Mr. Willie Walsh:

Deputy Tom Fleming asked about the market value of slots. To be honest, I cannot answer that because the market value depends on having a willing seller and a willing buyer. I am not aware of anybody suggesting that Aer Lingus should sell slots. In fact, I am not aware of Aer Lingus ever attempting to sell slots at Heathrow. Some of the speculation in the press has resulted from a reported slot deal that has taken place recently where it is reported that an airline, yet to be named, paid $60 million to acquire a slot from SAS and, therefore, they are assuming that all slots of Heathrow have a value of €60 million. That is nonsense. Quite honestly, there are slots available at Heathrow today that people have not taken up.

That is mainly because they are at times of the day and days of the week when they do not want them. Without question, some slots do have value.

There is only one airline that has ever put the slots on their balance sheet, and that was BMI in 2008, when they had 77 slot pairs and they put a value on those slots of £770 million. IAG acquired that business for £172.5 million in 2012, at a time when it had 54 slots. The implied value of £10 million per slot in 2008 certainly did not hold to 2012 when IAG bought the airline. That £172.5 million was the gross figure. The net figure we paid was actually considerably lower than that. Slots can have a value, but the value changes. It is dependent on somebody being willing to sell and equally on somebody being willing to buy. Slots have traded in Heathrow for less than £1 million, they have traded for £10 million, and they have traded for £5 million. There is not a fixed price. Typically, the early morning slots have more value than the midday slots, which in turn are more valuable than evening slots. There is a sliding scale. Many slots that come on the market do not get sold because nobody is interested in buying them.

With regard to the PSO for Kerry and Donegal, I am assuming that is a Government decision. Interestingly, it is a five-year Government commitment. I am assuming that will continue, but it is something that Government will have to determine.