Following on from Leo's deft skills of cutting and pasting. There's more to this than meets the eye.

AER LINGUS has parted company with its chief financial officer and head of short-haul operations Seán Coyle, who was headhunted from Ryanair just 16 months ago.

It is understood Mr Coyle had disagreed with Aer Lingus’s new chief executive Christoph Mueller on the future strategic direction of the airline.

Aer Lingus said Mr Coyle would leave by “mutual agreement” at the end of December to “pursue other interests”.

Mr Coyle has also resigned from the board of Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus said it had begun a search to appoint a new CFO “in due course”.

In a statement Mr Coyle said: “I would like to thank the board and my colleagues for their assistance and support during my time with the company and I would like to wish Aer Lingus every success in the future.”

The new CFO will be the fourth person to fill this role since 2005, following in the footsteps of Brian Dunne, Greg O’Sullivan and Mr Coyle.

It is understood that Mr Mueller, who took the reins in September, wants to reshape the Aer Lingus business model to include more alliances and joint ventures with other carriers.

He is believed to have given the green light to plans for a transatlantic alliance with United Airlines to fly from Washington DC to Madrid.

There has also been speculation that Aer Lingus might rejoin the OneWorld airline alliance.

Mr Coyle is believed to have wanted to continue the process of making Aer Lingus a low-cost, point-to-point, short-haul carrier, using a model similar to that of Ryanair. Mr Coyle, who is 36, was headhunted in August 2008 by then Aer Lingus chief Dermot Mannion, who himself left the airline earlier this year.

He was the first Ryanair executive to defect to the former State-owned airline.

Mr Coyle, a qualified chartered accountant, was director of scheduled revenue at Ryanair. He had joined Ryanair in 1998, serving initially as a personal assistant to CEO Michael O’Leary.

Mr Coyle had been touted by many analysts as a potential future CEO of Aer Lingus.

In a note to clients yesterday, Bloxham aviation analyst said: “To say this is a surprising development would be something of an understatement. There is no indication that he is joining another company at present.”

Bloxhams must have their heads firmly embedded in some dark place. The dogs in the Aer Lingus Street have been waiting for this for the past two months. The board eventually found it impossible to ignore the amount of "confidential" information at MOL's disposal. And to describe him as No. 2 at Aer Lingus is a bit of a stretch. He was No. 2 in scatological order only.

So Herr Mueller is apparently giving a green light to a service detailed and agreed last January with fares on sale for a considerable time :ugh::ugh:

United, Aer Lingus boost trans-Atlantic pact - USATODAY.com

My friend works in Ryanair head office and she was in the office the day he handed in his notice. MOL had him escorted out by security and he mad a big speech to all staff like his usual pomous vulgar self, asking if anyone else wanted to move to a mickey mouse airline.

If Coyle has been spying, as some here are suggesting, then it would seem MOL is quite the actor!

Its funny that so many EI people think getting rid of Coyle is great news because he worked previously for FR...................got a funny feeling that they will realise their mistake soon enough.

I aint EI but am against one single aviation authority holding court in ireland, being FR which is on the cards. If it happens so be it if there are no implications, likewise EI departing dublin as a base is not without foundation.

Have you a link to this article?

Here:
Coyle to leave airline after 16 months - The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 10, 2009

.....So, Leo, you're pretty adapt at the old cut and paste then............I dont suppose it was you who wrote Arstraeus' A320 Ops Manual by any chance??????:rolleyes:

(Sorry about the thread drift there....just couldnt resist!)

That Christophe Mueller was appointed as CEO of Sabena years ago, and we saw what happened. His comments today are the same he did in the past. He was probably paid to dismantle Sabena, and I wouldn't be surprised it's the same now with Air Lingus....

Is this the same mickey mouse airline the company he works for is desperate to get hold of? :hmm:

Expert in ruining every place he was. Müller was incapable of doing any of the CEO jobs he had. Sabena, Tuifly.... even working together with him at Lufty was a nightmare. Whoever decided to make him CEO at EI was either drunk or at drugs.

Your right there.
Job to job, to jobless, to bluffing his way into Aer Lingus.

Who in their right mind would hire him as CEO after looking at his history? Maybe he has a totally different CV?

that's a fantastic news for aer lingus, maybe the airline will finally survive!!!

