NET RESULTS:Aer Lingus's dropping of its two-year-old direct Dublin-San Francisco route has been more than just a frustration, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON
IF YOU were looking for a location to set up your office in Ireland, what would influence that choice?
The majority of people would say location. For a small subset, “location” might be a beautiful, relaxing setting or a small village they love, all off the beaten track. But for most, a good business location means somewhere that is well connected – a reasonably easy commute, with good transport connections.
The same holds internationally. The more hops you have to a journey, the less attractive that journey becomes. Direct links make for easier flight connections, and a more attractive location for investment or to form relationships with partner companies.
It’s one thing if you are planning a holiday trip to, say, Vietnam or Kenya, which might involve two or three flights and some awkward connections. The unique nature of the holiday means you are likely to tolerate the tedium and inconvenience of the journey. But what if you had to make that journey many times a year for work? The route could quickly become exasperating.
That’s why Aer Lingus’s dropping of its two-year-old direct Dublin-San Francisco route has been more than just a frustration – it has caused alarm among many of those with interests in the technology sector. Yes, we do have a direct flight still to Boston, another tech centre, which has been important. I recall a conversation with one chief executive who told me the main reason he based his technology company in Boston years ago was the direct Dublin flight, and the lack of same to San Francisco or San José meant the company didn’t go there.
I know many feel Ireland benefited from having that brief, direct flight into San Francisco and saw it as a real selling point to form connections for foreign direct investment and to encourage Irish companies out to the Valley.
Since the flight ended, the topic has come up regularly as a frustration among entrepreneurs and those who work for the Irish operations of Silicon Valley-based companies.
Just before the flight closed indefinitely, I ran into the Enterprise Ireland Leadership 4 Growth group of chief executives heading for Stanford University, queuing to board the flight in Dublin airport. The ending of the route was a concern for many of them. On my return, I noted the Aer Lingus desk at San Francisco had posted a welcome sign for a group of Irish-American Valley chief executives – those desirable diaspora – coming across for an investment event.
Ironic, then, that just as we are trying to forge Valley connections for Ireland, it will become far more tedious to get back and forth. My most recent trip, via London, involved an exhausting journey in both directions and the loss of an entire work day on arrival due to poor midday Dublin connections from Heathrow.
Okay, so you get a bit tired, you say, but does a little personal inconvenience really matter? In the giant scheme of things, of course it is merely an annoyance. But the loss of our direct link to Silicon Valley is worrying at a time when most of the smart-economy impetus and so many of our big multinational tech-sector employers come out of this region.
When I recently interviewed serial internet entrepreneur Ray Nolan, whose Web Reservations International, parent company of Hostelworld.com, had just been sold for in excess of €200 million, he felt the loss of the flight was a big negative at the time when the State is trying to encourage techsector investment and creativity.
He thought it would narrow opportunities because it adds a layer of hassle, and is of the opinion that Irish technology start-ups need to be looking at Silicon Valley as a destination and learning centre.
Google’s director of finance and business intelligence, David Martin, raised the issue during a recent Leviathan public debate at TCD’s Science Gallery. I missed the event but rang him to get his perspective.
“It’s great that we’re all committed to building out a strong economy, but we need linkages,” he says. “The lack of a direct flight really hampers that development. Obviously, having it helps foster more interaction and it acts as a catalyst for meeting up with people.”
For companies such as Google, a direct flight makes it far easier for senior people within the company to get to Ireland, which can help spur further expansion or prompt investment in the first place. Yes, Google set up in Ireland before there was such a flight, he says, and it clearly isn’t critical. But such links help.
“The reality is that a lot of smart-economy companies are based on the west coast of the US,” he says. A direct flight “is an enabler, and could be an important enabler”.
Many in the business community will be waiting with fingers crossed when Aer Lingus announces its spring schedule and will pray the direct flight returns – or that another airline picks up the slot, perhaps when Terminal 2 opens with US passport clearance.
Here’s hoping.
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