As a little aside, when the Aer Lingus announcement was made about them starting a base at Gatwick, they went straight for easyJet's jugular with 3 of their new routes being easyJet's staple diet - Malaga, Faro and Nice. Immediately easyJet responded with slashed fares - we are running neck and neck at the moment as far as I can see. EasyJet then announced some 'new' routes out of Gatwick - Vienna, Munich and Zurich (plus somewhere else I cannot remember!). 'Coincidentally', these routes are the other 'new' routes announced earlier by Aer Lingus. Mrs Fletcher and I have just booked to fly to Vienna with friends over the summer and easyJet were cheaper or the same price on every day we looked. What this tells me is that a huge price war is underway which Aer Lingus did not anticipate and ultimately cannot compete with.
It is great news for the passengers and bad news for both airlines as they cannot be running profits on these routes with such competition. EasyJet simply cannot allow a competitior like Aer Lingus to attack its core business. As an easyJet pilot, I am delighted to see easyJet is on the ball and in full attack mode to protect its own market share. Nonetheless, I recognise that this is a slugging contest that will result in casualties. Time will tell who has the energy to see it through. I am not a betting man, but if I were then I would be backing easyJet every time. The relevance of this dicussion to the current thread is this - it may be that Aer Lingus are having second thoughts about the way ahead due to low bookings and cut-throat competition from easyJet. That, alas, has a significant affect on the jobs they hand out. I do know a number of easyJet pilots looked very carefully at this opportunity when it first appeared, including Irish pilots looking for a way home. Every one of them I have talked to ultimately took the view that this was a bridge too far and was too high a risk. That, incidentally, included senior First Officers with a lot of hours who were being looked at by Aer Lingus as DECs. These were quality people who in normal circumstances would have been captains at easyJet but due to the slowdown have been put back in the race a long time. Food for thought, I am sure you will agree......