Weihnachtsträume
 

Irish Times.

Connections are everything when it comes to business

NET RESULTS: Aer Lingus’s dropping of its two-year-old direct Dublin-San Francisco route has been more than just a frustration, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

IF YOU were looking for a location to set up your office in Ireland, what would influence that choice?

The majority of people would say location. For a small subset, “location” might be a beautiful, relaxing setting or a small village they love, all off the beaten track. But for most, a good business location means somewhere that is well connected – a reasonably easy commute, with good transport connections.

The same holds internationally. The more hops you have to a journey, the less attractive that journey becomes. Direct links make for easier flight connections, and a more attractive location for investment or to form relationships with partner companies.

It’s one thing if you are planning a holiday trip to, say, Vietnam or Kenya, which might involve two or three flights and some awkward connections. The unique nature of the holiday means you are likely to tolerate the tedium and inconvenience of the journey. But what if you had to make that journey many times a year for work? The route could quickly become exasperating.

That’s why Aer Lingus’s dropping of its two-year-old direct Dublin-San Francisco route has been more than just a frustration – it has caused alarm among many of those with interests in the technology sector. Yes, we do have a direct flight still to Boston, another tech centre, which has been important. I recall a conversation with one chief executive who told me the main reason he based his technology company in Boston years ago was the direct Dublin flight, and the lack of same to San Francisco or San José meant the company didn’t go there.

I know many feel Ireland benefited from having that brief, direct flight into San Francisco and saw it as a real selling point to form connections for foreign direct investment and to encourage Irish companies out to the Valley.

Since the flight ended, the topic has come up regularly as a frustration among entrepreneurs and those who work for the Irish operations of Silicon Valley-based companies.

Just before the flight closed indefinitely, I ran into the Enterprise Ireland Leadership 4 Growth group of chief executives heading for Stanford University, queuing to board the flight in Dublin airport. The ending of the route was a concern for many of them. On my return, I noted the Aer Lingus desk at San Francisco had posted a welcome sign for a group of Irish-American Valley chief executives – those desirable diaspora – coming across for an investment event.

Ironic, then, that just as we are trying to forge Valley connections for Ireland, it will become far more tedious to get back and forth. My most recent trip, via London, involved an exhausting journey in both directions and the loss of an entire work day on arrival due to poor midday Dublin connections from Heathrow.

Okay, so you get a bit tired, you say, but does a little personal inconvenience really matter? In the giant scheme of things, of course it is merely an annoyance. But the loss of our direct link to Silicon Valley is worrying at a time when most of the smart-economy impetus and so many of our big multinational tech-sector employers come out of this region.

When I recently interviewed serial internet entrepreneur Ray Nolan, whose Web Reservations International, parent company of Hostelworld.com, had just been sold for in excess of €200 million, he felt the loss of the flight was a big negative at the time when the State is trying to encourage techsector investment and creativity.

He thought it would narrow opportunities because it adds a layer of hassle, and is of the opinion that Irish technology start-ups need to be looking at Silicon Valley as a destination and learning centre.

Google’s director of finance and business intelligence, David Martin, raised the issue during a recent Leviathan public debate at TCD’s Science Gallery. I missed the event but rang him to get his perspective.

“It’s great that we’re all committed to building out a strong economy, but we need linkages,” he says. “The lack of a direct flight really hampers that development. Obviously, having it helps foster more interaction and it acts as a catalyst for meeting up with people.”

For companies such as Google, a direct flight makes it far easier for senior people within the company to get to Ireland, which can help spur further expansion or prompt investment in the first place. Yes, Google set up in Ireland before there was such a flight, he says, and it clearly isn’t critical. But such links help.

“The reality is that a lot of smart-economy companies are based on the west coast of the US,” he says. A direct flight “is an enabler, and could be an important enabler”.

Many in the business community will be waiting with fingers crossed when Aer Lingus announces its spring schedule and will pray the direct flight returns – or that another airline picks up the slot, perhaps when Terminal 2 opens with US passport clearance.

Here’s hoping.

Don't feed the Camel.

Leo,

That's great news.

When are Lufthansa starting DUB-SFO?

Much love,

Stan x

They already run the service, Stan, via FRA and MUC.

Get it?