Aerlingus can no longer be considered low cost
A point I have made on a number of occasions previously,
What exactly is EI's strategy ?
The Lowcost model didn't work.
The new bases didn't work.
The constant lets make a new strategy up doesn't work.
Successful companies tend to have a single overriding strategy with everything else feeding off this and supporting it.
The constant changing and tinkering means customers and outside doesn't know.
However it is even worse within an organsisation as people see constant changes in strategy as being the norm and flavour of the year.
Employees never fully buy into any new strategy because they have seen 2-3 before and condition themselves into a belief that it will only be around for a year or two because they know it will change when someone new comes in. This may seem negative but employees see this as a surviving mechanism.
This is not unique to EI though as many companies suffer from it and the unsurprising thing from companies that are successful is consistency over many years.