Aer Lingus has rejected Ryanair's request to convene an extraordinary general meeting (egm) of the company to seek a reversal of its decision to drop the Shannon-Heathrow route, writes Ciarán Hancock, Business Affairs Correspondent
Aer Lingus said it considered the resolutions to be in breach of Irish and EU competition law and conveyed this to Ryanair through a letter yesterday evening. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said he had yet to receive the letter.
"I've not yet received a response to our request for an egm so I'm not able to comment on what our response will be," Mr O'Leary told The Irish Times. It is understood, however, that Ryanair believes it is now entitled by law to proceed itself with convening an egm of Aer Lingus shareholders.
Ryanair made its request for an egm on August 13th, proposing two ordinary resolutions.
The first stated that Aer Lingus should "preserve and maintain" its profitable Shannon to Heathrow route. The second stated Aer Lingus's management should consider allocating some of its other Heathrow slots to Belfast or consider operating the route to London-Gatwick where it has secured daily slots for a route from Dublin that is due to begin flying in October.
Aer Lingus said Ryanair's request constituted an attempt to collude with and exert influence over the company in respect of its commercial strategy on the routes affected.
"The proposed resolutions are clearly self-serving on the part of Ryanair and are motivated by their own commercial self-interests," said Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman.
"We [the Aer Lingus board] have received legal advice that we would be in breach of our fiduciary duties and, potentially, guilty of an offence under the Competition Act if we convened the egm for the purpose of considering the resolutions proposed," Mr Sharman said.
Ryanair owns 29.4 per cent of Aer Lingus, making it the airline's largest shareholder.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus management and representatives of its pilots are to hold high level talks next week in a bid to resolve the row over the airline's plans to establish a new base in Belfast. Talks at the Labour Relations Commission were adjourned yesterday without agreement.