Aer Lingus' loss is British Airways gain

[crosswind]

Willie Walsh is to take up the chief executive post in British Airways. The lack of decision on the future of Aer Lingus has meant that the manager that should have been continuing the trasformation of the airline will now be running the british giant. A decision on the future of the Aer Lingus is not now expected until after Easter which isn't worth much as a deadline given the comments previously to have a decision by christmas, end of january etc. It'll be interesting to see if british airways goes low cost on short hall routes with the new top person.

[jjcarroll]

Willie Walsh is to take up the chief executive post in British Airways. The lack of decision on the future of Aer Lingus has meant that the manager that should have been continuing the trasformation of the airline will now be running the british giant. A decision on the future of the Aer Lingus is not now expected until after Easter which isn't worth much as a deadline given the comments previously to have a decision by christmas, end of january etc. It'll be interesting to see if british airways goes low cost on short hall routes with the new top person.

Fair play to him. Great to see two Irishmen at the top of the field in the airtransport industry.

[watch-this-drive]

Willie Walsh is to take up the chief executive post in British Airways. The lack of decision on the future of Aer Lingus has meant that the manager that should have been continuing the trasformation of the airline will now be running the british giant. A decision on the future of the Aer Lingus is not now expected until after Easter which isn't worth much as a deadline given the comments previously to have a decision by christmas, end of january etc. It'll be interesting to see if british airways goes low cost on short hall routes with the new top person.

Could be a good time to buy BA stock - Im sure cynical Bitish investors dont see his significance as CEO and its underpriced

[Badnarik_Eire]

This may have been answered before but can anyone give me a reason not to privatise Aer Lingus?

[watch-this-drive]

This may have been answered before but can anyone give me a reason not to privatise Aer Lingus?

Votes/Eircom, otherwise no, I think it should be privatised but Aer Rianta is an even better case. It is mad that Aer Rianta hasnt been privatised.

[Badnarik_Eire]

As far as I know Aer Lingus (may be wrong) and many other semi-states were set up because the private sector would not touch Ireland.

There seems to be no reason to keep it public.

[Conor]

This may have been answered before but can anyone give me a reason not to privatise Aer Lingus?

It's a nice little earner. Why would the state want to divest itself of a profit-yielding asset?

Can you give a reason why it should be privatised?

[Badnarik_Eire]

Do we keep the money from the profits?

Well I presume that like all companies, it will need investment now and then, apparently it needs new jets, so some have sugested taking a billion from the budget and paying for it, and since the state owns it that is not an unreasonable sugesting.

But that billion will come at the expense of other things, if it was private the investment would cost those other areas nothing.

[watch-this-drive]

This may have been answered before but can anyone give me a reason not to privatise Aer Lingus?

It's a nice little earner. Why would the state want to divest itself of a profit-yielding asset?

Can you give a reason why it should be privatised?

I dont think our government should not be in the Airline or Airport business, they would be run better by the concerned investors.
Small government good, big government bad.

[Badnarik_Eire]

Well more like focused government good, big clumsy government bad.