V-Flyer

Ryanair are planning a bid for Aer Lingus, claiming that the airline business has changed significantly since their last attempt.

BA's recent success with bmi should give FR encouragement, although EI isn't the basket case that BD were...

Please, dear Lord, don't let this happen. Don't let Ireland (and especially those in the south of the country who don't have the same choice of airlines as Dublin and Belfast) have to rely on Ryanair to get us to and from the UK. Please let us have the current few perks that we have left such assigned seating. Please don't let Ryanair be successful and then sell off the LHR slots so we don't have direct access to there. Please let the Competitions Commission veto this.

*Deepest of deep sighs*

They could create a new "flight to London", landing in Bristol....!

honey lamb wrote:Please, dear Lord, don't let this happen. .........

*Deepest of deep sighs*

My sentiments exactly HL

Also among the "perks" we currently enjoy, that FR would only relish in getting rid of include.......

A decent(ish) checked baggage allowance.

The increased baggage allowances that are passed on when travelling as part of a larger booking involving CW with BA or PE / UC with VS.

The interlining of baggage onto other carriers & through ticketing / check-in onto long haul flight.

The thought of not having those facilities available to us, just doesn't bear thinking about.

Not of course forgetting the (IMHO) truly excellent Premier/ Business Class service across the big pond. Can you just imagine what FR would do to that if they got their horrid little mitts on it :0

It is only in recent years that EI have regained some of their "spark" & have become much less of a LCC experience & more of a "Mid Service" carrier. I fear for the day, that we on this little green island of ours will have no decent option of getting to LHR. So much so, that I'm reminded of a comment I made to "Mrs Kered" a couple years back, during the last episode of FR bidding to buy out Aer Lingus, that sooner or later I can see a day coming where we'll be hopping on the ferry to Fishguard, driving to Heathrow & parking at T5 in order be able to fly onwards to our destination.

Like you HL I'm sighing the deepest of sighs at the thought of this

kered wrote:

honey lamb wrote:Please, dear Lord, don't let this happen. .........

*Deepest of deep sighs*

My sentiments exactly HL

Also among the "perks" we currently enjoy, that FR would only relish in getting rid of include.......

A decent(ish) checked baggage allowance.

The increased baggage allowances that are passed on when travelling as part of a larger booking involving CW with BA or PE / UC with VS.

The interlining of baggage onto other carriers & through ticketing / check-in onto long haul flight.

The thought of not having those facilities available to us, just doesn't bear thinking about.

Not of course forgetting the (IMHO) truly excellent Premier/ Business Class service across the big pond. Can you just imagine what FR would do to that if they got their horrid little mitts on it :0

It is only in recent years that EI have regained some of their "spark" & have become much less of a LCC experience & more of a "Mid Service" carrier. I fear for the day, that we on this little green island of ours will have no decent option of getting to LHR. So much so, that I'm reminded of a comment I made to "Mrs Kered" a couple years back, during the last episode of FR bidding to buy out Aer Lingus, that sooner or later I can see a day coming where we'll be hopping on the ferry to Fishguard, driving to Heathrow & parking at T5 in order be able to fly onwards to our destination.

Like you HL I'm sighing the deepest of sighs at the thought of this

*Even deeper of deepest sighs*

You are of course quite right, kered. I hadn't even considered the things like baggage allowance (totally forgetting my sister's meagre allowance when she flew NOC-LTN with Ryanair to meet up with me for the VS601) nor the through checking because I am usually on separate tickets but have sometimes managed to blag a through-check of bags. And I didn't even dare to consider the consequences for the USA routes!

