Aer Lingus needs to look at merger - Willie Walsh

 Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways feels that Aer Lingus may need to surrender its independence in order to secures its future. Mr. Walsh was speaking on Tuesday October 20 at the Jim Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick. Given the way that the Irish economy has suffered in recent times and given the way that the airline has performed of late he said that "you could now make an argument that its future as an independent carrier is not that secure and maybe Aer Lingus does need to look at a relationship with some other carrier." He added however that the current legacy ownership structure will make it difficult to attract an outside investor. "With Ryanair a significant shareholder at 30% and the Irish government with 25%, ESOT (Employee Share Ownership Trust) with 15% I struggle to see how anyone would invest or want to invest with that sort of structure."

On the subject of a Ryanair takeover of Aer Lingus, Mr. Walsh said that he had always found it difficult to understand why Ryanair would want to takeover Aer Lingus. He wouldn't say that a merger was impossible but it would be difficult given the competition implications. "If you look at the theory of competition, the consumer couldn't win with the two firms merged. That competition would disappear."