If they are so customer focused why is the only way they will accept a complaint is by letter, no email no phone number. They are making a profit because they are turning into ryanair.

Barry, no matter what company you want to make a formal complaint to, they will require you put it in writing. This is fair practice and if you think otherwise, can you outline your reasons?

Ian even ryanair have a online contact form a fax number and a postal address. Aerlingus only a postal address and will only confirm they received the letter within 30 days.

Pension liabilities will sink aer lingus, I’d hold off on the champagne.

It would be a shame after such a good result.
Are the liabilitys that high ?.

No, they are not that high. Not to a carrier with 1 billion cash in the bank.

Deficit reported to be 748 million a year ago. These schemes were always underfunded and you could see that figure rise substantially over the decade.

The defecit is not just attributable to Aerlingus. Its a joint scheme with the DAA.

Dave, have a read of the annual report. Aer Lingus have put forward a proposal and it is up to the unions to accept it. Aer Lingus have no liability. It is separate to the airline

I’m aware of that, just pointing out that the pension scheme is not solely under aegis of Aer Lingus.

Have they not already got a contract with Virgin?

Can you ellaborate a bit Sean? A bit of scaremongering no? Aer Lingus have very strict rules also, I saw them refuse a lot of cabin baggage on flight to Amsterdam recently! They now to charge to sit at an exit row seat which is disgraceful, i’ve been on flights where these seats were left empty! Who’s supposed to open the exit door in an emergency? They’re as ruthless and money grabbing as most other airlines in europe! Their long haul is woeful! Terrible food! Charge 5euro for beer/wine when most long haul carriers provide complimentary alcohol (makes economy that bit more bareable!! ) They don’t have a patch on the services available onboard Ethihad, Emirates, Singapore et al! I wish them all the best been an Irish company but Im not deluded as to the standard of their product in comparison to their competitors!

You can’t compare Aer Lingus to Emirates, they fly different routes for starters. Aer Lingus long haul isn’t great I agree but in comparison to the other airlines flying the same routes ie to US it’s pretty much the same.

Of course they’re strict with their cabin baggage policy, flights have been continuously delayed due to excess baggage! NO BAGGAGE FEE when taken at the gate even if it is outside the limits as set out on the website! Beer is actually €4.50 on TA flights not €5 euro as stated! If you don’t like the economy meal or service there is always business class or the new enhanced meal that you could purchase for €17.50 that includes a complimentary alcoholic beverage! As for charging for seats that has become nearly industry standard at this stage did you BA charge first class passenger to pre-book seats? As per exits requirements the IAA has strict rules in relation to the seating of passengers at o/wing exits and I can guarantee they were not left unmanned for take off/landing if you insist otherwise I suggest you contact the IAA.

Why can’t you compare them to Emirates? Also Aer Lingus made a complete mess of most of their long haul routes, absolute disgrace that you have to go through London or stop in East Coast if you want to fly to USA West Coast ! What about the mess they made of the service they launced to Dubai? How long did that last? Emirates and Etihad seem to be making a lot of money with 3 daily flights to UAE, Aer Lingus couldn’t even turn a profit from been the only operator on the route at the time!
Also I personally find United and Deltas Long Haul to USA from Ireland a lot more pleasent than Aer Lingus’ even in narrow body aircraft!

@David. I have been on countless flights recently (not just Aer Lingus) where cabin crew have refused me access to sit in exit row because I didn’t pay for the privelege, they’d rather leave them empty! Surely a case should be before the european courts over safety concerns! 4.50/5 doesn’t matter… every other long haul carrier in europe provide complimentary alcohol, real cutlery and a higher standard of complimentary dining! Their long haul business has shrunk instead of grown over the last 10 years, evidence that they’re incapable of making a profit in this area! The only reason they’ve increased profitts is because they’ve switched to the Ryanair/EasyJet ‘No frills’ strategy on domestic making them almost indistinguishable from Ryanair.. Oh wait, you get your seat assigned at check-in! Hmmmm

@john
You don’t have to queue like cattle for your seat.. You can ACTUALLY check in for your flight? Aerlingus in my view would be classified as a hybrid carrier offering an alternative to what’s available for the high/low cost carriers out there at the mo.

