Mr. Joe Thompson:

We seek to make sure that what is quite a technical element of the aviation business is reflected in remedies applied to this transaction. I recognise and applaud the efforts of the committee and others in Ireland to review the impact of the proposed transaction between IAG and Aer Lingus. The simple and prevalent way of looking at these arrangements in the past was to think about what the aeroplanes do. This is the most visible demonstration of how an airline operates. Flights operate between point A and point B and much of the focus in this case has been on the overlapping routes that Aer Lingus and BA operate today between Ireland and the UK. That fails to recognise that customers and consumers often do different things from what the airline does. If there is not a direct service between two points, customers must make connections, and the interests of those consumers are just as important as the interests of point-to-point consumers on direct flights. Our perspective is the interest of those consumers, with which the interests of Virgin Atlantic Airlines and many of our competitors at Heathrow are aligned. We are here today and have expressed our concerns about how elements, and potential consequences, of the transaction are related to a group of consumers whose interests have not been reflected so far.

Regarding the need to deal with changing competitive dynamics in the marketplace, we do that all the time. The airline industry is susceptible to changing external conditions and we must deal with them all the time. We do so and will continue to do so in the course of our everyday business. Where a transaction of a company creates consumer harm, regulators have a responsibility to act, and we are trying to highlight the interest of a group of consumers whose interests have not been reflected in the debate to date.