Soft landing in row over fares
Carrier's reputation, not pocket, takes hit
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AER Lingus won't lose a cent despite its dramatic decision to reinstate 700 US return tickets inadvertently sold for €5 each, the Irish Independent can reveal.
Aer Lingus announced the embarrassing climbdown at lunchtime yesterday, after enduring a 36-hour public relations battering.
However, based on passenger figures for its US routes last year, the airline will not suffer any financial hit because it's likely those seats would have been empty anyway.
The controversy began when passengers booked the €5 flights on Wednesday morning, thinking they were getting the bargain of the year.
That afternoon, however, Aer Lingus declared the bookings the result of a "glitch" and promptly cancelled the seats, sparking mass outrage.
As the saga unfolded on Thursday, the influential National Consumer Agency called on Aer Lingus to revise its position, while a group of 15 executives engaged legal heavyweights Mason Hayes Curran to take legal action if the flights weren't reinstated.
As the controversy mounted, Aer Lingus stood firm on Thursday night, insisting a "call had been made" and stressing they could legally cancel the flights since their sale had been a "genuine error".
Discontent
Yesterday morning, transport minister Noel Dempsey added his voice to the sea of discontent, urging Aer Lingus to honour the bookings, and just before 1.00pm the airline issued a statement confirming an embarrassing climbdown.
Figures analysed by the Irish Independent show while some put the cost of the debacle at over €1m, the actual financial impact will be negligible.
Aer Lingus last night confirmed a maximum of 700 seats had been mispriced because of the "glitch", with all these seats on the New York or Boston routes. All €5 passengers have paid their own taxes and charges, bringing the total ticket price to about €100 each way.
The flights, originally booked as premium, will be reinstated as economy where fares are typically about €350 each way including taxes and charges.
Empty
But, Aer Lingus won't be losing €250 each way per passenger, since the vast majority of the seats sold would have otherwise flown empty.
The airline will offer about 122,000 seats on the New York and Boston routes during the summer months.
Last summer, about 20pc of long-haul seats went unsold, leaving some 24,400 empty seats on those New York/ Boston planes, easily enough to absorb the 700 passengers paying nominal fares.
Aer Lingus commercial director Enda Corneille said some passengers might have booked the flights anyway at normal fares but acknowledged the financial cost was likely to be "insignificant".
The damage to Aer Lingus' reputation, however, is likely to be more considerable, with the story making headlines across Europe yesterday.
Mr Corneille acknowledged the debacle "could have been handled a lot better".
"When we cancelled the flights we thought there was no way passengers could have made a genuine mistake, but when we stimulated the glitch late on Thursday night we found out they could have genuinely believed they were getting a real price so we're reinstating the flights," he said.
He added that an investigation will be carried out into the situation. But he said there was no feeling that "any heads might roll" as a result of the debacle.
A number of Aer Lingus employees benefited from the glitch but the airline has ruled out taking any disciplinary action against them.
Meanwhile, the National Consumer Agency welcomed the airline's decision to honour the flights.
- Laura Noonan
