Ryanair to buy Aer Lingus

Horray for the free market!!!

Ryanair wants Aer Lingus majority

No surprise really.

This the RyanAir with the reputation for really treating their workers like shit.
Might not be such good news for Aer Lingus staff.

And as for "free market", that'll mean less competition on planes to and from Ireland then.

@ Monkstown
Aer Lingus staff stand to benefit to the tune of $200m... IRish government by 500m , not bad I'd say. Less competition ? Uhh when Aer Lingus had a monopoly on flights to London it was 350 euro return.

Doesn't this mean they'll basically have a monopoly on many Ireland routes again? How will this keep prices down?

better than the airline going bust and everyone losing their jobs, don't you think?

Ahh so Ryan Air buys into Heathrow routes as well...

Whoever says I'm in favour of a return to the days when there was a national carrier monopoly?

Right now though Aer Lingus and Ryanair are in competition so when they are one, there will be less capacity and less competitive preassure to hold fares down.

I wonder how much Aer Lingus staff will be happy when they realise that the likes of Ryanair pay some of their staff REALLY shitty wages.
I can go and find a link if you like.

Interesting to see what Ryanair does with the slots they'll gain at London Heathrow...Transatlantic? Sell 'em to Branson?

@ pootle
yup transatlantic 2 - first we take manhattan...

Deal won't happen. You heard it here first.

it is certainly far from certain. Ryanair only hold 16%, the Irish government about 28%.

Yeh the Fianna Failers absolutely loathe Ryanair - lot of begrudgery there.

I suppose it is possible for Ryanair to buy a controlling stake off the market but it would be far easier if they could buy the government share-holding.

That'll happen when hell freezes over...or is there something you know about B.A. that hasn't come out yet ?

If BA own shares in Aer Lingus they'll be giving up none of them to keep Ryanair out of Thiefrow innit.

Still, having Ryanair operate out of Munich too would certainly shake up easyJet. Their fares out of Munich are a scandal compared to other routes they operate. easyJet a cheap airline? My arse.

It's the Munich landing fees innit.

Yeah, as i understand this, Munich has the highest landing fees for all airlines than any other Airport in Germany. Its these Baverian snobs.

... to have Ryanair as the Irish flag carrier, god help us! if it went ahead, they'd probably end up terminating the Munich route; O'Leary has mouthed off about Munich a few times in the past, Munich airport fees are just too prohibitive for the Ryanair business model. as for Heathrow slots, I could imagine Ryanair putting these to good use with a few a380s full to capacity and shuttling passengers across the atlantic at no-frills prices with a no-frills service & attitude to match. I hope a buyout doesn't go ahead and i doubt it will ... aer lingus has fought hard to survice since 9/11 and it would be a shame to see them eaten up by the likes of Ryanair.

The Board of Aer Lingus has just rejected Ryainair's bid - bbc news article but Ryanair could still attempt a 51% acquisition of the airline. That could now be difficult given the rumour that a certain Middle Eastern company (Emirates ??) has been trading heavily for Aer Lingus shares this afternoon ... this comes just a few days after reports that Emirates made a bid for British Airways in an effort to get hold of valuable LHR slots and transatlantic routes. Looks like turbulent times ahead for Aer Lingus ...

Aer Lingus is pretty cheap anyhow I'ld say... € 26,-- plus taxes and fees -> around € 75-80,-- isn't that bad, is it (still remember paying about 500,-- DM for some "special offers" years ago!!!)? From Düsseldorf or Berlin the flights are even cheaper and I'ld rather fly Aer Lingus than Riotair.

Still pay that to fly to British regional airports from Munich.

yep, Aer Lingus represents good value for money .. not as tatty as Ryanair and not as pricey as BA. would like to see it stay that way.
by the way, the Aer Lingus sale ends tonight ... flights from Munich to Dublin from €13 + taxes etc. .. thats a return flight for less than €90 !!

Ryanair have uped the ante - today it has increased its stake in Aer Lingus to 19.2% after buying another 16.5 million shares. (RTE news article)
...a serious takeover attempt or another Ryanair PR stunt ??

as far as i know BA don't hold shares in Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus is, however, still part of the oneworld alliance although they did state in may that they intended to withdraw.

aer lingus are set to leave oneworld on 1st april 2007.
as for ba owning shares in aer lingus, we don't really know who the current shareholders are, other than the irish government, aer lingus staff and of course ryanair! it would make sense for ba to have some leverage in aer lingus when it comes to controling valuable LHR slots.

except i doubt the Irish government would be any more to have BA as a shareholder than Ryanair. oh and i think shareholders with more than 5% of total stock need to declare this .

Ryanair only today publicised the fact that it had a 16% shareholding and it's unclear as to whether it obtained this from the IPO or from buying on the stock market. it's also not clear who the other aer lingus shareholders are (other than irish government & aer lingus staff).
... does anyone have any leads or know what, if any, obligations shareholders have to declare shares beyond a certain limit?

