It's not all about money says Minister Dempsey

Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey was questioned today in relation to the Irish government's position in relation to the Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus. "Any money that we'll get into the government coffers would be very much appreciated at this time, but short-term decisions are not my style in relation to things like this," Minister Dempsey replied. "We are certainly not guided by money alone. There is aviation policy, there is airport policy, regional policy that has to be taken into consideration," adding that the response "is something that is yet to be finalised and considered by the government."

Minister Dempsey was speaking on RTE Radio's news program "Morning Ireland."

Ryanair announce expansion at 3 bases

Ryanair today announced that they would be expanding their presence at three bases in the near future. 

In March the Edinburgh base will double in size to four B737-800 aircraft with new routes to Carcassonne, Limoges, Leipzig (Altenburg), Malta, Poitiers, Rome and Zadar and increased frequencies to Alicante and Dusseldorf - Weeze 

In June, additional aircraft at Alicante will bring the base compliment to four units with new routes to Knock, Derry and Wroclaw.

From July, two additional aircraft will bring the Bristol base to four aircraft with twelve new routes serving Alicante, Barcelona, Cagliari, Eindhoven, Limoges, Malta, Montpellier, Perpignan, Rimini, Seville, Toulon and Trieste.

 

IAA issue traffic figures for December

The Irish Aviation Authority today issued the December 2008 traffic figures. Traffic was down in all areas, but the most significant drop in revenue terms for the IAA and where it gets 80% of it's revenue was on the North Atlantic. Overflights were down 4.6% on December 2007 and HF communications were down 7.3% YoY.

Terminal Movements at the three state airports for the month were Cork 3,999 down 4.6% YoY, Shannon 2,912 down 10.1% YoY, Dublin 16,449 no change YoY.

At year end Cork handled 34,875 commercial movements, down 12.8% for the year. Shannon handled 33,036 commercial movements, down 7.3% for the year and Dublin handled 201,773 commercial movements up 2.9% for the year.

Ballygireen handled 422,086 flights up 5.79% for the year whilst en route traffic at 309,181 was up 0.6%.

Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus - latest news

What would have been an interesting Presidential style debate on RTE television's 'Primetime' program between Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary and Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion was called off this afternoon on the advice of the takeover Panel. The debate to discuss the proposed takeiver of Aer Lingus by Ryanair had been confirmed this morning but this afternoon RTE, the State Broadcaster was advised by the Takeover Panel that they had given a driection to both parties under the 1997 Takeover Act not to appear on the program and that 'Participation by representatives of either Aer Lingus or Ryanair in the Prime Time programme would therefore result in a breach of the Panel's statutory direction to the parties.'

Also today, Merrion Capital suggested that Ryanair would increase it's offer for Aer Lingus during the month of January following the rejection last week by Aer Lingus of the current offer of €1.40 per share.

"We believe Ryanair's intent is serious and that it will raise its offer -- and will do so before the last date for amending its offer, Jan. 30," analysts at Merrion said in a research note.

"In that event, we would expect ordinary Aer Lingus shareholders to urge their board to engage meaningfully with the bidder, as Ryanair is likely to be precluded from returning for 12 months if its offer lapses,"

Ryanair may buy share of Frankfurt Hahn

At a press conference in Frankfurt today, Ryanair Chief Operating Officer Michael Cawley said that the airline may buy a minority shareholding in Frankfurt Hahn Airport. He said that the airport is a "valuable asset" and that there should be "no shortage of people who would want to buy it".

Last year Ryanair accounted for 95% of the 4.2m passenger throughput at the airport which is 65% owned by airport operating company Fraport. In 2007, Hahn was the only division within Fraport to fail to make a profit, generating a loss before income and tax of €10m. In 2006 the airport generated a similar size loss. The recently announced plan by Fraport to implement a €3 per passenger fee would have been sufficient to generate at least a break even going forward but Ryanair were unwilling to pass the charge on to their customers. Since Fraport are unwilling to retain a loss making entity they have now decided to sell their share in the airport.

Speaking today Michael Cawley said that Ryanair were happy that the uncertainty has been removed. He further confirmed that Ryanair will increase the number of aircraft based in Hahn from the present level of 11 to 18 units by 2013.

Aviation Appeals Panel issues report on Dublin's T2

The Aviation Appeals Panel is a body which was established by the Minister for Transport following a High Court case taken by Ryanair against the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

In July 2007, the Commission had published the maximum levels of airport charges applicable at Dublin Airport (CP6/2007)  which were to apply, taking into consideration the construction of the airport's second terminal, T2. 

