Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Of course they will. Aer Lingus, and anybody who owns an involvement in Aer Lingus, will want to make sure the company is as viable commercially as it has always been and will be more commercially successful into the future.

The Deputy makes an interesting point. The world has changed dramatically. Aer Lingus and the Heathrow slots had a much higher value when there were no other airport operations in, say, France, Germany and elsewhere like the hubs that exist now. There is huge competition to Heathrow and an interesting example is the Irish dynamic where we have direct flights to the Middle East. That takes many passengers and requirements out of Heathrow and it is my determination that we will have direct flights and increased capacity into the United States, which will mean Irish people will be able to fly direct from Ireland to many more destinations in America without having to go to Heathrow. I sincerely hope, as other countries have indicated to me, that there will be direct flights to China, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. This has implications for Heathrow because — the Deputy is right — there will not be the volume of passengers who have to go to Heathrow to get connecting flights if there are direct connecting flights from Dublin. There is no doubt that changes the dynamic but I do not see the volume of traffic to Heathrow, in terms of what Aer Lingus does currently, diminishing because there is constant demand for that volume of traffic and I expect that to continue long into the future.

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