MarkD, I disagree
In the last 12 months I've flown with Ryanair about 20 times and Aer Lingus about 12 times. They both do precisely what they say on the tin: Ryanair is low cost no frills and bloody good at it and Aer Lingus is a full service airline and is bloody good at that. Whether in Premier or Economy, Aer Lingus is in my experience easily as good as BA, Air France, KLM, etc, etc. On time, spotless aircraft, flexible tickets (whether they are meant to be or not!) and extremely friendly helpful professional staff.
I think there is plenty of room for both Ryanair and Aer Lingus. I sincerely hope AL will survive, not be taken over and will finally re-model itself to survive recessions and not just booms. However, even with the staff now reduced to 4000, it still has over twice the staff of Ryanair for less aircraft. Why is this? I guess being full service does require a certain % more staff but surely not over double.
[ 01 February 2002: Message edited by: BillyFish2 ]</p>