Irish govt backs off on new SNN stopover deal

[akerosid]

Today's Irish indo reports that the Irish govt has backed off on plans to change the SNN stopover policy to allow more US flights for EI. With advisers being appointed on the privatisation deal, this additional news can hardly be welcome for the new EI CEO, Dermot Mannion, who starts on Monday.

It's particularly galling, given that the minister has already said that the govt has leeway to make minor changes to the deal. Furthermore, if the govt is being completely stopped from doing anything, are they taking any legal action to force change; the EU decision to deny Ireland the power to renegotiate can be looked at an attempt by the EU to reinforce a competitive disadvantage.

The government now seems to believe that the new EU/US bilateral will somehow allow a phased approach to the withdrawal of the stopover. No, it won't; it's a BIG BANG approach and there's nothing the Irish govt can do; the danger is of course that they will try to force EI to maintain a certain level of service on t/a routes.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=184&si=1446141&issue_id=12835

It's all looking rather grim and indeed, the Irish Times follows the grim note; the Taoiseach is said to be less than completely supportive of the whole privatisation issue, especially with the timing likely to come close to the date for the next election. DM needs time to build up a new management team and establish a pedigree, but with new growth options limited, that's going to be difficult to achieve.

[Tom the Tenor]

The whole snn thing is, unfortunately, built into the Irish psyche. As any respectable Corkonian would do I have been talking to any pals or aquaintance that are thinking about going to New York before Christmas for shopping etc and telling them about the Slatterys backed twice weekly Ryan International 757 service from ORK-JFK.

They are all enthusiastic at first and say how great it would be to fly directly from Cork. However, when you follow up later many of those travelling end up booking from snn eventhough there is less than 5 euros in the price. Of course, snn has the frequencies that Cork does not but more to the point snn still has the same unfair, unjust and shambolic competitive advantage it has always had to date due to the stink that is the stopover.

Mind you, weak airport managements at Cork and Dublin are all a part of this game too. Airport managements have been happy in their weakness and ignorance with the stopover issue as well as with so many other matters.

Let us not kid ourselves, the DAA and the CAA are still very close indeed to being the old Aer Rianta gang and continue to be the same happy airport family enjoying the unique airport way of life we have come used to witnessing at state airports in Ireland.

Also, families look after each other and the Aer Rianta gang were not too bothered by the snn stopover etc and neither by all the thousands and thousands of pax diverted from Cork to snn in low visibility down the years.

Like what the St Vincent de Paul ad at Christmas time says snn has always been in receipt of a hand up if not a hand out from Dublin Airport and especially Cork Airport with her tens of thousands of diverted passengers giving a nice boost to the overall passenger numbers at snn over the last forty years.

The stopover stinks and is going a long way to destroy huge new potential in longhaul westbound air transport between Ireland, the United States and Canada.