While the government remains paralyzed by crisis, the world, especially the business world, keeps on spinning. Ryanair’s announcement that it had already bought 16% of Aer Lingus’s shares and was intending to take over the company outright appeared to come from out of the blue, reported as breaking news off the wires this morning. I can envision the Competition Authority probably having a beef with the takeover. But if the deal did go through, it could trigger an interesting, and highly unusual, power struggle. Union power in the Irish economy is largely confined to public services, semi-state bodies, and large, established indigenous firms. The companies associated with Ireland’s economic boom, foreign multinationals and start-ups (such as Ryanair), do their utmost to quarantine their organizations from union infiltration. Now, for the first time, these separate domains could come into contact. If the union spokespeople in Aer Lingus–who unsurprisingly and rapidly howled at Ryanair’s move–are correct, this collision might be akin to a catastrophic meeting of matter and antimatter.
However, it’s unlikely that Michael O’Leary will do a Wapping, tackling the unions head-on. For a start, Aer Lingus is that rara avis among international airlines, a fairly profitable outfit. The motivation for a fight is lacking. In addition, potential political backing is absent: there’s nobody remotely along the lines of Thatcher in the Dail ready to take Bertie’s place once the Taoiseach (finally) does the honourable thing and jumps.
But that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be some scrapes. For the bearded chieftains of SIPTU, Jack O’Connor and Michael Halpenny, Michael O’Leary is about as welcome as a Marine in Fallujah. On the other side, the, er, “flexibility” Ryanair appears to expect from its staff (leading “almost all” of the airline’s pilots to claim that they have been victimized) is likely to spark a firestorm if applied to a company that has appeared (in the past) as if run for the benefit of the employees.
On balance, I can’t envision the Ryanair acquisition to be a union-busting maneouvre. However, given the above-mentioned objections from regulators–obviously foreseen by O’Leary & Co.–it’s tempting to interpret Ryanair’s move as just profitable sabre-rattling, showing its power to a government that has hitherto ignored the company’s demands on a new terminal for Dublin airport.
Whether a genuine attempt at a buyout or a political feint, either way I can’t counterfeit the despair over developments displayed by blogger Sara Carey:
From my experience, on the short-haul routes both airlines serve, the service is virtually indistinguishable: safe, cheapish, and no frills, or even items from which frills might hang. Egregious examples of discourtesy (or courtesy) cannot be recalled.
As for long-haul, which only applies to Aer Lingus, the airline is competitive on price but falls way short on comfort and service. If I had a choice between BA and Aer Lingus to, say, Arizona, I’d choose–prices being equal–the former every time.
Finally, the elephant in the living room is the prospect of much higher fuel taxes to counter the enormous harm to the climate caused by flying. This might be accompanied by a growing guilt over those city breaks we have become so enamoured with in the Ryanair era. The combination of higher prices and distaste might eventually make airline travel something equivalent to driving a Land Rover around the city: a sign of success and freedom for the passengers, but a symbol of obnoxious carelessness for the bystander.
Yet one suspects we will have to find Arctic meltwater lapping at our doorsteps before we jettison the freedom of travelling halfway across a continent for less than the price of a worthy train journey between Dublin and Cork.