Aer Lingus pledges fare play for customers

AER Lingus has promised there will be no decline in its customer service, as it continues its low fares drive.

The company’s latest advertising campaign uses the slogan “Low fares. Way Better”.

“We have been a low fares airline for some time now but these ads are responding to any confusion that there will be a reduction in customer service. There are traditional values to Aer Lingus’ service and they are going to stay,” spokeswoman Gráinne O’Malley said.

Aer Lingus’ more aggressive low cost approach is expected to earn the company profits of €75 million for this year. But with 2,000 staff laid off in the last two years, Aer Lingus chief executive Willie Walsh, admitted the airline had “dropped the ball” at times in relation to customer service.

Aer Lingus said it will continue to provide tea and coffee on flights, free services for disabled users and direct routes to its destinations. The State carrier claims its service was far more attractive than other budget carriers like Ryanair. “We fly to central airports, not some place 40 miles away from a city and we pre-assign seats for passengers. We do not cancel flights due to disruptions like the recent fog in Dublin airport. Our passengers were delayed but we still got them away,” Ms O’Malley said.

Ryanair disputed Aer Lingus’s claim to be a low fares airline. “Their average fare is 50% higher than Ryanair’s. And Aer Lingus still refuse to publish their punctuality statistics. Ryanair publish customer performance statistics each week and every month,” spokesman Paul Fitzsimmons said.

Aer Lingus’s revenues have improved dramatically since a near meltdown situation two years ago. It made an operating profit of €14.3m for the first half of this year compared to an operating loss of €12.6m for the same period last year.

The company has become far more willing to take unpopular decisions to boost profits. Last month, it abolished the 15% discount for children aged between two and 11 on all routes from Ireland to Britain and continental Europe. It also pulled out of the Cork-Dublin route and introduced a €20 charge for passengers bringing a bag of golf clubs.

The Consumers Association said the competition between Ryanair and Aer Lingus was good news for passengers. But chief executive Dermott Jewell said there was still a lack of a reliable quality service. “Complaints about low fare airlines have levelled off in recent years but we still need a quality service that protects the consumer. The airlines are attempting to dilute a European directive which will refund passengers for flights that are cancelled or overbooked,” he said.