Mr. Willie Walsh:

The Chairman asked what has damaged Aer Lingus. As I said, the recovery is likely to be in domestic markets, short haul and then long haul. Aer Lingus has significant dependence on its transatlantic market, which has been very successful. Consequently, the recovery will take longer for Aer Lingus. My real concern is that the message coming from Ireland has been very negative, much more so than the message coming from other countries. The attitude has been that anybody travelling into Ireland must be infected and therefore we should not allow anybody in. I have not witnessed that to the same degree in any other country I have been dealing with. It has been particularly damaging to the reputation of Ireland as a destination country, which it is. We depend heavily on inbound traffic.

My point about US carriers is that there was considerable transatlantic competition with many services being provided by US carriers.

I do not see them providing the same level. They will serve Ireland but not to the same degree or with the same frequency of service. It will probably be more on a seasonal than a year-round basis, which is a risk. There will be a delay in some cases. It will probably mean that some of the airlines that we are serving would not serve Ireland as a destination or may only serve it seasonally. Regarding support, if I look at Iberia, it is probably twice the size of Aer Lingus but received five times the level of financial support from the Spanish Government.