charge premium rates to those whose only agenda is to drive the competition out.
Yes, I agree, like the way EI behaved when FR first tried to break the EI/BA monopoly all those years ago.
Addressing the media following the airline's AGM in Dublin, Christoph Mueller said that in Ireland's darkest hour, when we urgently need tourists to visit, to increase airport taxes by 39% is 'insane'.
I'm afraid EI has nobody else to blame but themselves. Before Mr. Mueller's time, when the DAA decided to go completely overboard with their vision of the new T2 all it needed was for the two main airlines FR/EI to say to them categorically, "If you build that we will NOT come". FR made their intentions abundantly clear but EI showed the usual lack of foresight, strength and business acumen. Did they seriously believe that the DAA's planned T2 would not involve hefty increased charges. Now everyone is being forced to pay the price for this enormous debt.
I had high hopes that Mr. Varadkar would get stuck in and be everything his grossly incompetent (to be kind) predecessors over a great many years were not but, already, I have my doubts. DUB and IRL in general needs more passenger numbers/tourists but I'm not convinced that at the present time any
significant increases at DUB can be generated and, in any case, EI is just too small to have any
significant effect and does not have the aircraft (or fares) to expand. If it can be done the only airline that
could make any
significant difference is FR but it looks like the usual thought processes - we can't give anything to FR without giving the same to EI - are still around. These are desperate times and we can't afford to apply such niceties.