If a sale goes ahead then I would see no reason for a new owner to have Aer Arann onboard, I think at the moment its working well for Aer Lingus as a money saving option, a new buyer might not see this way and that is why I would see a breaking of agreements on the cards for Arann,@speedbird, Great company to work for, I dont think so why then is so many staff and senior management after leaving the company over the past 6 months?
I think it's a little bit more than a cost saving option for Aer Lingus! As Aer Lingus can no longer solely rely on its home market to sustain long haul routes, the Aer Arann agreement allows them to sell easy onward connections through Dublin from the UK regions which lack direct services themselves, the A320 was simply too large to do this effectively. The increases in frequency that the ATR provides also enables Aer Lingus to offer better timings for business passengers and their brand can now reach regional airports where it once couldn't sustain routes such as Bristol and Cardiff and while all this happens they are practically getting paid for it by Aer Arann through the franchise fee. So Aer Arann deal with the profit/loss of each route while Aer Lingus rake in the franchise fee and get a load of passengers from the UK to fill the transatlantic flights.
Over a third of Aer Lingus passengers on North American routes are now transfer passengers, a big part of that is thanks to Aer Lingus Regional.
I was only aware of rumours of a minority 25% being potentially for sale. I wasn't aware Aer Lingus itself was up for sale.
Ryanair has said if the government sell its 25%, it wouldn't rule out working with or disposing of its own share of 30% to another "financially strong" airline should one approach the government.