AER LINGUS AGM A NATIONAL DISGRACE
June 5, 2009. The Aer Lingus AGM was held today and Noel e-voting machine Dempsey actually voted to approve the exorbitant unwarranted fees payable to Aer Lingus Directors. He and the rest of the cabinet still do not get it and to judge from the election results and their no change attitude they still don't get it. They are fouling things up and Aer Lingus is going to go out of business which will be a national tragedy and they still do nothing.
Colum Guinness Peat went broke Barrington made some amazing statements. He said they had cut their cloth to reflect the current environment. A LIE. He then declined to give any details of what he was doing or when their next great plan would be ready, presumably because he had not a clue. The airline is going down the tubes and he has not even an idea of when he expects a plan to be ready! "I think Aer Lingus is fine" he said. He then opposed lowering the fees of the fat cat directors which Noel e-voting machine Dempsey supported. He further went on to say that Ryanair was destroying shareholder value. He must be stark raving mad. The shares were €2.80 not so long ago and are now 65 cent and he has the gall to blame Ryanair. The only person to blame is himself and his miserable, planless, clueless board of overpaid cronies.
He then made a statement that unions have not been even consulted on upcoming cost reduction numbers AND HE DOES NOT INTEND CONSULTING THEM. Does he really believe that the unions want Aer Lingus to go to the wall? Can anyone be that stupid. He should have the unions in right now. They have idea also, you know! He also said that he would sell the airline to foreigners. Sell our national heritage to foreigners and have the airline crewed by bloody foreigners? We, the Irish do not want that and neither do the unions. Barrington is a stupid ignorant man trying to line his own pockets at the expense of the Irish taxpayer and would sell the nations birthright for a pittance to anyone provided they make a few bob on the way. It is a national scandal that he is allowed get away with it and for that matter where are the worker directors? Not a peep out of them because they all agree also.
Lets look at his record. 21% drop in long haul passengers. Brilliant! Long haul load factor 66.3%. Brilliant. Short haul load factor down almost three percent. Brilliant! Cash dropping at about €20 million per month. Brilliant! A fifth aircraft going to Gatwick to lose even more money. Brilliant! May I point out that Ryanair load factor is well over 80 percent. I wonder what would happen if they made Michael O'Leary Chief Executive! The rest of the board would be gone for starters saving €500,000 per annum!
To put it bluntly the only thing one can conclude from yesterdays AGM is that neither the Chairman nor his fellow directors have a clue as to the real figures, have less an idea of where to go now and are awaiting a new Chief Executive, of which he has not a clue who it will be or when the guy is coming. He equally with his board admit they are incapable of deciding on the chief executive themselves and just pray the airline is not broke when the guy arrives. And our national heritage is in these peoples hands. God help us all!
And finally, he has no shares in Aer Lingus, and does not intend buying any! That says it all. Actions speak louder than words!
PAUL SCHUTZ OF AER ARANN IN FANTASY LAND
June 5, 2009. Paul Schutz, Chief Executive of Aer Arann was in Cork yesterday and he gave a speech to the Cork Chamber Business Breakfast which was mainly devoid of any reality.
I quote "Aer Arann will return to profitability next year and likely break even this year. Its passenger numbers will slip from 900,000 to 800,000 this year also. In 2008 it carried 1.25 million passengers." He also said he believes they "can continue to compete with low cost carriers". The guy must be stark raving mad. If you drop from 1,250,000 passengers in a year to 800,000 and more or less keep the same size organisation then you must go broke and he can't see it!
Even worse he does not understand the fundamental rule that they either increase passenger numbers or go broke. In one breath he then says they can compete with low cost carriers and in the next he told the Chamber that he "cannot operate at Ryanairs fares". If Ryanair can do it, why can't he? The answer is because Aer Arann has a lousy management who know nothing about the airline business and are totally in capable of running the airline.
