[caption id="attachment_67173" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Christoph Mueller."]
Aer Lingus wants to keep at least a wing in the government fold. The onetime Irish national airline has expressed concern to the Irish government over its possible selling of its 25 percent stake to a rival airline.
Aer Lingus has stated that such a move could undermine its business model by damaging current partnerships and driving up costs.
According to reports, transport minister Leo Varadkar has indicated that his government had received expressions of interest from airlines and investment firms in its Aer Lingus stake.
during a meeting with investors and analysts, Aer Lingus CEO, Christoph Mueller, indicated that the airline would prefer a sale to an institutional investor as it would allow it to remain outside the major airline alliances and maintain a series of bilateral deals.
"We make money on
our neutrality. When the
government stake is discussed, before we jump to the conclusion of a trade buyer we should be very careful," Mueller told a meeting with investors broadcast on the Aer Lingus website.
Separately, Aer Lingus has revealed that its figures during the peak summer months of July and August of this year was better than the same time last year.
The carrier said that yields per passenger for July and August increased by 4.6 percent compared to the same period in 2010.
