Ms Lynne Embleton:

Let me elaborate on this. As we have said, if there is a point-to-point demand and a point-to-point flight, that is the best thing for customers. Where there is no point-to-point flight and customers have to connect, they can do so from Ireland through Amsterdam and Frankfurt but what that does is provide passengers to support the growth of German and Dutch hubs.

I would argue that it is in our interests to support the growth of the Dublin hub. Therefore, the accessibility of Dublin Airport and ensuring that customers across Ireland, where there is no direct flight, can quickly and easily get to the airport should be part of an overall infrastructure and national aviation policy. The Dublin hub has been growing and Aer Lingus has been key to growing it. That is seen in the breadth of north Atlantic destinations that are served now that were not served several years ago. That said, we are still quite a long way behind in overall breadth compared with Heathrow, which is a leader, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam, as the Chair mentioned. They have more connectivity to Asia in particular. If we keep pointing customers towards their hubs, they will keep developing but if we can point customers towards our hub, then it will develop, and Ireland will benefit because we will have a broader breadth of destinations available. It is the exponential effect of passengers-----