What had incensed me this morning had been watching the repeat of last night's Vincent Browne program when this was discussed. One of our elected representatives had blithely said that there was a choice of flying alternatives such as bmi (!!!!! - where has she been in the last few weeks?) conveniently ignoring the fact that only Dublin and Belfast have had that choice in the past and for Cork and Shannon the only alternatives to get to London with Ryanair are STN and LGW. In addition another TD mentioned the LHR slots but it was obvious when questioned that he hadn't a clue of what he was talking about but vaguely remembered it being mentioned in a Dáil debate :0 And we trust them to make sure this doesn't happen? :0 :0 :0

Of course I have a vested interest also as my darling dotey-pet, known to everyone else as Aer John is just over 6 months into a three and a half year contract with Aer Lingus. Unfortunately he is on study leave so I have no inside information

honey lamb wrote:Of course I have a vested interest also as my darling dotey-pet, known to everyone else as Aer John is just over 6 months into a three and a half year contract with Aer Lingus. Unfortunately he is on study leave so I have no inside information

I'm sure that John is delighetd to know that his darling mothers pet name for him as just been publically outed !

tontybear wrote:

honey lamb wrote:Of course I have a vested interest also as my darling dotey-pet, known to everyone else as Aer John is just over 6 months into a three and a half year contract with Aer Lingus. Unfortunately he is on study leave so I have no inside information

I'm sure that John is delighetd to know that his darling mothers pet name for him as just been publically outed !

That's not my pet name for him, it's my description of him

If Ryanair do get Aer Lingus just don't fly with Ryanair. I don't

ken54 wrote:If Ryanair do get Aer Lingus just don't fly with Ryanair. I don't

Not so easy if there isn't an alternative carrier from your airport to your destination on your route.

ken54 wrote:If Ryanair do get Aer Lingus just don't fly with Ryanair. I don't

Sometimes we don't have any other option. How else am I going to get to the UK from Cork if it happens other than by ferry? It would take me longer to get to a ferry port than arriving at the airport in good time for the flight + the flight time + getting to my UK destination from the airport. And adding on the hours it would take me to get to LHR for an onward flight to some place like SFO .........! I don't think so.

In any case I have never had a bad flight with Ryanair. OK, I dislike all the add-ons that increase the fare and the meagre baggage allowance (but in any case I usually travel light) and simply close my ears to all the on-board marketing. It does what it says on the tin - gets me to where I want to go safely and usually on time.

I too have family in Ireland and go to Derry twice a year but not by ryanair but by ferry because of the way ryanair are run, rubbish

Ryan air recently pulled 31 routes from ALC my local airport after Aena refused to be blackmailed by them. This has put pressure of some of the routes with less availability but he general consensus was good riddance. Personally I would rather walk back to the UK than be treated soo appallingly as a passenger.

PaulS wrote:Ryan air recently pulled 31 routes from ALC my local airport after Aena refused to be blackmailed by them. This has put pressure of some of the routes with less availability but he general consensus was good riddance. Personally I would rather walk back to the UK than be treated soo appallingly as a passenger.

Ryanair's way of doing business is to change their services between airports, often dropping routes completely for a number of years. A few years ago they were the choice to get from East Midlands, Liverpool, Bristol and Stanstead to Budapest. Then due to a disagreement, nothing until (due to the death of Hungaries main airline) a lot of cheap slots opened back up, and now they are back to doing the route. They pruned their Manchester service back seriously in disputes over airport taxes.

So what you describe is quite common.

Just because Ryanair fly there today, there's certainly a chance they won't be flying there in 6 months time.

This dispute was over the use or air bridges which Ryan air refused to use. We have a brand new state of the art airport here in ALC but Ryan air would rather crate you in holding pen thn expose you to the heat before the 100 metre sprint across the apron. It really does give new meaning to the term cattle class

northernhenry wrote:They could create a new "flight to London", landing in Bristol....!

Already exists, immsmc!

There's an Air lingus flight to London Southend!

In fairness to 'London' Southend Aiport, you can be in London quicker than you can from 'London' Luton.. If you wanted the o2 or excel center behind City Airport that is also your quickest option.

woggledog wrote:

northernhenry wrote:They could create a new "flight to London", landing in Bristol....!

Already exists, immsmc!

There's an Air lingus flight to London Southend!

There is NO Air Lingus. It's Aer Lingus v(

The flights to Southend are from Dublin and Waterford by Aer Lingus Regional using Aer Arann TR72 aircraft