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[Article] BA chief wants more from Open Skies deal

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  • 26-09-2007 7:26am
    #1
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,280 ✭✭✭✭


    http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/biznews/11173297?view=Eircomnet&cat=Business
    BA chief wants more from Open Skies deal
    From The Irish IndependentTuesday, 25th September, 2007

    BRITISH Airways boss Willie Walsh yesterday slammed a new flying deal between Ireland and the EU, saying that far more needed to be done if Open Skies was to ever move beyond its first phase in 2010.

    Mr Walsh's comments, made at the Routes Leaders Forum in Stockholm, surprised many observers as the Open Skies deal has been widely welcomed and praised. The commercial director at Willie Walsh's former employer Aer Lingus said our national carrier was "very satisfied" with the progress on Open Skies and had no concerns about the plans implementation.

    But Mr Walsh yesterday said he was "disappointed that some people see this Open Skies as the deal."

    "The deal we should aspire to is the one that removes ownership and control restrictions that prevent us from genuinely competing with one another," he added. "It's a pity that it has taken so long for two parties to have an agreement with each other about competition."

    Aer Lingus commercial director Enda Corneille stressed that his airline's experience of Open Skies had been very different to British Airways', since a transitionary arrangement between Ireland and the US had allowed Aer Lingus to launch 3 new US routes this autumn, as well as scaling back the Shannon stopover.

    "From BA's point of view they haven't seen anything yet and they're not going to see anything until next March," said Mr Corneille. "From our point of view, we've already been allowed to launch Orlando, Washington and San Fransisco."

    From next March, Aer Lingus will be free to launch a variety of new routes to the US, however Mr Corneille said new route launches were "unlikely" before October 2008. "We've pretty much hammered down our schedule until October, so it'll be after that when we look at new routes again," he said.

    Aer Lingus is expected to axe its Dubai routes next summer, however that capacity is likely to be used to increase the frequencies on existing US routes, rather than to create new ones.

    "We're looking at several new routes for beyond 2008, but it's really too early to say how that'll pan out," Mr Corneille said.


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