Aer Lingus plans to drop its service to London's Stansted airport and begin a new route between Dublin and Gatwick. The move, part of the company's quest for business and high-end leisure passengers, effectively hands Ryanair a clear run on the route. Aer Lingus stressed yesterday that while its focus was no longer on the tourist market, extra capacity on its planes would release more cheap seats.
The company said that from January it would stop its six flights a day to Stansted, offering three flights to Gatwick instead. The airline said it had already booked more than 5,000 passengers its new route to London City airport, where it is offering four flights a day.
Ryanair responded to the announcement by promising to add four new flights between Dublin and Stansted from January, characterising the Aer Lingus move as one which would push fares at the State-owned airline.
Aer Lingus' chief executive, Mr Garry Cullen, said the company had carried out a strategic review of its London operations, and had carried out detailed surveys of its passengers.
"At the core of the new strategy is a customer-driven plan with a clear business focus which is set against the background of a growing marketplace and future alliance-driven strategies," Mr Cullen added.
The airline's executive vice president for London and Europe, Mr Seamus Kearney, said the Gatwick route had a "better mix" of passengers than Stansted, and offered far greater potential for both onward connections and cargo. British Airways, with which Air Lingus is set to form an alliance, uses Gatwick as its main terminal for many long-haul destinations, mostly in Africa and South America.
Depending on the availability of slots at Gatwick, Aer Lingus planned to increase the number of flights in and out of Gatwick, Mr Kearney added. "We want to get to six daily as quickly as possible."
Although Mr Kearney said the average yield per passenger on the Gatwick route would be "significantly higher" than on the Stansted route, he denied that the airline was abandoning economy passengers. As it grew the London routes, he added, customers would benefit from extra seats at lower prices.
Aer Lingus said it had been gaining market share on all of its London routes, including Stansted, he added.
Mr Cullen admitted that the latest move was a further refining of Aer Lingus' focus on business and high-end leisure travellers, but said the connection to British Airways flights at Gatwick would encourage more visitors to Ireland from overseas.
The alliance with the British Airways and American Airlines-dominated Oneworld group could be completed by spring, and would definitely be in place by autumn, Mr Cullen said.
Ryanair's chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary said the Aer Lingus move inevitably meant higher fares on the Dublin-London route "as part of the alliance strategy.
"Alliances are about constraining capacity and tweaking up fares. You get all this corporate guff about customer focus and aligning schedules, but really they are saying, look, you are going to pay more," Mr O'Leary added.
Ryanair would add four more flights a day in and out of Stansted, he said, and would not be surprised to see British Airways' low-cost subsidiary, Go, file for Dublin routes from January. Go is not part of the Oneworld alliance.
Analysts said last night the Aer Lingus move should be seen primarily as preparation for the company's membership of the Oneworld alliance.
"Make no mistake about it, alliances are all about achieving a greater degree of market dominance. . . as to what benefit they bring to the consumer, well, the jury is very much out on that," said Mr Phillip Molloy of ABN Amro.
Aer Lingus said it would announce new routes to the European continent in the next couple of weeks. The airline also plans to offer a service to Gatwick from Cork and Shannon in 2001.
