Aer Lingus Sale?

[propburner]

Will a Aer Lingus sale effect Aer Arann and will there be a need for Aer Lingus Regional? If buyer see no room for a regional as part of buying Aer Lingus then Arann in trouble.

[Airbus321-200]

The contract between RE and EI will still stand. The buyer just might not renew the contract. I think the intial contract was for 3 years. If the contract does end then i agree, RE would be in real trouble. But it seems to be working very well so far so i see it continuing.

[speedbird_481_papa]

Extremely well. At the airport where I work most of our flights are at least a 3rd full with 3 EI Regional flights a day to DUB it works very well. The onwards connections that are offered on our morning Dublin are increasingly popular as well, with great destinations to the US.

I really hope that the sale of Aer Fungus will not affect the franchise agreement with Aer Arann. If it does, then I really think that it will spell the end of RE.

EI have saved them [RE] from the brink of bankruptcy really and ending it now would end EIs planned expansion into regional airports without the need to actually expand.

So I really hope that things will work out for the better for everyone. RE is a great company and it would be a great shame to see them go :{

[Cyrano]

Extremely well. At the airport where I work most of our flights are at least a 3rd full.

Tell me I'm misunderstanding you, please. You're saying that the load factors are at least 33% :ooh: and that this constitutes "working extremely well"?

[propburner]

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?:hmm:

[Lord Lardy]

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.

[Shamrock350]

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.

[peacock1]

Sale of gov't stake not now likely.
2,000,000,000 euro to be raised by a partial sale of the ESB.
That is the amount required under the EU/IMF deal.
Further sale of State assets not necessary.:cool:

[vkid]

Methinks you are dreaming Peacock

State to proceed with plan to sell its 25% share in Aer Lingus - The Irish Times - Thu, Sep 15, 2011 (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/0915/1224304143716.html)

Also were the EU/IMF not talkiing about raising 5bn through sales of state assets last week rather than the 2bn originally planned? They also havent decided how much of the ESB to sell so its impossible to say it will raise X amount until that % is known?

[dublinaviator]

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.

The government want to sell their 25% stake, but Ryanair have also said they may well sell their 29% stake too if the price is right. So its a given that with that scenario, any potential buyer would have eyes on a takeover.

Sale of gov't stake not now likely.
2,000,000,000 euro to be raised by a partial sale of the ESB.
That is the amount required under the EU/IMF deal.
Further sale of State assets not necessary.http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/cool.gif

You'd wanna tell the government that, because they seem to think its still for sale and according to Leo Varadkar they've been approached by a few airlines about buying their stake.

Also the government need to raise €2 billion in total from the sale of state assets. They won't get that from selling part of the ESB alone.

[LD12986]

IAG has ruled out a bid for Aer Lingus:

m.guardian.co.uk (http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/ses8qCbfVhUObFSBSO7JFHQ/view.m?id=15&gid=business/2011/sep/16/willie-walsh-rules-out-aer-lingus-iag&cat=business)