Sir, - Seamus McKenna's complaints against Aer Lingus practices on the Dublin/Brussels route are only the tip of the iceberg. I am a regular traveller to Brussels and fly exclusively with Ryanair, due to the outrageous behaviour of Aer Lingus, particularly on pricing.
Whenever I make a fare enquiry with Aer Lingus I am quoted anything from £350 to £600 for a return flight, whereas with Ryanair I have never paid more than £100 with as little as a day's notice. When a colleague of mine asked Aer Lingus to justify this huge price differential, even taking into account Ryanair's use of Charleroi, the response was breathtaking.
It said that, due to the demand for seats on the route and the airline's wish to serve the "business class", seats were priced dramatically high to preserve accommodation for the business customer who gives short notice of travel and apparently does not mind paying a grossly inflated fare. I don't know what business these people are in but it must be very lucrative if they can throw away several hundred pounds each time they travel in order to save half-an-hour on arrival in Brussels. It apparently does not occur to Aer Lingus that when there is high demand for a product it could try increasing the supply instead of pricing people out of the market. Or is that too much like hard work for the national carrier? In the meantime, this business customer (but not business class!) will stick with Ryanair. - Yours, etc., Michael McNeill,
Hotel Leopold, Avenue de Luxemburg, Brussels, Belgium.