Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

While it was recognised that Aer Lingus was not an instrument of Government policy, there was an expectation that it would take these wider policy issues into account in making commercial decisions. The Minister also made the point that Aer Lingus should have engaged more with its customers and wider stakeholders before announcing its decision. The Aer Lingus Chairman informed the Minister that the decision was taken to establish a new base at Belfast International Airport following extensive evaluation of growth opportunities throughout Europe. He said the decision was commercially robust and the company would not reconsider it.

The company has reiterated that position consistently and it was evident from early on that Aer Lingus would not deviate from this position. Given that fact, the Government began to look at the possibility of restoring connectivity on the route. A number of options were explored in that regard. The Minister investigated the possibility of the State acquiring Heathrow slots to replace the service. The Minister was informed that this was not legally possible. It is not open to the State to acquire slots as the applicable rules allow only for slots to be assigned to airlines. The option of providing funding to assist in acquiring such slots was also examined, but again this or any other form of direct subvention of a London Heathrow slot is constrained by the state aid rules.

Arising from this it was clear that the focus of attention had to move to securing a replacement service for the Shannon Heathrow route. It was indicated clearly to the Shannon Airport Authority that the Government would assist it in any way that it possibly could. The Shannon Airport Authority, which has direct responsibility for securing such services, has been actively pursuing all options in this regard since then. The authority has specifically identified airline services to the key European hub airports of London-Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt as being of key strategic importance to its ongoing development. The airport recently published a European hub airport incentive scheme for services to come into operation in 2008, which provides for significant discounts in airport charges and for the possibility of marketing support to be provided by Shannon Airport for new services.

Regarding connectivity for the mid-west region, it is accepted by the Government that this decision by Aer Lingus will have an adverse effect on the region——

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