Leo Hairy-Camel. You are so right. Yours is an excellent post. The fact of the matter is that if Ryanair fail in their takeover of Aer Lingus they will start long haul services anyway and those will surely crush Aer Lingus. The board of Aer Lingus have a clear choice: Release shareholder value now by accepting this bid or see that shareholder value disappear within five years as the dinosaur is destroyed by an aggreesive raptor. RYR have all the cash and vision to do all of this. Aer Lingus have neither cash or vision. Whether RYR win the fight now or later is almost irrelevant. Anytime any company receives a bid it is because a different management thinks it can do better. In business terms it is equivalent to putting up the "For Sale" sign outside the front door. RYR have proved that they can do better. The bisd itself has mortally wounded Aer Lingus. In ant takeover battle it is always the defendents that have to do the main fighting. One thing they will have to prove to sahreholders is that they can generate better margins than RYR. Ha! Ha! No one can.
Another respondent has doubted that Ireland can be used as a transAtlantic hub. Of course it can. RYR are established at local airports throughout Europe. There are no transatlantic services from almost all of them. All RYR have to do to make a success of such transAtlantic services is to provide connections to provincial Poland and all the myriad cities and provinces that they serve. Flying from all of them via Shannon to, say, 15 or 20 American and Canadian cities will provide untold new travelling opportunities for millions.
It will happen becausse RYR will make it happen. It is going to be far more revolutionary than anything yiu have seen so far. Will MOL step back? No way. This is far greater than any of his achievemnets so far.
Boeing are probably studying an order from RYR for 50 787's right now.