There seems to be some myth around that Ryanair lives in another planet and what they do cannot be done by anyone else. This is bullshit. Of course, it can and the reason Ryanair are successful is they have the most highly competent airline management in the world. Anything Ryanair can do, Aer Arann and Aer Lingus can do and because both airlines have a customer service ethos they can do it even better. But they won't because their managements are ignorant. Aer Arann flight and ground operations are a total shambles and they do nothing. They don't even want to know. Paul Schutz will not even discuss the situation. He is an ignorant man but the sad thing is that it is in the airline which will pay the price.
NOEL E-VOTING MACHINE DEMPSEY GIVES TWO FINGERS TO TAXPAYER
June 4, 2009. Noel Dempsey instead of voting the over 50% shares, which he was entitled to vote at the Aer Lingus EGM, has decided instead to put the fox to be in charge of the henhouse and handed over his voting power to failed Chief Executive Colm Barrington which is a total derogation of his duty to the taxpayer and his way of telling the taxpayer to go and get stuffed.
As Michael O'Leary said yesterday Dempsey says Aer Lingus must cut costs, yet he is supporting its fat cat crony directors in stuffing their pockets with €30,000 each per annum for doing nothing. But what is very interesting is that his officials have accelerated plans to re-nationalise the airline, as the inevitable approaches.
Michael O'Leary is absolutely right in his criticism of Aer Lingus and inside figures revealed to me show that it lost a massive €14.4 million alone in April. The answer to all this is that the commercial department is making a right mess of it. They have adopted a policy of charging up to four times what Ryanair charge and that is not even a competition.
So it is a safe bet that at todays meeting spineless Dempsey will not even be represented but as in the case of the banks will sell the Irish taxpayer down the swanee, once again!
A SALUTARY LESSON
June 2, 2009. Once upon a time, an Irish National Airline and their upstart counterparts from the O’Leary’s decided to have a competitive boat race on the River Liffey. Both teams practised long and hard to reach their peak performance. On the big day they were as ready as ready could be.
O’Learys won by a mile.
Afterwards the Airline Directors became very discouraged by the loss and morale sagged. One of them wanted to su e O’Learys for damages due to making an apparent fool of them. They had found an obscure act which would enable a prosecution to be brought against the O’Learys team leader who had been alleged to keep passing derogatory comments on the performance of the National Airline Directors which information was likely to cause the Airline Team Directors anxiety and distress.
Senior Directors decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found and a special project team, headed by a Barrington Chairman was set up to investigate the problem and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion: The problem was that the O’Leary Team had eight people rowing and one person steering. The National team had one person rowing and eight people steering.
The report was sent to the Minister for e-voting machines, who specialises in keeping his head in the sand, ostrich like, and naturally as a consequence his ass in the air. O wa ta na c is or is it has? The Minister was so upset he hired expensive consultants to do a study of the teams structure. To ensure the maximum benefit the team included mostly cronies – in this case otherwise known as directors - as is normal under the Irish system. Millions of pounds and several months later they concluded there were too many people steering and not enough rowing.
As a result to prevent losing to the O’Learys the next year the team structure was changed to One “Executive Chairman”, four “Senior Directors”, two “Steering Worker Directors” and one Steering Financial Manager. A performance and appraisal system was setup to give the person rowing the boat more incentive to work harder and become a key performer. He would hence forth be called the “Titanic Chairman” . “We must give him empowerment and enrichment. That ought to do it”. Everybody praised the new system so that they could keep their jobs.
Next year the O’Learys won by two miles.
The Chairman sent the rower to Portmagee for poor performance, sold off any aircraft which earned revenue, cancelled all capital investment for new equipment and halted development of a new business model. He awarded high performance awards to the consultants and distributed the money saved to senior management.
Subsequently the airline shares tanked from €3 per share to 60 cent, the Minister kept his ass in the air and the airline went broke.
May 30, 2009
ONE BANK ROBBER REPLACES ANOTHER - NEW CHAIRMAN AT DUBLIN AIRPORT AUTHORITY
May 25, 2009. Minister Noel e-mail Dempsey has appointed another useless crony to be chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority, David Dilger. I will do a complete analysis of him shortly but suffice to say that when he was Chairman of Greencore he put thousands out of work and screwed the farmers. Then he was a Director of the Bank of Ireland which looted to the country, brought its economy to its knees and stole life savings from pensioners and many others. And he is the guy now put in charge of the Dublin Airport Authority. When we allow this type of thing to happen we deserve everything we get in this country.
