Aer Lingus needs to look at merger - Willie Walsh

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways feels that Aer Lingus may need to surrender it's independence in order to secure it's future. Mr. Walsh was speaking yesterday at the Jim Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick. Given the way that the Irish economy has performed in recent times and given the way that the carrier has suffered in recent times he said that".. you could now make an argument that it's future as an indepenedent carrier is not that secure and maybe Aer Lingus does need to look at a relationship with some other carrier".
He added however that the current legacy ownership structure will make it difficult to attract new investors. "With Ryanair a significant shareholder at 30% and the Irish government with 25%, ESOT (Employee Share Ownership Trust) with 15% I struggle to see how anyone would invest or want to invest with that sort of structure".
On the subject of a Ryanair takeover of Aer Lingus, Mr. Walsh said that he had always found it difficult to understand why Ryanair would want to takeover Aer Lingus. He wouldn't say that a merger was impossible but it would be difficult given the competition implications. "If you look at the theory of competition, the consumer couldn't win with the two firms being merged. That competition would disappear."