Madam, - As a person who spent 15 years in the 1950s and 1960s in London persuading the British travel industry that the Irish could not only run an airline but could run a damn good one, and much later in the 1990s, as a consultant working with the EU helping applicant countries from Eastern Europe to raise their civil aviation industries to EU standards, may I ask a question regarding Irish Civil Aviation policy?
That question is - and it really is a very serious question - does Ireland need two "no frills" airlines but no major full-service one?
We already have one of the largest "low-cost" airlines in Europe. This caters for the large and growing number of people who just want to go from A to B at the cheapest possible fare, who don't worry too much if the airport served is a long way from their destination or about being stranded when things go wrong. This is a large market segment formerly catered for by charter flights or by boat and rail/bus.
But what about the rest of the air transport market? Let me outline some of it:
1. Up-market passengers who are prepared to pay for exclusive accommodation, short-notice availability and the meal and/or gin and tonic that helps to combat stress.
2. People with disabilities or who may not be sufficiently "computer literate" to search for the bargains.
3. Connecting passengers, both online and offline who are not catered for by the point-to-point carriers.
4. Long-haul passengers.
5. Cargo and mail (and this includes human remains).
Can we trust foreign airlines to cater for all this? Do we want to?
Let's face it: the "semi-State" airline will never match the ruthless cost cutting of the now well-established and union-free competition. Look at the precedents. What happened to Go, the British Airways low-cost offshoot, and Buzz the KLM one? They got gobbled up by competitors which promptly closed them down. Do we want this to happen to Aer Lingus? Have we learned from the Eircom fiasco?
The present policy can work for a while. But when profit replaces service as the goal, the airline becomes very vulnerable. I can foresee a further sale in which the then owners and top management become very rich overnight but a major part of our Irish heritage disappears. I hope either that this will not be allowed to happen or that I will not survive to see it. - Yours, etc.,
W.J. MURPHY, Malahide, Co Dublin.