Ryanair in massive U-turn on pull-out from Shannon
Change of heart: Ryanair's Michael O'Leary seemed to perform a U-turn yesterday by supporting Aer Lingus' Shannon pull-out
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RYANAIR will support Aer Lingus' plans to axe flights between Shannon and Heathrow if the national carrier proves the proposed Belfast-Heathrow route would be more profitable.
The boost for Aer Lingus comes as management confirmed that it will hold "crunch talks" with pilots this morning in a final bid to resolve pilots' objections to the Belfast base.
Ryanair has spent the last month calling on Aer Lingus to immediately reverse its Heathrow decision, claiming the move would be damaging for the Shannon region and Aer Lingus' bottom line.
Last week the route's survival seemed to be on the horizon, as Ryanair used its 29.4pc share in Aer Lingus to demand an extraordinary general meeting (egm) which would have almost certainly seen the Heathrow plans defeated.
But yesterday, in what some termed a massive u-turn, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said he might actually support the Heathrow plans.
Simplified
"If at the egm the man-agement and the board are able to demonstrate to shareholders that Belfast-Heathrow will be significantly more profitable than Shannon, then we would have no difficulty supporting the plans," he said.
Mr O'Leary's comments came as he unveiled plans to force Aer Lingus to hold the much contested egm. Last Friday Aer Lingus turned down Ryanair's first call for an egm, claiming the motions put forward were in breach of competition law.
Yesterday, Ryanair responded by putting forward a new egm request with one simplified motion, in a bid to get around the competition law concerns.
Mr O'Leary said that he was "very confident" that the egm would now be called.
Aer Lingus held a series of meetings yesterday afternoon to discuss the impact of Ryanair's latest play. Sources said that they had not accepted that holding the meeting was inevitable.
Mr O'Leary said that if Aer Lingus' board failed to hold the egm they would be in breach of their duty as company directors and could face censure from the courts.
"[If they fail to hold an egm] Ryanair could then convene the egm itself and any cost incurred by Ryanair must be discharged by Aer Lingus and deducted from Aer Lingus' director fees," he said. "I can envisage booking out the Four Seasons or perhaps the Shelbourne Hotel with a free bar for the Aer Lingus egm, with the Aer Lingus directors personally meeting the expense. One can but dream."
Aer Lingus has three weeks to respond to Ryanair's request; if an egm is to be held it must take place by early December.
Meanwhile, a senior Aer Lingus source last night confirmed that the company will hold "crunch talks" with its pilots and union bosses at 11am this morning. The talks, which will involve Aer Lingus ceo, Deputy ceo, planning director and human resources director, come as the airline today unveils the terms and conditions for pilots and crew at its Belfast base.
"This is about much more than Belfast, it's about our right to have different terms and conditions at new bases, so we'll stay talking to them for as long as it takes," the source said.
He added that Aer Lingus had already received more than 1,100 applications for the 100 jobs on offer at Belfast.