Ryanair were unhappy with the system of charges and matters relating to T2 and took a case in the High Court. Justice Clarke delivered two decisions, one in April 2008 and a second, one month later. Ryanair appealed the decisions of Justice Clarke to the Aviation Appeals Panel and today's report is the decision in relation to that appeal. The members of the Aviation Appeals Panel are Paul Gardiner SC, Niall Greene, MD of Aviareto a company which holds the contract from the ICAO for the management of the International Register of Mobile Assets and Alan Doherty is the third member of the panel.

Today's report on the Ryanair appeal has found that the capacity of T2 would appear to be considerably greater than required. It also finds that the Regulator was not clear as to the actual capacity of T1 during the Appeals process and the Panel accepts Ryanair's assessment that the T1 capacity is probably close to 26m passengers when an Bord Pleanalla (Planning  Board) has put a cap of 32m passengers on the so called 'eastern campus' development at the airport, which includes T2.

As a consequence the Panel has referred certain matters back to the Commission for it's consideration  - including the calculation of T1 capacity, T2 capacity and the capex implications of those numbers. 

The Panel is also concerned that building an overcapacity T2 may pose a financial risk to the viability of the DAA. It further states that the risk of oversizing is one that should be borne by the DAA and not the airport's users.

The report criticises the Commission for Aviation Regulation for passive regulation and suggests that the capacity of T1 be worked out taking into consideration the competing views of the DAA and Ryanair. 

In total the Appeals Panel published released 4 fours reports into appeals against the Commission and CP6/2007 . The appeals were by Ryanair, Aer Lingus, the DAA and the Dublin airport Consultation Committee. The appeals by Aer Lingus and DACC were rejected and the appeal by Ryanair was upheld. The report into the DAA's appeal is lengthy with the first half having been released today.

Aer Lingus Board appointment

Laurence Crowley, former Governor of the Bank of Ireland has been apppointed a non executive director to the board of Aer Lingus. Mr. Crowley was also a former partner in KPMG Stokes Kennedy Crowley who specialised in insolvency.

German state to buy stake in Hahn Airport

The German state of Rheinland Pfalz is reported to be attempting to buy airport operator Fraport's stake in Frankfurt Hahn airport to prevent Ryanair from scaling back it's operation at the airport.

Hahn, a former US Air Force base is owned jointly by the states of Rheinland Pflaz and Hesse (17.5% each) and Fraport (65%).

Fraport has attempted to introduce an additional €3 per passenger handling fee at the airport which has led Ryanair to threaten a reduction in operations at the airport. Ryanair have said that they will hold a press conference on tomorrow Tuesday.

'Blue Flu' at Dublin airport

The Times reports that members of the Gardai National Immigration Bureau have been on unofficial protest at Dublin airport over the loss of a daily meal allowance of €29. The dispute is as a result of Gardai management's decision to stop paying allowances to members of the GNIB when they are working outside police stations. The allowance is reportedly worth up to €6,000 per annum and is payable at a rate of €16 for five hours away from base, €29 for eight hours and €42 for twelve hours.

Officially Gardai won't confirm that there is a dispute but every passport is being checked and scanned and every passenger gets a few minutes of 'friendly' Gardai chit chat, all of which are adding up to cause passport clearance delays which apparently grew to three hours in the pre Christmas period.

The Times also reports that the delays eased on Friday after Gardai management agreed to recommence payment of the allowance pending a review which will take two weeks. 

Virgin 39 diverts to Shannon

Today's Virgin Atlantic flight VIR 039 from London Heathrow to Chicago O'Hare diverted to Shannon as a precaution after smoke was noted in one of the galleys. The flight, operated by A340-313X G-VELD landed at 12.48. The airport fire service and two units from Ennis Fire Station were in attendance when the aircraft with it's compliment of 156 passengers touched down safely on a blustery and rainy R24. 

Airlink rebranded

Since December Airlink Airways have been rebranded as Private Sky which is termed a trading name of Airlink Airways. According to the company's website the fleet comprises 8 aircraft - Learjets EI-REX, EI-VIV, EI-DXW EI-MAX, Hawkers EI-ECE, EI-GEM, EI-KJC, and Citation Excel EI-XLS.

