This article is from page 2 of the 2007-08-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Miunister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, has been accused of reneg- ing on a statement by his predecessor who said Heathrow had a “unique role in ensuring connectivity to and from Ireland.”
“This connectivity is fundamental both to provide connections to and from Dublin as well as to and from the regions,” Minister Martin Cullen said in a statement within the Arti- cles of Association of Aer Lingus.
“The Minister for Transport will not recommend that the Minister for Finance seek to convene an extraor- dinary general meeting to approve
a Slot disposal unless the disposal would result in the slots at London Heathrow falling below the level that is critical to ensuring connectivity to and from Ireland,’ the statement Sr ALGe
Supporters of the airport say that the removal of the flights from Shan- non is removing all connectivity to the west of Ireland and the rest of the ONG b
Legal council for the campaign op- posing the Aer Lingus decision to move the Shannon Heathrow service to Belfast are considering taking le- gal action after studying the Articles of Association.
Lawyers retained by the campaign
are to give an opinion on whether a legal challenge to the decision is fea- sible later in the week.
According to the articles “The Minister for Transport considers that the four London Heathrow slot pairs for service to and from Cork and that four (summer season) and three (winter season) for service to and from Shannon would each be criti- cal to ensuring connectivity to these airports because this is the mini- mum necessary to ensure a spread of flights throughout the day.
“On this the Minister for Finance as a Shareholder in the company (Aer Lingus), acting on the advice of the Minister for Transport, is unlikely to
support a proposed disposal of any slot pair such that there would be less than the existing London Heathrow slots pairs that relate to service be- tween London Heathrow and Cork or Shannon and is likely to request the convening of an extraordinary general meeting, as provided for the Articles of Association, to consider such matter.”
Disposal transaction in defined in the articles of association as “a trans- action pursuant to which any member of the group proposed to sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of” the slots.
The transport minister said last week that the four slots at Heathrow were not the be-all and end-all.