Madam, - There is more to managing an airline than providing passengers with the cheapest tickets to get from A to B and producing the maximum profit. An airline has an obligation to provide all its customers with a service corresponding to their requirements.
Not everyone who flies does so to go on holiday and I believe the current managers of the Irish flag-carrier are failing to recognise this. The lack of connecting flights from regional airports, poor standards of on-board and other services do nothing to enhance the efficiency of those travellers whose work commences only when the flights are over. Such a policv is hardly in anybody's, nor in the State's, best interests.
I am pleased to hear the Government is not rushing to negotiate with Aer Lingus's top managers over their interest in acquiring the company.
There will certainly be other, better options. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN LENAGHAN, Ash Hill Stud, Kilmallock, Co Limerick.
Madam, - It is being said publicly that SIPTU, the largest trade union at Aer Lingus, is not ideologically opposed to the privatisation of the airline. Whatever the general ideology behind it, SIPTU's policy on the privatisation of Aer Lingus, and on privatisation in general, is very clear.
Last year's SIPTU national conference, which makes union policy, passed the following motion put by the union's Aer Lingus branch: "Conference reaffirms the union's opposition to the intentions to privatise Aer Lingus by various means including outsourcing. Conference calls on the national executive council to support vigorously and by all legitimate and political means an ongoing campaign to retain all of Aer Lingus in State ownership."
On privatisation in general, the conference supported the NEC "in opposing the privatisation of publicly owned and financed enterprises, services and assets." - Yours, etc.,
DES DERWIN, Comyn Place, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.