Mr. Willie Walsh:

Senator Barrett is absolutely right. The Senator and I discussed the airline industry many years ago, and I respect his views. He has been a very strong advocate for competition and deregulation and is a strong supporter of Ryanair and an admirer of Michael O'Leary, as I am. What I can say to the Senator is, yes, IAG has opportunities to grow organically, but we also have opportunities to grow inorganically. That is the nature of business. When a business is looking at growth, it can see an opportunity to work with another entity and acquire it as part of a group. I believe IAG will bring fantastic value to Aer Lingus because of the structure within IAG. I understand some of the concerns that have been expressed, which would be valid if this was British Airways trying to acquire Aer Lingus. It is not. This is not BA seeking to acquire Aer Lingus; it is IAG. BA does not have any direct influence over the running of IAG. There is no BA representative on the board of IAG. The CEO of BA is part of my management team, just as the CEO of Aer Lingus would be reporting directly to me. They would have equal weight and equal votes around the management committee table. Aer Lingus would be in a position to influence the development of a global airline group in a way that it cannot do today, and would get all the benefit of the strength of that group behind it and working with it to enhance the growth plans that it has. While Senator Barrett sees it as taking out an existing producer, I see it as working with an existing producer to make that producer more efficient, to give it scale that it cannot access in isolation and to help it to grow in a way that it could not do otherwise.

IAG operates significant services into the UK regions. We fly to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Belfast. It is one of the biggest operators in some of these airports. Senator Barrett was correct when he highlighted the number of airlines. Some of the figures he quoted are different from the figures provided by the airports in terms of the number of routes they have. While the Senator may suggest that IAG operates only one service, we fly 6 million passengers in the UK domestic market. We are probably the biggest operator in terms of movement in places like Glasgow and Edinburgh, where we have a significant presence. We operated flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh into London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and London City airports. I assure the Senator that these airports love the British Airways presence. They beg for more services from British Airways. They do not in any way criticise us for what we do, and would be distraught if there was any suggestion that we might withdraw any of the services we provide. What we give them is connectivity to a global hub that they cannot access without the frequency of services that we offer.

Yes, they are connected to Amsterdam, albeit not with the same frequency of service. Similarly, they are connected to Paris and Dubai, but not with the same frequency of service. We offer connectivity - about which everybody present has expressed concerns - to these airports in a way that nobody else provides.