Aer lingus to leave one world

As per the title, their CE Dermot Mannion announced this morning.
It's to take effect from 2007

You can say good bye to interlining of baggage on long haul trips with other one world carriers.

It's short sighted in my opinion.
EI do have a lot more in the way of direct services but most if not all of them are ex Ireland.
So what are they going to do if theres a slump in demand for these-close them? probably They may be busy now but that might not always be the way and commercial reality will determine whether they will continue if demand falls.
You rise interest rates a bit more,introduce an economic slump and discretionary spending on air travel will fall.
Thats when EI will be going cap in hand back to one world and they'll probably rightly tell them to hump off.

From rte.ie

Aer Lingus is to leave the Oneworld alliance of airlines following a meeting of the board held last Thursday.

This means passengers will no longer be able to use their frequent flyer points with other member airlines and will no longer have access to the executive lounge facilities of other airlines such as BA and American Airlines, unless Aer Lingus can negotiate new bilateral agreements.

Chief executive Dermot Mannion said membership of the alliance had become less relevant because of the increasing number of direct services Aer Lingus now provides.

It is also believed Aer Lingus would have to sink up to €2m enhancing its systems to cope with the arrival of three new airlines into the alliance. Aer Lingus says these airlines are not especially relevant to many connecting Aer Lingus passengers.

BuffyBot

I'm surprised it's taken them this long. It does seem a short sighted thing to do though.

I see on oneworld.com

Aer Lingus is in discussions with various oneworld members with the aim of retaining strong bilateral links with them, and its intention is to conclude these agreements before its leaves oneworld.

It has confirmed that it has no intention of joining another global alliance and that its key bilateral relationships will remain with oneworld members.

So all may not be lost as to baggage interlining etc

Bluehair

It's the logical conclusion to the Aer Lingus evolution into a low cost carrier. EI just doesn't need Oneworld any more and Oneworld sure isn't bothered about losing them. Bilaterals and code-shares will fulfill any other requirements.

FlutterinBantam

Quite right Bluehair..... they couldnt be arshed paying the huge IT bill required to accomodate the 3 new airlines who are joining.

They will negotiate bilateral agreements with the companies they feel the need to and operate on the fringe

Ruu_Old

True, Aer Lingus dont belong there and should have happened a while ago. No more excutive lounge for Ruu *tears up gold card*

jjbrien

This may cause Aer Lingus more of a problem than they think. For wxample on the Dublin to Heatrow route British Airways gave up cometing with them due to Aer Lingus joining oneworld. British Airways has many free slots at LHR and means they might commence competion with EI again. Aslo American Airlines said they would not compete againt EI into JFK and Boston they might re think this and start comepting again. They did sign an agreement with AA that AA could only oppeate a limited service out of O'Hare to Dublin. This again might be revieved by AA. I think you will find more Oneworld airlines comming to Dublin to compete againt Aer Lingus.

BuffyBot

BA gave up the Heathrow to London route long before Aer Lingus joined OneWorld - they had an existing code share with Aer Lingus before Oneworld came about, and will more than likely continue it on that route.

I don't think BA will bother launching a new Dublin to Heathrow service simply because they have better places to serve that they can make much more of a profit from. AA might launch competing services, and they might not. Time will tell on that one.

Bluehair

jjbrien wrote:

For wxample on the Dublin to Heatrow route British Airways gave up cometing with them due to Aer Lingus joining oneworld.

No Ba gave up on the Dublin to Heathrow route many many years ago like Buffybot said, nothing to do with Aer Lingus joining OW.

jjbrien wrote:

British Airways has many free slots at LHR and means they might commence competion with EI again.

You're joking right? BA utilises their slots very effectively and certainly doesn't have any 'free' slots floating around. They are much more profitably used on long haul so it's extremely doubtful they'd bother entering a low-yield market like Dublin-London where there's so much competition already.

jjbrien wrote:

Aslo American Airlines said they would not compete againt EI into JFK and Boston they might re think this and start comepting again.They did sign an agreement with AA that AA could only oppeate a limited service out of O'Hare to Dublin. This again might be revieved by AA.

AA never said anything of the sort. Have you checked their routes at all? They already started Dublin to Chicago last year and Boston to Shannon. There was certainly no agreement to operate a 'limited' service. Delta has returned to the Dublin JFK route and with Continental on Ewr twice daily i doubt AA would be bothered with JFK anyway.

jjbrien wrote:

I think you will find more Oneworld airlines comming to Dublin to compete againt Aer Lingus.

No Oneworld carrier will present a threat to Aer Lingus and Ireland is too small a market for them to even bother. Neither can any of them compete today with EIs lower cost structure.

Aer Lingus has much more to fear from Ryanair et al than Oneworld. This was the right move and long overdue.

Whatever happens though we (the consumer) wins

jjbrien

Bluehair wrote:

No Ba gave up on the Dublin to Heathrow route many many years ago like Buffybot said, nothing to do with Aer Lingus joining OW.




You're joking right? BA utilises their slots very effectively and certainly doesn't have any 'free' slots floating around. They are much more profitably used on long haul so it's extremely doubtful they'd bother entering a low-yield market like Dublin-London where there's so much competition already.



AA never said anything of the sort. Have you checked their routes at all? They already started Dublin to Chicago last year and Boston to Shannon. There was certainly no agreement to operate a 'limited' service. Delta has returned to the Dublin JFK route and with Continental on Ewr twice daily i doubt AA would be bothered with JFK anyway.



No Oneworld carrier will present a threat to Aer Lingus and Ireland is too small a market for them to even bother. Neither can any of them compete today with EIs lower cost structure.

Aer Lingus has much more to fear from Ryanair et al than Oneworld. This was the right move and long overdue.

Whatever happens though we (the consumer) wins

Actually there was an agrement between AA and Aer Lingus. But the bilateral links will most probelry involve BA and AA.

FlutterinBantam

Aer Lingus and BA NEVER competed on the DUB-LHR route...Nice little cartel.. thats what it was...

DublinWriter

Ruu wrote:

True, Aer Lingus dont belong there and should have happened a while ago. No more excutive lounge for Ruu *tears up gold card*

I'd happily pay up to 40 Euros to get into an Executive lounge on a once-off-useage basis in any airport. *visions of self sneakily pulling the bottles of spirits out of the optics and sneaking them through in even freer copies of the Financial Times*.

The whole Aer Lingus Gold Card thing was crazy. Even in my days as a jet-setting corporate slut, I could never obtain the 10 zillion billion airmiles needed to qualify for one.

I think possession of an American Express card still automatically gets you into most lounges, but AE cancelled their Irish service around 2001.

Ruu_Old

It didnt happen too often now, a right pain alright.

Bluehair

DublinWriter wrote:

I'd happily pay up to 40 Euros to get into an Executive lounge on a once-off-useage basis in any airport. *visions of self sneakily pulling the bottles of spirits out of the optics and sneaking them through in even freer copies of the Financial Times*.

How bout half price then?

You can now get into the Aer Lingus lounge for €20 a shot. Been like that a few months now..

DublinWriter

Bluehair wrote:

How bout half price then?

You can now get into the Aer Lingus lounge for €20 a shot. Been like that a few months now..

Most excellent! Those that include the one in Heathrow?