May 17, 2009
CORK AIRPORT TREATS THE OLD AND ELDERLY AS MENTALLY DEFICIENT
May 25, 2009. I make no apology for coming back to this subject namely the treatment of the old and the elderly at Cork Airport. I further make no apology for blaming Pat Keohane and the useless Gerry Walsh for allowing the situation to continue. They are simply not doing their job. And in my book when people do not do their job they get fired.
I came in on Wizzair at 8.30 p.m. last night. All the other passengers got off and climbed the steps. I am unable to. I was left on the ramp. I wandered around taking photographs and finally got the duty manager on the phone who sent help to get me off the ramp. They spend a fortune in security at Cork airport. It is a joke and useless. What is the point of they doing things as they currently do when passengers can wander all over the ramp unnoticed?
I have begged and pleaded with the airport management to provide help for the elderly and infirm and Pat Keohane has not even bothered to reply to me. At any other civilised airport in Europe passengers go to a lift, push the button and go either up or down as is appropriate. But not in our Cork! We are the bastards of Europe the way we treat our old and infirm passengers. What is wrong with the mentality of the Cork Airport Manager when he cannot see what is wrong with this procedure and allows it to continue? There is no point in blaming Wizzair, Servisair or anyone else. He and his bunch of morons set up this sytem and they can undo it. They never consulted with the operators when the airport was designed and now it is coming to haunt them.
Now I have news for Mr. Keohane. Either he fixes the system so passengers can use the lift or I will make him do so. I will cause total and utter chaos on the ramp the next time, if it happens again, and he will not like me driving ramp vehicles all over the place. If I could find his car when driving around, I could always have an unfortunate accident! I am warning him now for the last time. Either fix the system so passengers can use the lifts or face the consequences and when I take action he will not be very pleased with the results. I will marshall all the elderly passengers together and we will take a walk around the aircraft and he will be powerless to stop us as he will be powerless to stop the ensuing publicity. Pat, fix it and fast, or else! I have warned you!
During my walk around the ramp I took many photographs and will post these when I get to a suitable machine.
May 17, 2009
MORE LOONEY TALES FROM THE COLM BARRINGTON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS A LA GUINESS PEAT - TOTAL DENIAL
I must be going totally looney. Colm Barrington was on the radio today to refute Michael O'Learys suggestion that Aer Lingus was going broke in eighteen months and he actually said that Aer Lingus was going to have increased losses but would at the same time have positive cash flow. The man must be mad and in total denial. You cannot increase your losses and improve your cash flow at the same time.
I would like to refer to Guinness Peat Aviation in its last days when the same Colm Barrington was chief operations officer and again he was in total denial and I quote:
Some of the GPA top management (today read Aer Lingus) adopted a siege mentality and thought the world was against them. Lack of media enthusiasm was often interpreted as downright aggression.
GPA (today read Aer Lingus) had clipped the trees and bankers began to take a closer look at its financial underbelly.
Within a year, Guinness Peat Aviation was in serious trouble and experiencing difficulties meeting repayments. The staggering costs of the failed flotation ate into resources. GE Capital (today read Ryanair) was waiting in the wings and picked up the pieces.
The restructured GPA was a pale imitation of the dynamic business Dr Ryan had formed in the 1980s. Over one-third of the staff, including Tony Ryan, were soon off the payroll.
Sir John Harvey Jones, Nigel Lawson, Garrett FitzGerald and Peter Sutherland. The senior executive team became household names, with people like James King, Colm Barrington, Patrick Blayney and John Tierney believed to have a Midas touch and believed the company could do no wrong and that they were running it superbly.
All I can say is here we go again. Does it not sound familiar? Colm Barrington and his entire board at Aer Lingus are in total denial and because of this refuse to take action on the grounds that no action is needed as they are doing such a superb job. The bottom line is they are losing thirty million plus a month and the end of this tragedy will be thousands of people who have worked their butts off to save the company being thrown on the job scrapheap. They have no chance of getting other employment.
