Willie Walsh (right), head of International Airlines Group, owner of Aer Lingus
Heathrow’s controversial third runway.
In Dublin!?
“This means I sometimes have to make difficult decisions [Said Willie Walsh] and ultimately the buck stops with me. If the [British] Government continues to dither over a new runway, then I’ll move my business elsewhere. We now have airlines in Dublin and Madrid, and can expand our business there, supporting the strengthening Irish and Spanish economies.”
Later:
“This is not just fighting talk — we have the practical ability to expand elsewhere.
This means Spain and Ireland will get the economic benefits and new jobs from our expansion plans, while the UK Government twiddles its thumbs and watches as the world progresses around it.”
Thanks Colm King
i’m sure the owld “double irish” tax scam would help too, eh Willie?
Double Irish and the Dutch Sandwich were being shut down as far as I remember. There are other things that could be very attractive to them here, including corporation tax and spare airport capacity.
ah I’m sure they’ll come up with a new scam pretty quickly, there’s billions on the line and they can’t have it going into government coffers paying for hospital beds or helping the homeless, eh?
“If your assertions are shown to be spurious, double-down and offer some other conspiratorial nonsense.” – good interneting, friend
You don’t think they would invest some resources in lowering their taxation bill, poor grasp of modern capitalism there, my friend..
That doesn’t work with air lines. I mean you can base here but it’s not really feasible for airlines like it is other companies.
He hasn’t suggested that he will move the comapny hq elsewhere – only that he might run more flights through Dublin/Madrid rather than London.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were doing so already. Both Dub & Madrid have spare capacity & both (thinking of T2 now) are typically more pleasant than Heathrow.
Depends on how much of their traffic wants to fly direct to & from London
They’re both a whole lot cheaper too.
Might give them some money to give T1 a lick of paint too. Starting to look more and more like a run-down bus station.
Or maybe the fact that:
Dublin Airport is more accessible from Northern UK than Heathrow
The Terminals have a combined capacity of 30 million
A second runway can be built on demand
But hey, maybe it’ s the tax breaks, although there’s no mention of BA relocation to Ireland
there’s no room for expansion and dublin airport. i’d say enda would be happy to give over baldonnel though, you know for a bit of an oul loan and a seat on the board for a crony or two.
For a hub they wouldn’t need a big city, would they? Shannon should be fine I would have thought.
shannon? they’d be better off building a docks, wha? wha?
Have to say having another airport to the west of the city at Baldonnel would get a big yes from me.
only a matter of time. gaoithe..
There is quite a bit of capacity in Dublin currently.
Strange that they got planning permission for a parallel runway in 2007 then, isn’t it?
fingal are weird like that though. they approved planning for a new runway but knew well that they couldn’t by law allow anything else to be built within the crash zone. but you know, when has the law ever stopped anyone from making a quick buck, eh?
Crash Zone? No such thing my friend.
The new runway was approved in 200 when passenger numbers required it. Now that passenger numbers exceed those in 2007 the runway is required and will be built.
What the hell is a ‘crash zone’?
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/new-airport-runway-will-create-crash-zone-say-residents-25937346.html
it’s a zone, in which crashes are likely to happen. ergo, a ‘crash zone’.
As described by local residents who are likely to be annoyed by the noise.
If you’re talking about Public Safety Zones, they don’t ban development, but were proposed to limit certain high-density development.
Beaumont Hospital is in the existing runway 34’s proposed Public Safety Zone
Is this some sort of Ryanair approach? Fly to “London” which is like, you know, very close to Dublin or Madrid.
I think he might be looking at Madrid as a hub for flights between South America and Europe and Dublin for North American flights.
Madrid is already saturated. He would be better targetting Northern and Nort West Europe
And all the little Paddies get all excited about it without informing themselves on all the details and realizing it’s just a game play and not going to happen.
Diddley ay diddley doo.
…or it is an auction and they have opened for bids…
Here’s a formula worth remembering the next time you’re annoyed about stereotyping:
Supercrazyprices = Moron