AER LINGUS yesterday confirmed that it will open a base at London’s Gatwick airport next April, as was revealed by The Irish Times on Friday. This will be the airline’s first base outside Ireland. It will launch seven new routes from Gatwick to Knock, Nice, Faro, Malaga, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. This is in addition to its existing service to Dublin.
The airline said 120 jobs would be created and the total investment would be about £100 million. It expects to deploy eight aircraft at Gatwick within 12 months and has projected to carry 2.5 million passengers by year two. Fares will start at €19.99.
Gatwick is London’s second busiest airport after Heathrow.
Separately, Michael O’Leary yesterday published the contents of a letter he sent to Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington seeking clarifications on items contained in Aer Lingus’s interim management statement, published on November 11th, and subsequent comments made by the airline following the publication of Ryanair’s offer.
Mr O’Leary detailed seven items for response. These included the cost of Aer Lingus’s recent cost containment deal with staff, the size of its pension deficit, the cost of advisers in defending Ryanair’s latest takeover offer, and the impact on profits of Aer Lingus’s recent decision to abolish its fuel surcharges.
