Ryanair

While phones will be billed by the users mobile phone company, the service, provided by OnAir, will cost approximately €0.50 to send a text message and between €2.00 and €3.00 per minute to make and receive calls.

Switching on your phone and receiving text messages will be free.

The service will also provide internet connectivity for email via Blackberry, iPhone etc.

Ryanair presented the opportunity to create ”one leading, financially strong, Irish-run airline group.”

The offered share price represents a €748 million offer, a premium of approximately 28% over the average closing price for the 30 days ended Nov. 28 and considerably lower than the €2.80 per share that it offered two years ago.

Ryanair guaranteed that Aer Lingus would remain a separately operated company and that both its brand and its slots and connectivity at London Heathrow would remain.

It plans to double Aer Lingus’ short-haul fleet over the next five years to 66 aircraft, creating a additional 1,000 jobs.

It also promised the Aer Lingus chairman, Colm Barrington, a seat on the Ryanair board however, Mr barrington responded that the offer was “the usual stream of invective, spin and misrepresentation that we expect from the people at Ryanair.”

Ryanair currently holds 29.8% of Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus has vowed to remain independent and CEO, Dermot Mannion, said on Sunday that Aer Lingus will respond to the offer document with a ” very positive, affirmative document that will set out an independent strategy for long-term growth on shorthaul and on longhaul in the business”

This will be intersting to watch and is likely to be ultimately  decided by the government who hold approx 25% of the airline’s shares. However, Ryanair are keen to also win support of the ESOP, who hold 14%, and have conceded that they will recognise union membership as part of the integration (something they do not do within Ryanair)

This is a blow to toursim in the southwest of Ireland, a region that has also seen UK visitor numbers affected by the closure of the Swansea-Cork ferry 2 years ago.

The routes to close are from East-Midlands and Glasgow-Prestwick, which will close on October 26th and 28th respectively.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said they had made the decision due to an increase in the charges being imposed by the airport on those routes from 1 November however Cork Airport management have rejected this claim stating that they have not raised charges.

Mr O’Leary claimed that he felt a deal was possible in recent negotiations but that the Airport’s parent company the Dublin Airport Authority(DAA) were blocking the move. He said that the situation could be rescued if the DAA “changed its mind” but as of now the two routes will finish in October.

This statement is sure to bring further pressure on government to complete the process of making Cork an independent airport from Dublin. This was promised with the breakup of Aer-Rianta in 2004, however as yet the process has been no more than a name change from Aer Rinata to the DAA.

As someone who works for an Irish company that has offices in both Cork and Glasgow, I really hope they sort this mess out!

Never one to miss an opportunity Micheal O’Leary, chief executive officer of Ryanair, today announced that he had started discussions Boeing to order as many as 200 new airplanes to their fleet.
“I think aircraft values are going to collapse this winter,” Mr O’Leary said. “I think Boeing and Airbus order books are going to be under stress as airlines go bankrupt.”

So rejoice there may be more exciting, if slightly out of town, destinations on the way for you to explore complements of Ryanair.

That’s not all the good news that came out today. Inflation in Ireland is on the way down, well at least in July. The Central Statistics Office says the annual rate of increase was down to 4.4% in July, compared to 5% in June. Wait there’s more, the main areas of decline where in Food & Drink and hotel accommodation. Now that really is good news for all you travellers hoping to visit our shores this summer. There was never a better time to plan your travel to Ireland.