Interesting comments by Dempsey today on the EI issue:
“The Government has made its displeasure and disappointment known with Aer Lingus. We don’t regard it as being in line with Government policy in regional terms or aviation terms,” Mr Dempsey said.
Government policy in aviation terms? Apart from what Cullen said (and EI ignored totally), what does this mean? Does anyone, apart from (even including?) the govt actually know what govt aviation policy is?
Not surprisingly, having being helped off the hook on which it was wriggling quite frantically, the govt isn't going to force EI to have an EGM; politically, it's out of danger, at least for now - safely ensconced on the fence.
However, the flipside of the EI decision is that since the airline doesn't feel beholden in any way to the govt, the govt may feel that it can step on EI's toes just as well; for example, in response to the impending axing of the DXB route, the govt will presumably be putting pressure on EK to operate the route - what about offering EK the possibility of t/a flights from DUB ... something bound to irk EI pretty considerably?
By the way, I would echo EI-RB's comments above about EI and the DXB route; one would have thought - coming from EK, that DM would have realised the importance of interlining and having a pretty good service product; since this was his first major long haul move on joining EI, he has to bear a lot of the responsibility for its failure, if it comes to that. It was avoidable.