Members of the public should be allowed to invest in Aer Lingus if the company floats on the stock exchange next year, the airline's chairman has said.
John Sharman said the decision was ultimately one for the Government, but he could see no reason why the public and Aer Lingus passengers should not be allowed to participate.
"Giving our customers an opportunity to invest in the airline is something I would support," he said.
Asked should the public be allowed to take part, alongside institutional investors, he replied: "Absolutely."
He was speaking at the "Airline of the Year" awards in Dublin yesterday. Aer Lingus won the main award.
Market sources up to now had believed any Aer Lingus flotation would not be open to retail investors, but Mr Sharman's comments could put pressure on Minister for Transport Martin Cullen to find a mechanism to open the float to retail investors. Yesterday the Minister was coy on the subject.
Asked by reporters whether he agreed with Mr Sharman's remarks, he said his department was in the middle of an important tendering process and he was not going to make any comment.
The department is sifting through applications from 14 consortiums and companies for the contract to advise the Government on the sale of Aer Lingus.
Whichever group is selected will also execute the sale on behalf of the Government.
Mr Sharman also rejected a weekend report which suggested that Aer Lingus would have to pay more for its new aircraft because it failed to put in an order several months ago.
"The price has not changed," claimed Mr Sharman. He said the suggestion that Aer Lingus would have to pay hundreds of millions of extra euro because of delays in ordering was "wholly erroneous".
Tadhg Kearney, chairman of the Air Transport Users Council, a branch of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, said yesterday he believed Aer Lingus had incurred additional costs by leaving its long-haul order until now. He claimed the airline could have lost as much as €300 million because of all the delays.
He said the price of new aircraft had increased by 20 per cent over the last year. He said delays in making a decision on the long-haul fleet could even have cost Aer Lingus three years of profits.
Mr Sharman said four companies - Boeing, Airbus, Rolls Royce, General Electric - were in discussions with Aer Lingus on new aircraft.
He said there was a considerable interest from all four and they regarded Aer Lingus as a "bit of a touchstone".
He said Rolls Royce and General Electric were interested in selling engines for the long-haul aircraft.
Mr Sharman declined to say how many long-haul aircraft were needed, simply saying "it will not be less than seven".
He said a review of its long-haul routes was continuing and this review was closely tied into plans for renewing the long-haul fleet.
At present Aer Lingus has just seven A330 aircraft with engines from General Electric.