Aer Lingus will not delay flotation - Mannion

Last week's airport terror alerts and the decision to delay the open skies agreement between the European Union and the United States will not deter the Aer Lingus flotation, according to its CEO.

However, Dermot Mannion said the airline would now put on hold new routes to the United States that were being planned increase capacity on its existing routes to North America. Aer Lingus is due have two transatlantic or long-haul aircraft delivered this autumn.

"We've always had a plan B in mind. It's true that we had anticipated open skies some time in 2007, but plan B has always been to grow capacity on our existing routes to North America and look at other opportunities east-bound from Ireland and we'll obviously continue to do that, he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"What we have said and what we will continue to say is that we are uniquely placed in Europe to take advantage of open skies in whatever form it comes and when it comes."

Mr Mannion said Aer Lingus, as the forth-largest operator to Heathrow, suffered a couple of difficult days but that services were back to normal. Despite the problems facing the industry, he has not considered postponing the airline's floatation.

"No definitely not. Let's put it into context. Difficult though the problems were last week it was very much UK focused, certainly focused on flights between the UK and the United States and so far as we know Ireland did not have a heightened level of airport security during that period."

He said an offer price for Aer Lingus will be published early in September and there would be no discount in relation to last week's events.

"The airline business is very much a long term one. People invest in aircraft for the long haul. It's well recognised that periodically the airline industry is more susceptible than other industries are to security matters and so on. We did have a security incident last week but we have bounced back and we're moving on," Mr Mannion said.