SR Technics lose Gulf Air contract

Gulf Air announced today that the airline would be terminating it's MRO contract with SR Technics in June of this year. The contract covers airframe and component overhaul with some of the airframe work being carried out at the SR Technics facility in Dublin. Gulf Air are a significant customer for SR Technics who employee 1,200 people between Dublin Airport and Mahon in Cork where the company has an airfoil repair facility. Worldwide SRT employee 5,300 and are headquartered in Zurich. MRO facilities are additionally located at Stansted, Zurich and Bahrain. The company is owned by a consortium from the United Arab Emirates with the Board and management of the company holding a minority shareholding. It is not known at this time of the loss of the contract will impact on headcount in Ireland.

Ryanair get visitors from US

William Vanacek, Director of Aviation of the Niagra Frontier Transportation Authority and representatives of Innova, NFTA's marketing firm were scheduled to meet with Ryanair in Dublin yesterday to discuss charter services to Niagra Falls from the UK. 

Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for NFTA said that he would 'classify the talks as just that - conversations'.

Buffalo Niagra International Airport is due to open a new thirty million dollar, 68,000 square ft terminal this summer.

The airport currently serves 18 destinations with 110 daily flights from carriers which include low cost carriers Southwest, Air Tran, JetBlue.

Ryanair takeover bid - latest developments

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion and Sean Coyle, the airline's Chief Financial Officer both requested this evening that the controversial 'golden parachute' or 'failure fee' be removed from their contracts. The decision follows an Aer Lingus board meeting called to limit the public relations damage after the furore surrounding the deal refused to go away.

Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey TD had written to the board of Aer Lingus to inform them that he would not be attending a farewell dinner for the airline's previous Chairman John Sharman. The dinner is planned for later this month but Minister Dempsey has refused to attend because of the the manner in which the airline's Chief Executive Dermot Mannion managed to get his 'failure fee' contract signed. Minister Dempsey had also stated that he would support a call for an EGM to discuss the matter. Ryanair yesterday called for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be called to block the changes to Mr. Mannion's contract.

The Aer Lingus employee shareholding trust ESOT which owns 15% of the airline, had written to the Aer Lingus Chairman pointing out that changes to the Chief Executive's contract have to be approved by a general meeting of members. ESOT had also said that they would vote against the proposed changes in the evnet of the matter being discussed at an EGM.

Aer Lingus Board member and General Secretary of  the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) David Begg said that he certainly had not approved the arrangement, and nor did any other member of the board. He said the board's permission was not sought at any time. Arriving at Government Buildings to discuss the current economic crises, Mr. Begg also said that the matter of Mr. Mannion's 'grandiose parachute scheme' made him 'absolutely mad' at a time when he was personally actively involved in trying to save jobs at Aer Lingus and helping to see a restructuring plan in place which would help to ensure the long term viability of the airline.

Ryanair today notified the European Commission of it's plan to takeover Aer Lingus. The Commission has set a February 12 deadline to either clear the deal or to open a four month investigation. Last time around Ryanair's bid was blocked by the EU Commission.

War of words continues in Ryanair bid

In a case of 'seconds out - round 2' Ryanair today continued the war of words with Aer Lingus after Monday's rejection of the former's offer of €1.40 per share. 

In another open letter to the airline today, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary questioned  if there was "any independent expert outside of Aer Lingus who has any faith that your  independence strategy will be successful?". This follows Aer Lingus advisor Goldman Sachs assertion that “it seems inevitable that all European carriers will belong to one of the big three groups (BA, Lufthansa and AF-KLM) either through direct ownership or deeper alliances”.

In addition, Ryanair speculates the fact that Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion has agreed an exit payment for himself irrespective of whether or not Aer Lingus is taken over signals that he does not believe that the airline can remain independent.

CityJet RJ85 in emergency landing

The Air Accident Investigation Unit have opened a file on an incident with flight BCY 5008 last night at Dublin airport. The aircraft EI-RJX with 88 passengers and 4 crew landed shortly after 10.00pm having declared emergency on approach. Airport rescue services were deployed for the uneventful landing. The aircraft was inspected and towed off the runway approximately one hour after landing. Due to the impending investigation by the AAIU, CityJet did not comment on the case of the emergency being declared.

Aer Lingus sees dip in December pax numbers

Aer Lingus today published the passenger statistics for December 2008. The airline carried 703,000 passengers for the month which was a 4.6% Year on Year reduction over December 2007. Short haul was down 4.1% with long haul down 8.1%.

Short haul passenger numbers were 612,000 which represents a load factor of 66.9%, down 1.9% YoY.

