'Mini me' Coyle will play to his cost-cutting strengths
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WHEN Ryanair charged Aer Lingus with a hostile takeover bid in September 2005, the impending 'Ryanairisation' of our long-time national carrier was denounced far and wide.
Hundreds of jobs would be axed, the outraged masses warned, customer service would be shot to hell, and the experience of flying would be stripped bare to something less pleasurable than a trip to the dentist.
Less than two years after Michael O'Leary's bid fell into the European Commission appeals abyss, Aer Lingus has just given one of its most senior positions to a man with Ryanair blood pulsing through his veins.
Known as O'Leary's "mini me", Sean Coyle joined Ryanair as "personal assistant" to the Mullingar man, serving Mr O'Leary as Mr O'Leary once served his own mentor, the late Tony Ryan. He later graduated to 'Ryanair proper', rising through the ranks under deputy chief executive Michael Cawley and becoming an expert in the art of extracting the maximum fare from passengers, and pinpointing the best bases and routes.
More than anything, though, Mr Coyle is known as a Ryanair extremist, singularly fixated on slashing costs at every level.
Sources at Aer Lingus yesterday denied Mr Coyle's appointment represented a "change in strategy", insisting "this is not about turning Aer Lingus into Ryanair".
Yet, as head of finance, Mr Coyle will have a direct mandate over costs. And with oil topping the $140 mark, the accountant will inevitably play to his cost-cutting strengths.
The most likely immediate result is a programme to cut unneccessary costs throughout the airline taking in passenger comfort to executive perks.
An aggressive round of contract negotiations is likely to follow, similar to the one recently completed at Ryanair, which saw the airline demand cheaper prices from all its suppliers.
Aer Lingus' route planning is also likely to benefit from the fact that "Sean knows everything about Ryanair", so future routes are likely to be directed away from Ryanair's targets. In the longer term, the airline's staff bill may also be probed leading to a new round of pay disputes.
- Laura Noonan
