could also take a leaf out of the fr book by 'creating demand'. Limited , i know, on the t/a routes. Perhaps even getting fifth freedom rights. can anyone say how ib got these for their mia/central america services? In the land of la-la i know, for ei, but just a thought. also do ba have these rights on iah/ord and did they have them on iah/iad as well?

[akerosid]

As long as they have the freedom to do so, they can plan as they wish. They've already said they'd like to do Florida, but I just mentioned a few cities mentioned in the article. MCO has been mentioned in particular.

However, I think they need to diversify further. If (God forbid) there's another 9/11 incident or similar and they're still 100% reliant on the US for long haul, they'll be stuffed, low fares and ease of access or not.

I wonder what's the story about looking at CPT again this year, or indeed looking at the far east. There was a rumour of MH being interested or EK, so they shouldn't really hang about . . .

[starone]

both mh and ek have been mentioned for ages now, but still no sign, although ek are carrying on expanding despite war etc. but you're right they should be focusing on other markets, in europe they can always be underpriced by fr or the like and the us remains volatile, the fareast is doddgy (for the time being) and dxb, war or not, can only create a limited demand ex dublin. south america is mostly in recession, although there is fluid money in scl...there's one for you, dub/scl!!! cpt/jnb are obvious, but i don't see it happening anytime soon. wheres left? I know provincial uk and domestic irish...ohh, hang on...!!