And that bloody fool Noel Dempsey sits on with his head in the sand like an ostrich, ass in the air and does sweet fanny all. Can nobody get the message through to this government about the tragedy that is unfolding at Aer Lingus? Why can nobody see what is happening, much less do anything about it? The only guy running the place ran the much bigger Guinness Peat Aviation into the ground because he was in total denial. He still is! As for the rest of the Board what are they doing? All they want is their perks and they do not care if the company goes under, as go under it most. I am currently doing an analysis of the board and will put it on the site shortly.
Yesterday May 17, 2009 AER LINGUS’S executive chairman Colm Barrington said that there was no chance of the airline going out of business within the next 18 months, in spite of what he said were recent claims to that effect by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary.
“Michael O’Leary speaks a lot of rubbish,” Mr Barrington said. “Most of Michael O’Leary’s rubbish is self-centred and is to make some point on his own behalf. I deny entirely what he said about Aer Lingus going bust in 18 months.” What Barrington said is rubbish.
Mr Barrington, who was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme, also claimed that Ryanair would record a loss this year. (He has not a clue and this statement is totally untrue!)
In response, Mr O’Leary told The Irish Times : “I didn’t say they would go bust. I said they could run out of cash, which is something entirely different. He also said Ryanair will lose money this year . . . no we won’t. We’ve already guided that. Most of the numbers he parrots out are generally wrong.” Exactly! Barrington does not even know his own figures. Michael is always conservative!
Earlier this year, Aer Lingus said its net cash balances could be as low as €400 million by the year end. They stood at €803 million at the end of June 2008. They are now €509 million. Mr O’Leary has stated that if the current rate of cash burn continues Aer Lingus could run out of cash by the end of 2010.
Mr Barrington said that Aer Lingus has €1.2 billion “in the bank”. The man is mad. Does nobody tell him the real figure of €509 million and that it goes down one million every day?
Mr Barrington said Aer Lingus’s passenger traffic declined by 6.5 per cent in the first three months of this year while its yield – average fares – was down “nearly 15 per cent because we have to discount [fares] significantly to keep the [passenger] numbers up”. In other words his theory is that to keep passenger numbers up you sell at an ever increasing loss. We may only lose 10 euro per passenger, but, by god, look at the increase in the number of passengers we are carrying! The last person who advanced that theory was Floyd Hall of Eastern Airlines and they were not long going broke either. I cannot believe that he believes this rubbish.
Mr Barrington said Aer Lingus had reduced its capacity by 9 per cent so far this year. “We are going to be reducing our fleet in line with the market conditions that we find ourselves in right now,” he said. Here is what Aer Lingus themselves have to say about their strategy.
The Company has orders with Airbus for four A320 aircraft to be delivered between late 2010 and early 2011, with a further leased A320 to join the fleet in 2009. This will bring the short haul fleet to 38 aircraft. Where are all these aircraft going to go other than increase losses. They dont even know how to use what they have and they are adding another five shorthaul!
On 10 April 2008, the Company’s shareholders approved the purchase of 12 long haul aircraft for delivery between 2009 and 2016. These aircraft will allow Aer Lingus to upgrade the long haul fleet and will also underpin the Company’s medium-term growth strategy. Noel Dempsey approved the purchase of twelve long haul aircraft at €200 million each. Are they all out of their minds? All is needed is two for New York, one for the West Coast, one for Chicago and one spare. Thats it. There is nowhere in the wide earthly world these extra aircraft can be used profitably. And who approved it? Noel voting machine Dempsey? The inmates in the asylum known as Aer Lingus are indeed running it and unless our government takes decisive action they are doomed. There is still a little time to save it but after two months there is no chance if the present management and board are allowed continue to run it.
They have currently nine long haul aircraft of which they only need five and have nothing for the rest of them to do yet they are buying twelve more at almost double the current market price. Somebody has to be stark raving bonkers and I don't think it is me!
May 16, 2009
HOW MARY COUGHLAN AND NOEL DEMPSEY KILLED OFF SR TECHNICS.
