Originally Posted by ayroplain
If you are just talking about the fare with no baggage or other addons then I would have to disagree entirely if you're a reasonably regular traveller. Depending, of course, on how long you book in advance EI's fares London-Dublin are way in excess of FR. An added and important factor is the admin fee. Using the FR Cash Passport you don't have to pay the extra £12. Before that you could use one of the easily bought Mastercard Cash cards. EI only offers the unobtainable Visa Electron as an alternative so you can add £12 onto the fare for every return flight. How they have managed to get away with that for so long I don't know.
It goes both ways, but I'm obviously referring to fares which now have to include those 'hidden charges' anyway, so your point is irrelevant.
Originally Posted by EI-EIDW
It would a massive one. You will be paying much more to get to the costa than now. Everytime I have checked EI prices in summer with baggage and all EI have being cheeper and FR "claim" to be a loco.
FR are ripping passengers from Ireland off and people don't realise. All you need to do is compare prices from the UK. We pay almost double to get to AGP than passengers in the UK becasue they have MON,LS,EZY to keep FR at bay and the UK of APD of £24.
For a date in July next year EI are €55 cheeper than FR for a 1 adult DUB-AGP + bag. Its also false advertising on FR's behalf.
I could pick out an example of Ryanair being €200 cheaper - what does that tell you? Nothing.
My own firm view (having previously been against it) is that Ryanair should be allowed takeover Aer Lingus as it would provide them with the capital they need to expand, which they can't obtain now. Ryanair has also raised the prospect of using it's own network as a feeder for Aer Lingus long-haul through Dublin, which it would only have access to in a Ryanair takeover. A Ryanair-Aer Lingus Group would also have a much more strengtened bargaining power to negotiate down the cost of airport charges and other costs than Aer Lingus has now on it's own.
I am sceptical of what it would do to competition, but then it's not like we have real competition now anyway. And then there's the question over whether it'd lead to Aer Lingus staff striking over new pay & conditions, what would happen to the Aer Lingus Regional franchise etc. But looking at the bigger picture, Aer Lingus need an investor, and tbh I'd rather they be part of a large Irish airline group than taken over by Etihad who will end up calling the shots from the sidelines like they are now with Air Berlin.