AER LINGUS chief executive Christoph Mueller has given his clearest signal yet that the airline would be interested in purchasing Heathrow slots that might shake out from the proposed takeover of Lufthansa-owned British Midland International (BMI) by Willie Walsh-led International Airline Group (IAG).
“We are after slots in the wake of the proposed acquisition of BMI by IAG or BMI going into receivership,” Mueller told trade publication Air Transport World this week.
“London Heathrow has a huge catchment area and we want to pull more transfer traffic to our long haul [flights]. We have limited growth opportunities in Ireland but we can compensate the weakness of the Irish market by increasing our transfer [traffic]. Our transfer traffic is growing and long haul is doing very well,” he said.
The IAG-BMI deal is currently under review by the European Commission. IAG recently offered to increase the number of slot pairs that it would surrender as part of the deal to 14 from 10 previously in an effort to avoid a lengthy Phase II investigation.
Aer Lingus currently operates 24 daily take-off and landing slots at Heathrow, of which it owns 23.
Mueller also struck a positive note on 2012 profitability with the magazine – it posted an operating profit of €49.1 million last year.
“We will be profitable, that is safe to say. By how much will depend of the fuel prices,” he said. “The performance of our short-haul business routes and long-haul business class is very strong.”
On transatlantic routes, Aer Lingus’s business-class cabin “is always sold out before economy class”, he confirmed.
However, leisure routes remain under pressure as the Irish consumer is “on safe mode”, he said.
“We reduced our exposure on these routes already last year and we will continue to do so this year. We’re focusing more and more on the non-Irish consumer and shifted out ticket sales, from 55 per cent outbound and 45 per cent inbound to 45 per cent outbound and 55 per cent inbound.”