The fact that you said you have been refused exit seats on several flights leads me to believe that you were deemed unsuitable to sit there for whatever reason, again you can refer to the IAA for more information re exit row seating.

As for the Atlantic not sure if your information is correct but when the full figures and details are released from today’s announcement we’ll all have more factual info

@David. Don’t be a smart ass! I was refused to sit there whilst onboard as I had not pre-paid for the ‘privelege’ Most airlines don’t have facility to accept the payment onboard and so they leave these seats empty! And I didn’t know the IAA were responsible for European wide safety regulation?

Here’s a link… Obviously Ryanair got the most attention but most other carriers including EI soon followed this money spinning idea!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2117537/Ryanair-investigated-emergency-exit-rows-left-passengers-snub-10-charge.html

Don’t use bad language it’s highly immature! I was simply suggesting one of the many reasons why you would be refused a seat there. IAA govern all Irish registered aircraft! Again refer to them for more information regarding all safety matters. Also I would suggest you no longer comment on pages like this if you reply to a genuine comment with profanity.

Thanks for the link John! But EI and FR are (for now) separate company’s! I have travelled FR recently and my friend and I were moved into empty overwing exits once all
Passengers had boarded the a/c.

@David. Profanity? A bit over the top no? Also read your comment again, it comes across as arrogant! Do you not think I would know if I had a disability which would make me ineligible from sitting at exit rows?
How often do you fly FR? I’ve witnessed this on numerous occasions and also on Norwegian and Ryanair, its well documented in the media!
Here’s a second article about contreversial exit row charging.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09road.html?_r=0

‘Insult’ i think would be more appropriate. I never mentioned a disability your assumptions are obviously getting a head of yourself. There are many many reasons why a cabin crew member might refuse you an exit seat! In fairness I’ve only flown FR once in the last couple of years. In my opinion they were ok for a short flight and fully compliant….

Ryanair have offered Flybe 100m pounds to buy Aer Lingus. Announced yesterday.

I’ll clear my previous comment up as its not accurate.
Ryanair offered Flybe 100million to set up Flybe Ireland and they could use the aer lingus brand for 3 years. however ryanair would own aer lingus. Part of the deal would be that Ryanair would give flybe Ireland 43 routes into Europe and nine airbus A320 aircraft. It’s all to by pass the competiton rules to ensure there is no monopoly airline in Ireland and to get approval from the EU commission.

No, they have offered flybe money to take over some Aerlingus routes, not buy the company.

Exactly Dave, hence why I cleared up my comment an hour before you “corrected” me.

Cork airport’s connectivity and ability to compete is hampered first and foremost by the ownership of DAA.

Ryanair don’t have an anti-Cork policy, though their bullying of easyjet off the ORK-LGW route was shocking. That said I enjoyed a lot of 20 euro return flights while the fight was going on.

Sure haven’t you got the Atlantic? Get the rowing boats man.

Have industry salaries for her role moved on in 6 years? i.e. can she claim she would get more pay for the same job at Ryanair or BA?

There is no right to automatic salary increases, and if you throw in your lot with a union, they ensure that any increase is paid to everyone and therefore miniscule, rather than rewarding individual effort.

I would suggest that increased profitability is related to increased butts in seats, lowering of costs etc. Mueller isn’t about to start handing that over to a staff that seem to be threatening strike action every 6 months.

I’d rather all their employees didn’t end up on the dole..would cost us all more then

So you’re in favour of state guaranteeing the balance sheets of all irish companies just so we never have a person lose a job?

Denise, can you please show me details of this money that the state provided while making a loss?!

In the article states that all stakeholders will be paid a dividend of 4c a share. Even so, I don’t know of any state funding given to the company since privatization…

O yeah 4000 people paying taxes,prsi and universal social tax yeah I think so.would you like to have 4000 less paying into the Irish economy

No, it isnt. The 200 per day meant to be leaving doesnt even fill one single A321 flight.

Billion if they said €1.3…. million if they said €1,393 (as they did) :-)

Ah yes Aer Lingus’ full year revenues were 1.3 Billion