Long haul numbers were 72,600 which represents a load factor of 72.6%, down 0.5% YoY.

Short haul capacity was up 1.4% YoY whilst long haul capacity was down 10.2% YoY.

CityJet dips into the red for 07

Air France - KLM subsidiary CityJet has posted a loss of €16.2m for the twelve months ended March 2008, in sharp contrast to the previous year's performance which saw €22m go back in the coffers. 

The airline says that the turnaround in it's fortunes were as a result of a major fleet upgrade which involved acquiring 24 RJ85 aircraft and it's purchase of VLM, an expenditure which is thought to have cost in the region of €180m. The takeover was announced in February 2008 although it was October before the UK's Office of Fair Trading finally gave it's approval.

Total revenue for the financial year was €293.5m (+12.4% on the previous year) of which scheduled services accounted for €290.7m, freight and charter accounting for the balance.

The UK market is now the airline's largest market, representing sales of €130.3m (+380%). The Irish market accounted for €42.2m (+34%) with mainland Europe taking the balance.

Fuel hedging at RYR and EIN

Ryanair has extended its fuel hedging position to 50% of its requirements for the first three quarters of fiscal 2009/10.  "We have taken advantage of the recent fall in fuel prices to extend our hedging position and we now have 50% of our requirement for the first 3 Quarters of fiscal 2009/2010 at $700 per tonne (approximately $64 per barrel)," said chief executive Michael O'Leary.  "This will lock in a 42% reduction of our hedged fuel cost per passenger compared to fiscal 2008/09,” he said. 

Yesterday, Aer Lingus confirmed that the fuel hedging position of the company as at 31 December 2008 was 72% cover for 2009 at a price of US$911 per tonne (approximately $83 per barrel); and, 22% cover for 2010 at a price of US$876 per tonne (approximately $80 per barrel). The 2009 position has improved from Aer Lingus' previously disclosed position of 64% of 2009 requirements hedged at US$995 (approximately $91 per barrel).

Aer Lingus punctuality stats for December

Aer Lingus have published their punctuality statistics for December 2008. For the month, 78% of flights left on time with 97% departing within 60 minutes of scheduled departure.

Low uptake for Ryanair offer

Today's deadline for acceptance of the Ryanair offer of €1.40 per share for the outstanding shares it doesn't currently own in Aer Lingus has been extended. Ryanair said today that it had secured acceptance for just 22,300 shares or 0.01% of Aer Lingus total share capital. The new deadline for acceptance is February 13. By 4pm today, Aer Lingus shares were down 1.7 % at €1.48 whilst Ryanair's were down 1.5% at €3.193.

In further developments late yesterday, Ryanair confirmed that they had referred the matter of Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion's 'failure fee' to the Takeover Panel. Ryanair claims that the agreement was in breach of stock exchange takeover rules and company law, as it was agreed without shareholder approval or the clearance of the market’s watchdog, the Takeover Panel. It now wants the Takeover Panel to investigate the matter.

Ryanair has also forwarded the Panel a copy of a letter sent by CEO Michael O'Leary to Aer Lingus Chairman, Colm Barrington seeking answers to questions raised by the arrangement. Specifically, Mr. O'Leary is questioning the timing of the agreement, pointing out that if it took place after December 1 when Ryanair submitted their latest bid then the Takeover Panel should have been notified.

New venture for Ryanair ?

In what may well be the start of a new venture for Ryanair, the airline is advertising a one off sports charter with a return flight from Dublin to Bari  for the World Cup qualifying game against Italy on April 1 2009. With plenty of time to go before kick off the airline has ample opportunity to add extra flights as 189 seats won't be long going, even at a cost of €399.89 each.

Ryanair hit 58m passengers for 2008

Ryanair published their year end passenger statistics for 2008 this afternoon. For the twelve months ended December 31 the airline carried a total of 57.7m passengers which represents an increase in 18% over the 2007 figure. Load factor for the twelve months was 81.5%.

For the all important month of December the airline carried a total of 4.37m passengers which represents an 11% YoY increase over December 2007. Load factor the month was unchanged, YoY at 79%. The airline expects to carry 65m passengers in 2009. 

Paul Schutz takes the helm at Aer Arann

As previously announced, Paul Schutz has taken the reigns at the helm of Aer Arann as of January 1. He takes over from the previous incumbent, Gary Cullen who joins the board as a non executive director.

Westair in the red for 2007

Trading accounts for Shannon based executive charter operator Westair recently lodged with the Companies Office for the year 2007 show a trading loss of €1.22m against sales of €8.17m.

