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Paddy Power is currently taking bets on Aer Lingus joining an alliance, with Oneworld (of which is was a member up until 2006) being favourite at 11/10, Star at 5/4, and Skyteam 4/1.
One wonders why they left Oneworld in the first place...
Aer Lingus' return to full membership of One World would be most welcome.
For goodness sake I hope they stay away from Star Alliance!
Of course as long as they continue their trans-atlantic obsession with serving only one country, the United States, I for one will never use their long-haul service!
excessbaggage "One wonders why they left Oneworld in the first place..."
Ask Willie Walsh, BA´s CEO. He was CEO of Aer Lingus when the company withdrew from "oneworld".
Anyway, AL is in BA´s backyard running the routes into/from Ireland to the UK on behalf of both companies for many years now.
AL is in an advantageous situation, not only from Heathrow, but from Gatwick as well being in an excellent position to take over BA´s European routes.The sale of these routes has already been mooted on this forum.
It is a "must have" company for BA, though it will have to convince Ryanair with a high price to sell its stake in AL.
As "excessbaggage´s" link shows Paddy Power puts AL on WW´s wishlist of buys for IAG(International Airlines Group - BA/Iberia) after his speech in Mumbai at the beginning of September. Many different websites have speculated on the incorporation of different airlines into IAG. Some are feasible while others are wishfull thinking, but AL will certainly be on the list.
Aer Lingus in OneWorld might just be enough for me to sacrifice me Star Alliance Gold Card and return to Aer Lingus.
What they need to do is examine their records and ask former Prestige & Elite cardholders why they no longer fly ith Aer Lingus.
However Aer Lingus is a codeshare partner with United, a Star Alliance partner. Perhaps Aer Lingus might join Star Alliance, in which case my BMI & Continental Gold cards might mean something.
WW was not CEO of Aer Lingus when it decided to leave Oneworld. Aer Lingus announced that it was leaving Oneworld in May 2006. WW became CEO of BA in 2005.
When it was announced that Air Berlin was joining Oneworld earlier this year, it was said that Oneworld was not looking for any more members in Europe, so I'm not sure Oneworld will be rushing to accomodate Aer Lingus.
There have always been rumours about the sale of BA LGW short-haul operation to various airlines and nothing has ever come of them.
A more nuanced article about EI's alliance plans ca be found here:
All is still to play for.
Aer Lingus codeshares with British Airways and both have flights in and out of LGW. What I don't understand is why Aer Lingus operations are not at the North terminal where BA is based. It would make more sense. I know there is competition with Ryanair having operations out of South terminal, however when you compare the two terminals, passengers would rather use North terminal than the South.
Maybe if Aer Lingus joins the One World again, they might move to North terminal, fingers crossed! Or maybe just get rid of Easy jet flights out of North and replace them by Aer Lingus!
I think EasyJets LGW operation is so large it could not be moved back solely into South.
Everyone knows North is a much nicer terminal (though this may change if the new owners actually start investing in S).
And, probably similar to the historic reasons BA had operations scattered over every terminal (except the dreaded T2) at LHR, Easy's split operation at LGW might have something to do with influencing policy at each terminal to ensure its interests are best served, especially as it is now the dominant carrier at LGW.....
No clue where they stand now. Beyond the code shared flights between LHR/LGW and DUB, one can earn BA Miles on EI flights (not with the cheapest fares though). Strange...
I would welcome them back just because I would love to fly through Ireland precleared into US having done CBP in Ireland. (LCY is a terrible journey for me from SW.
Having EZY in just the south would be perfect....move EI and VS to the north would be better I think...Legacy carriers in North, Lo-cos and Charter in south.....(Make EI a legacy again and move it away from lo-co which i dont think has worked...legacies need to differentiate themselves from FR/EZY)
anyways, I haven't flown from LGW recently (however I am flying out of the North next week)...my other half told me that South is VERY different now, with Security a dream compared to what it was under BAA.....
Back to Topic, I think EI should re-join OW :o)
Air Berlin, bmi (slots only), TAP and Aer Lingus must surely be high on the shopping list.
Something in Asia would be prudent to ensure a stake in that growing market.
Leads us to effectively Lufthansa, AF/KL and IAG as carriers in Europe. Probably good for shareholders but more importantly I am not sure in comsumers best interest, given the past history of UK and European airlines in managed price markets and more recently alleged Cartel behaviour. I would like to see what I believe are called fifth freedom flights, allowing non EU carriers to have stopovers ine Europe and continue to UK. In the olden days PAn Am used to conenct to Berlin and JAL used to stop in Rome etc..
It will be intersting to see how BA's purchase of BMI will change the dynamic.
BMI seem to have reduced their flight frequency to Dublin having been serving DUB since 1986.
I see that Willie Walshe had not promised to 'preserve BMI existing slots serving Dublin' and hence you would reasonaly believe that the eisting BMI LHR slots serving DUB will be reallocated within the BA (IAG) network.
Indeed why would Willie be interested in buying EI with all their pension issues and union powers when he can have them feed passengers into LHR and onto BA longhaul sectors (as they currently do anyway) and not have the issue of preserving EI's LHR slots and Irish government intervention.
EI re-joining Oneworld would be great for BA.
From a Canadian point of view, Aer Lingus rejoining Oneworld would be very welcome.
Connecting via BA at LHR from EI would provide a reasonably seamless Oneworld connection between Canada and Ireland.
Ironically, as long as EI management continue their ridiculous love affair with the U.S.A. while ignoring Canada their transatlantic flights will continue to be boycotted by the preponderance of travellers between Canada and Ireland. The hassles of dealing with U.S. Immigration in order to connect to or from Aer Lingus are never worth it, even before 9/11.
We'll continue flying YYZ-DUB and SNN on BA via LHR several times a year. It would be great if the EI connector flights were also on a Oneworld carrier.
none of them fly to ireland, if BA completes BMI that will be the only option unless they can the route? xx
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