CityJet heading towards SNN?

[BestWestern]

Interesting article on yesterdays Independent regarding AirFrance CityJet's review of the shannon region.

http://www.independent.ie/business/iris ... 16678.html

Its now time for the Atlantic Connectivity alliance to get behind them, and forget AerLingus.

" he stressed that CityJet would feel more confident launching the flights if local interests in Shannon seemed open to using a hub other than Heathrow. "

"What we're saying is that what's important isn't Heathrow, what's important is access to the rest of the globe -- it doesn't matter whether you get that from Charles de Gaulle, or Schipol, or any of the other big hubs," he said.

BMI was initially reluctant to take on a route that had been abandoned by Ireland's former national carrier.

It is understood that the situation was not helped when Shannon lobby group the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance (ACA) said it would continue to pursue Aer Lingus even if BMI launched new Heathrow flights.

[Keith-M]

Interesting article on yesterdays Independent regarding AirFrance CityJet's review of the shannon region.
"What we're saying is that what's important isn't Heathrow, what's important is access to the rest of the globe -- it doesn't matter whether you get that from Charles de Gaulle, or Schipol, or any of the other big hubs," he said.
It is understood that the situation was not helped when Shannon lobby group the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance (ACA) said it would continue to pursue Aer Lingus even if BMI launched new Heathrow flights.[/i]

BMI/Air France are totally correct. Actually it would be better if the new service used Paris or Amsterda and not Heathrow. Heathrow is a God awful place to tranit through and there are already flights between Shannon and other London airports.

CDG is a much beter transit airport, Schipol even better. Forget Aer Lingus, forget Heathrow.

[seabhcan]

How about Lufthansa to Frankfurt (the real Frankfurt, not Ryanair's Frankfurt) or Swiss to Zurich?

Or how about SAA renting a plane or two and flying a route themselves? Or have such practical solutions been excluded?

[KingKane]

It is a credit to the government that so many people appear to think that SAA are somehow independent. SAA, CAA are still part of the Dublin Airport Authority which is basically Aer Rianta under another name, the state has not set those airports free to do their own thing and it is not in the interests of the DAA to set up SAA or CAA as competitors but I guess the naunces are sufficiently beyond the casual viewing that most have afforded the issue.

[seabhcan]

It is a credit to the government that so many people appear to think that SAA are somehow independent. SAA, CAA are still part of the Dublin Airport Authority which is basically Aer Rianta under another name, the state has not set those airports free to do their own thing and it is not in the interests of the DAA to set up SAA or CAA as competitors but I guess the naunces are sufficiently beyond the casual viewing that most have afforded the issue.

Seriously? I thought they were independent already.

[Wolverine]

KingKane is correct - they are not independent yet.

They have their own boards but the DAA refuses to let them off the leash for whatever reason is best known to themselves.

[tunnel vision]

It is a credit to the government that so many people appear to think that SAA are somehow independent. SAA, CAA are still part of the Dublin Airport Authority which is basically Aer Rianta under another name, the state has not set those airports free to do their own thing and it is not in the interests of the DAA to set up SAA or CAA as competitors but I guess the naunces are sufficiently beyond the casual viewing that most have afforded the issue.

Shannon and Cork are not real competition to Dublin, Belfast City or Int. are, less than 100 miles on mostly motorway with at lot more connections. Every county that touches the Atlantic from Waterford to Donegal, except Leitrim have airports these are the competition for Cork and Shannon not Dublin.
When Brennan broke up Aer Rianta it was supposed to be completed in a year, subject to a few technicalities. Things like the directors of one company taking on the debts of another, something he did not realise was not allowed under company law for example, are the issues still to be resolved before the break up.
Why would a company whose assets at one location were at full capacity (Dublin) while its assets at another (Shannon) were totally underutilised not want to put business into the underutilised asset?

[The Earl of Desmond]

In other words the Irish public have yet again shown they are too thick to make the link between SAA and CAA and DAA etc and to make the link between the gombeens they elect ie O'Dea, Cullen and Brennan and Co and the policies they inflict.

[Schuhart]

KingKane is correct - they are not independent yet.

They have their own boards but the DAA refuses to let them off the leash for whatever reason is best known to themselves.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and, strange as it may seem, I do actually make an effort to be open to being corrected when I'm wrong) but the blockage was the SAA and CAA could not become fully independent until they were deemed financially sound. That involved sorting out Cork's debt on the one hand and Shannon's restructuring on the other.

So its not quite so much a case of the DAA refusing to let them off the leash (as it truly has no rational reason for holding on to them) and more a question of whether the resolution of those two issues means that the CAA and SAA are no longer financially dependent on DAA and actually have a viable independent future.

[The Earl of Desmond]

But then whats stopping SAA and CAA getting its finances in order? The DAA of course!