Aer Lingus has announced it is to suspend flights from Dublin to some of its US destinations over the winter.
The airline’s direct services between Dublin and Washington and Dublin and San Francisco will stop from 25 October.
Services between Shannon and Chicago will also be suspended over the winter period, from 1 September.
Aer Lingus said the four times a week Shannon to New York JFK remained under review.
source: BBC
Ryanair is willing to raise its offer for rival Aer Lingus but will not wage a prolonged battle if shareholders in Ireland’s former state airline continue to oppose the deal.
Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary told reporters he would be willing to increase his offer price of 1.40 euros a share, equivalent to about 750 million euros ($995 million).
However, in a statement Europe’s largest low-cost carrier ruled out raising the price to 2 euros or above. A spokeswoman for Ryanair declined to comment further.
Aer Lingus said the offer was “‘unlikely to be capable of completion'” as Ryanair had still not made clear why it would be approved by the European Commission, which blocked an earlier offer by Ryanair on competition grounds.
source: USA Today
Irish government opposition is weakening to Ryanair’s 750 million euro ($952 million) bid for former state airline Aer Lingus.
The government, which owns more than 25 percent of the loss-making flag carrier, opposed Ryanair’s 2006 bid for Aer Lingus, which was blocked by the European Union on competition grounds.
A spokeswoman for the transport ministry said it would not comment until Ryanair submits its formal bid for Aer Lingus. Europe’s biggest budget airline said on Thursday it would publish the formal bid within the next two weeks.
source: Reuters
The budget airline Ryanair is to make a fresh takeover offer for the Irish flag-carrier Aer Lingus. The all-cash offer would value Aer Lingus at 748m euros ($950m; £619m).
Ryanair’s previous offer for Aer Lingus, which valued it at 1.5bn euros, was blocked by the European Commission on competition grounds.
Other major shareholders include the Irish government and Aer Lingus employees, both of which rejected the takeover offer last time.
source: BBC
Aer Lingus Group Plc workers voted to strike over the airline’s plan to cut more than 1,500 jobs. Around 80 percent of the Dublin-based airline’s workers that voted were in favor of the strike.
Aer Lingus plans to cut jobs, hire outside providers for ground operations and halt pay raises until at least the end of 2009 as part of a plan to save 74 million euros ($94.4 million). It says the cuts are necessary as consumer demand wanes.
source: Bloomberg
Irish low-cost airliner Aer Lingus announced it would start a new twice weekly service between Dublin and Sofia for its winter 2008 schedule, along with new services to Hamburg, Newcastle, Salzburg and Agadir. In addition, the company will increase the frequency of flights to a number of other European destinations.
source: SofiaEcho
Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus has become the latest airline to hike charges in the face of surging fuel costs, raising bag check-in fees as the global oil price hit a new record today of $120.93 a barrel.
Aer Lingus announced the increase this morning in the wake of similar moves last week by British Airways, which raised fuel surcharges, and easyJet, which also increased bag check-in charges. From Thursday, online bag check-in at Aer Lingus will cost £8 while checking in luggage at the airport will cost £12 an item.
source: guardian.co.uk
Irish airline Aer Lingus is refusing to honour an online offer which mistakenly sold business class transatlantic flights for five euros (eight dollars, four pounds), a spokesman said Thursday.
The flights would normally sell for 1,775 euros one way, said Enda Corneille, Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs who apologised to the customers concerned.
“It is a genuine mistake, a fundamental mistake on our part. We rectified it as quickly as we could. We have contacted the customers and given them the opportunity to re-book,” he told RTE state radio.
source: Yahoo!
Aer Lingus has reached an agreement with a low-cost US carrier that will give the Irish airline’s passengers easier access to locations across the United States.
The agreement with Jet Blue means Aer Lingus customers will be able to book flights from Ireland to 40 US destinations from April of this year.
source: Belfast telegraph
Ryanair has begun legal action against the Financial Regulator.
The airline is challenging what it claims is a decision of the regulator not to investigate why the Government was the only party given what it called ‘inside information’ on the decision to transfer the Aer Lingus Shannon-Heathrow link to Belfast.
Ryanair was given leave to seek a judicial review of a decision of the regulator not to carry out an investigation of the matter after Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion, revealed on radio that the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, had been informed of the Heathrow decision before it was publicly announced.
