Originally Posted by Angry Rebel
@dublinaviator - EI cannot terminate the franchise agreement at any time. No airline (RE or anyone else) would enter such a deal as it gives them no certainty, particularly having given up on their own brand and hitched it completely to EI.
Nonsense, business models change all the time. Aer Lingus would be stupid to not have a back-out clause in the agreement. So long as sufficient notice is given, I don't see any reason why there'd be an issue with such a clause. At the end of the day, Aer Arann would be bust if not for the lifeline thrown to them by Aer Lingus, so it's not as if they're in a position to bargain...
As for no airline entering such an agreement, I refer back to my original post where I mentioned the example of Lufthansa recently ending it's own franchise contracts, which resulted in at least 1 airline going into liquidation and hundreds of jobs being lost So it can and does happen.