Aer Lingus is quoted on the LSE so therefore has to follow LSE rules on declaring major shareholdings. I thought the limit was 5% before the stock exchange had to be informed but maybe I was wrong. Of course, Ryanair might have been under the magic limit until recently and just managed to secure the purchases to make 16%

edit: ok just checked and it seems the limit is 3% but the declaration has to be made to the target company, in this case Aer Lingus, and not the stock exchange. A further declaration has to be made for each full 1% of shares purchased. Once a company owns 30% or more of the voting rights it is required to make a bid for the remaining shares but this is where it gets complicated.

Sorry you fell for that one OG

B.A. = Bertie Ahern

cheers for the info ... so, we're in the dark as to who the other shareholders are, only aer lingus knows. let's see what ryanair get up to today. according to The Daily Telegraph, they have about £2 billion in the bank, so they could easily go on another spending spree today ...

Where did that old crook, I mean loveable charachter, get the money to be a major shareholder in Aer Lingus?

No darkness on the owners of the shares
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer...5145-qqqx=1.asp

- "The future of Aer Lingus, though, will be decided by investors who bought in at the flotation last week. Before Ryanair entered the market, institutional investors owned 40.3% of Aer Lingus and small shareholders account for 11% of the shares"

Kick some ass Michael.

looks like it's Ryanair investors who are against an aer lingus takeover ... it seems a takeover is now less likely to happen.
Guardian : Ryanair investors rebel against Aer Lingus bid

Cept that Ryanair shares are up 13% since the bid ...

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/sto...&issue_id=14742

Some choice quotes:

I'll slash not trim, says O'Leary

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Independent, Mr O'Leary railed against outmoded work practices and said Aer Lingus staff would have to work much harder for their wages.

"There will be none of this sitting around on their hands," he warned.
"Aer Lingus costs are still twice Ryanair's costs and their fares are more than twice Ryanair's fares.

"There is schizophrenia in the Aer Lingus model and we would make that schizophrenia even more defined by significantly lowering the short-haul fares and by significantly improving the long-haul product and service.

"Let's face it, that wouldn't be too difficult."

O'Leary denied that the takeover will lead to a merger of the two airlines.

"Aer Lingus will continue to operate as a separate company. Look at Aer Lingus's short-haul product in the last two or three years.

"It is basically the same as Ryanair, except twice the price," he said.

I have to say, that I am totally with the French on this one (agreeing with the French is a first for me!!)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...e#StartComments

Sounds like snobbery to me, however I see their point..

So he's out to mnake his profits on the backs of the workers, quèl surprise.
You know the staff (who are often away from home) are even forbidden to charge phones at work.

I'm not sure I want my safety at 30 000 feet in the hands of someone on a EUR 7.50 an hour to be honest

@ MT
Hardly
had a convo with a Ryanair pilot in Charleroi back in about 2002 - they make MORE than the Aer Lingus , equivalent , just that they work longer hours and they get paid to work , not to fart around.

I'll go for a wee look on Ryanair employment practices later maybe, too busy now.

Ryanair in today's Irish independent (have to register to read it) will shortly announce 20 new routes out of Dublin - hopefully one of em is Munich - Aer Lingus dramatically announces job cuts in response to dry to drive down fares - lookin good for competiveness

Ryanair have been voted the worlds least favourite airline: Guardian - Ryanair

I can't beleive Heathrow is the least favourite airport. Have no reviewers been to Charles de Gaulle. Surely Heathrow only deserves second place?

Never been to LaGuardia or Philadelphia then I take it

Also USAir and Iberia vs Ryanair - absolutely no f'n contest

Couldn't agree more. CDG is the pits. Have been to LaGuardia, and didn't find it that bad, really.
I can only think that the poll was taken around the time of the recent security scare, and the votes for Heathrow were driven by frustration with all the delays and restrictions.

Quite agree..

@ Phili, you land at one side of the airport and your connecting flight is usually 3 teminals away.. with no fecking direction signs...

Cnuts!

Brussels takes some beating as a shithole with no facilities Makes the holiday airports in the Balearics and Greece look reasonable.

actually no, i've got it now -

Moscow or Bermuda (well I've only been to Bermuda but my two Irish buds were ripped off sumthin shockin there) - Bermuda's immigration is such a laugh

CDG is shit tho , although yes Heathrow is also (but less so) , would still put both of these a long way ahead of both LaGuardia and Philidephia - shite air con , shite customer service , shite information desk , shite rental car pickup , exceedingly good at losing my bags (both trips) - reminds me of that line from Father Ted "You'd better get going, because milk gets sour. Unless it's UHT milk, but there's no demand for that. Because it's shite"

Before I stop now - a worthy mention needs to go out to Warsaw airport - wherein this summer for 2 hours the ENTIRE airport's electricity failed - so no lights or flushin water in the lavs - absolutely freaking hilarious, come to think of it Bangkok was kinda shite too

doubt it, munich is way too expensive for ryanair. o'leary has slamed munich in the past for the fees it charges. interesting to see what the 20 new routes are !!

A bit off topic but FlyNordic used to offer nice cheap flights from Muc-Stockholm and will be stopping this service from tomorrow, apparantly it was'nt worth it anymore.

the funny thing is there is even a Ryanair sign in the car rental zone outside Munich airport - Fridrichshafen is a long way down the road, I can see M'OL doin sumthin about it before too long.