Madam, - There are many theories circulating about Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus but one point is fairly compelling.
Even if Ryanair doesn't succeed in buying Aer Lingus it has done a good job of embarrassing the Government, which yet again has run a botched privatisation.
The flotation was clearly under-priced for reasons of political expediency and/or to keep the investment bankers and unions happy. And with its intimate knowledge of the Irish aviation market Ryanair is well placed to know the extent of this undervaluation.
The result is that even in a failed bid scenario Ryanair will be able to unload its shares at a profit, leaving its shareholders (the biggest of which is Mr Michael O'Leary) in the money, at the expense of the Irish taxpayer, who should have received more than €2.20 per share in the first place.
Yet again it looks like O'Leary 1, Ahern 0. - Yours, etc,
DOUGLAS KEATINGE, Paris, France.
Madam, - Aer Lingus managers say Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus should fail because it undervalues the company. If the offer of €2.80 a share undervalues Aer Lingus, why did these high-flying executives value the shares at €2.20 less than two weeks ago? - Yours, etc,
JOE HACKETT, Charlotte Terrace, Dalkey, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus is its best bit of PR yet. I tip my hat to Michael O'Leary; he truly is a great businessman.
But more importantly, it also amuses me to see the Government and unions scrambling around to find some way to block the takeover. This exposes the greed and cronyism that is at the heart of semi-State Ireland. The unions and Government were only too happy to take the windfall from privatisation as long as no "undesirables" bought the shares and they could continue to dictate the running of the airline.
They were only too happy to force privatisation on an unwilling public - telling us, wrongly, that the EU would not allow State funding and that flotation was the only way to finance the expansion of the airline. Then came the biggest con of all: getting the taxpayers of Ireland to buy shares in a company they already owned.
Aer Lingus is no longer a State asset and no longer a semi-State body, it is a publicly quoted company. Let the market decide. - Yours, etc,
PADRAIC MURRAY, O'Connell Avenue, Limerick.
Madam, - Now that Impact and Siptu have both denounced the proposed takeover of Ryanair on the basis that it would create a "near monopoly" in air travel on this island, it appears that the larger unions are finally waking up to the reality of the benefits of competition.
Am I to presume that these unions will maintain such consumer-friendly stances on further issues of competition, such as the elimination of monopolies in electricity supply, public transport and, please God, the postal service? - Yours, etc,
RORY DOWLING, Windmill Lane, Dublin 2.
Madam, - As I live abroad and depend on airlines to get me back to Ireland, I am keenly interested in Michael O'Leary's bid to take over Aer Lingus, but also rather worried by it.
To hear Mr O'Leary tell it, he is trying to do us all a favour by cutting costs in Aer Lingus and making the airline as lean and competitive as Ryanair is. He claims he wants to bring Aer Lingus average fares down to Ryanair levels over the coming years. Fine, so far as that goes.
But there are many short-haul routes on which Ryanair and Aer Lingus are in direct competition (London, Paris, Brussels, Glasgow and Rome, to name a few). If Mr O'Leary does end up running both airlines, it seems illogical that he should wish to make it harder to fill Ryanair flights to out-of-the-way airports such as Beauvais, Prestwick or Charleroi by letting Aer Lingus fly you to a main airport instead for the same price - and without the need for a long bus or train trip often costing as much as the flight.
No, something there will have to give - but Mr O'Leary is not telling, the canny man. In Belgium's case, either the airport and staff at Charleroi, together with the shuttle bus company, have something to fear, or the Irish civil servants and MEPs who make up a significant portion of the passengers on Aer Lingus's current Dublin-Brussels route, have longer, less direct trips to look forward to. - Yours, etc,
DONAL CAREY, Brussels, Belgium.