In 2006 the company posted a loss of €246,520 against sales of €5.5m, although the 2006 trading period was for 8 months only.

PSO subsidy for Arann Islands extended until May

The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon O'Cuiv announced last week that his department had extended the contract with Aer Arann to provide air services to the Aran Islands, off the Galway coast, by an additional five months to the end of May 2009. The contract extension is worth 487,500.

The Department also said that a new PSO competition would be announced shortly.

2008 was Ireland West Airport's best year ever

Last year was Ireland West Airport Knock's busiest yet with an increase in passenger numbers of 73,000 to 629,000 for the twelve month period, representing a 13% increase over 2007.

The airport predicts that 2009 will be a challenging year but the increase in the number of routes served and additional charter destinations should see a growth of between 1% and 3% for the year ahead.

Growth in 2008 came from new routes to UK with the bmiBaby service to Glasgow and the new daily Ryanair service to Liverpool.

For 2009, new services will be operated by Aer Lingus to Gatwick commencing in April and Thomas Cook will be operating a service to Faro for the summer IT season.

New projects for completion at Knock in 2009 include the commissioning of the new CAT II ILS in February, the completion of a €5.5m expansion to the terminal which will double the existing check in area floor space and later in the year an increase in the ramp area will be completed.

N177RA RC-7B visits Shannon

Shannon received a visit from a US Army De Havilland Canada RC-7B on January 5. The aircraft is registered N177RA, msn 85 and is based at Ft. Bliss in Texas.

Originally delivered to Ransome Airlines in July 1982 the aircraft subsequently passed through the hands of Pan Am Express, TWA and leasing company AGES before being acquired by California Microwave Inc. It has worn the registration N177RA throughout.

The RC-7 ARL (Aircraft Reconnaissance Low) conversion of the DHC-7 came about through the US Army Southern Command's need for a low profile intelligence gathering platform to combat narcotics smuggling from Central America in the late 1980's. The contract to convert standard DHC-7  aircraft went to California Microwave Inc, now a part of Northrop Grumman. The result was the RC-7 ARL which was equipped for SIGINT and IMINT, Signal and Image Intelligence respectively. The first aircraft were used in Bosnia as part of the UN peacekeeping initiative in the Balkans, for humanitarian relief operations and also in the counter narcotics role.

In 1993, following the success of the RC-7 ARL, the Army went on to develop the RC-7B ARLM, 'M' for 'Multifunction'. The 'M' version is equipped with Day/Night imaging, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Moving Target Indicator, Comlink for video / data download to ground operations and communications intercept with direction finding. The RC-7B can rebroadcast false messages using the voice of the original broadcaster.

Depending on configuration, the RC-7B ARLM has an endurance of between 7.5 and 10 hours at altitudes up to 25,000 ft.

N177RA carries small 'U.S Army' titles under the cockpit window and is seen on final approach to R24 in Shannon as 'ALOMA 91' in the picture above. 

Mannion's Golden Parachute

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion and Finance Director Sean Coyle have negotiated a failure fee for themselves in the event that the airline is taken over by Ryanair or another airline. The Sunday Independent reports that the deal is believed to have been signed off by former Chairman of Aer Lingus, John Sharman, days before his departure from his post in September 2008.

The letter from John Sharman entitles Dermot Mannion to not only terminate his own contract but also to avail of a compensation package of twice his entire remuneration package, should the airline change hands. This deal is currently estimated to be worth €2.8m to Mr. Mannion.

The newspaper also reports that the present Chairman Colm Barrington has defended the package for Mannion and Coyle by saying that "In the context of a company under threat such a contract is perfectly normal," obviously referring to the Ryanair bid, adding that "It is especially necessary when the chief executive of the bidding company has said that the board should be taken out and shot. And in his last bid Mr O'Leary was going to impose redundancies."

Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary has hit back by saying that "Shareholders will want an explanation why Mannion publicly claims that Aer Lingus has an independent future -- while behind closed doors he is stuffing €2.8m of shareholders' cash into his lifeboat."

New Helicopter Training School for Knock

Ireland West Aviation is the name of a new helicopter pilot training school based at Ireland West Airport. The IAA approved facility which operates from Knock Airport Business Park specialises in Robinson R22 and R44 training. Founded by Chief Flying Instructor Capt. Joe Lally and backed by Castlebar business man Pat Staunton, the company commenced operations just before Christmas.