Aer Lingus/Shannon

I was prepared not to like Dermot Mannion, the new chief executive of Aer Lingus, but listening today, to his strong defence of the decision to move their base from Shannon to Belfast , has caused me to change my mind.

Originally ,I thought he was, effectively, a Government appointee, who would cave -in as soon as the going got tough, but , as in many , many,(is the spacing alright , Robert ?)...other instances I was wrong.It's not really a case of the decision being right or wrong commercially, but the fact that having made it, (the first really important decision made by that company as a private organisation) ,Mannion is sticking to his guns despite the massively negative reaction, from almost every side,except , of course , Belfast, and the usual cowardly reaction from An Taoiseach....silence...(hoping it will be interpeted as ...leadership).

Now, today, two more moves in the game , Michael O'Leary,the Ryanair guy,whose company owns 25% of Aer Lingus is in Shannon, stirring the s**t, saying: 1. that he wants an E.G.M. to be called, and : 2. that if the Government (i.e.Bertie), wishes he will throw in his 25%with the Government's 25%,which combined with the Employees 12%,will enable them to reverse the decision.
The other action today was that by the Aer Lingus pilots to call a 2 day total strike to show their opposition to the move.

Being a suspicious person at heart, I actually believe that there was some political involvement in the original decision, but all the more credit to Mannion if there was, as he is now taking full responsibility for the move...

As for the rest of them,politicians,the pilots,the other Aer Lingus staff,they have all contributed to creating a well-fed monster while A.L. was a semi-state company (pretending to be a real private company),with every perk imaginable as far as free travel,pensions,working conditions,pay ...and of course trade union involvement in the day -to- day workings of the company.
We , the travelling/tax-paying public thought all that was over...it will be if Dermot Mannion's will prevails on the issue and O'Leary goes back to beating-up his own passengers....
(Robert ,get a copy of today's (14 th Aug ) Irish Independent and see the letter from yours truly.....not on above subject)