Mr. Willie Walsh:

To take the markets I am most familiar with from my time at IAG, we have had employee support schemes in the UK, Spain and Ireland, and they were generally similar. I would say Ireland's was the least attractive of the three but there was not a huge difference between them all. If I then look at how airlines accessed financial support, the Spanish Government put in place a loan guarantee scheme with Spanish commercial banks, which IAG accessed through Iberia Airlines and Vueling Airlines to the tune of €1 billion. We saw Aer Lingus get €150 million through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, whereas for Iberia and Vueling it was €1 billion. From memory, it was €750 million for Iberia and €250 million for Vueling; these are commercial loans but guaranteed by the Spanish state in the event of a default on the part of the company. British Airways accessed financing through two different schemes in the UK to the tune of about $2.8 billion. In terms of scale, obviously, Aer Lingus is smaller than British Airways or Iberia, but in terms of scale and importance, I would argue that Aer Lingus is probably of greater economic importance. Therefore, while Aer Lingus has accessed funding through ISIF, it is not on a similar scale to what is being made available in Spain or the UK.