There seems to be no end to the stupidity of those governing us. The closing down of SR technics due to the sheer incompetence of both of them can only be described as a tragedy for Ireland. The two named moron Ministers have saddled the taxpayer with a bill of €20 million per year in dole payments when the whole thing was avoidable. They have to be stark raving mad! 1000 extra people on the dole and the suffering that rises from this would not occur in a communist country. Ask the families what they think.
First of all, Noel Dempsey's civil servants headed by that useless Julie O'Neill made a decision that SR Technics would be allowed go to the wall. All Noel had to do was to bang heads in Aer Lingus and SR and make sure the contracts were maintained in Ireland. He was the largest shareholder and had the ultimate power and sat on his huge fanny and did fanny all! He and he alone allowed over 1,000 jobs to go to foreigners in a non-EU country and did absolutely nothing. This Government is totally out of touch with the people. We expect decisive leadership and we expect jobs kept in Ireland. It certainly puts his €59 million loss on the e-voting machines into the small change class when you realise his decision is now going to cost the taxpayer €20 million per year. He still has a job after losiong the first €59 million and now is losing €20 million per year. We must all be mad to allow it. One billion euro in five years down the drain but they don't mind screwing, the poor, the sick, the old, the school children and the disabled instead! It is an unfortunate consequence of our genteel disposition in ireland that we do not have Ministerial assassination like in South America!
As for the biffo bitch she made no attempt whatsoever to do anything. She is totally out of her depth in her current job and is racking up disaster after disaster for the people of Ireland. I hope they get their deserts at the next election as they deserve it. Can you imagine the suffering and agony of the families of those 1,000 people, many of whom have worked for Aer Lingus for generations? We, the people of Ireland and our two Ministers sold them down the drain because there are more brains to be found in a madhouse than in our Ministers. It is a total tragedy that our Ministers and leaders are putting the country in hock for fifty years while bailing out their friends, tent companions and the developers and the banks. Even worse is the fact that the bank bailout, as envisaged, cannot work but they don't know it! They have not a clue!
A classic of this is in our own city where we are losing two bus routes for no other reason than Noel Dempsey directed it be done. He could have directed the routes be saved - which are vital to the development of the city - but he directed the opposite. Has Batt O'Keeffe done anything? Nope, he is too busy screwing the school children and university students. Does Noel O'Flynn do anything? Nope! He is a hypocrite and he knows the two bus routes could be saved by his government but he chooses to sit idly by and do nothing. These Cork politicans are all hypocrites and make me sick! All they want is their salary and expenses and loads of junkets! I get mad when I see what the politicans are doing to destroy our beautiful city of which we are all proud!
May 15, 2009
JOE GANTLY DEAD - WE EXTEND SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILY.
A very sad and tragic event has occurred by way of the untimely death of Joe Gantly, former Chairman of the Airport Board. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife and family for what can only be described as a tragic event. It is always a terrible loss for a person as young as he was to go out suddenly. There is no doubt that he did wonders for Cork when he was in Apple and he used his best efforts to try and improve his adopted City of Cork. He did what he thought was right, as he saw it, and will be sadly missed by the people and City of Cork. He will be a terrible loss to Cork City. May he rest in peace.
May 15, 2009
38 REDUNDANCIES SOUGHT AT CORK AIRPORT.
Secret files at the DAA leaked to me show that 38 redundancies are going to be sought at Cork Airport. The DAA has tried to get the Cork Board to make the announcement - presumably in the terms that Gavin Duffy provided them with - but the members sounded out, told them do it themselves! What is appalling about all this is the total lack of transparency, the total ignoring of the unions and the total ignoring of the worker directors. Declan Coller and his mob behave as if they were the God and can see no reason to consult with anyone when they are about to destroy families and peoples lives. How about a few board members in Cork being made redundant?
May 15, 2009 We invite anyone working at the airport or at the Department of Transport to send us secret documents and we guarantee not to identify the suppliers. Either send a copy to: Michael Grimes, Grianan House, Tramore Road, Cork or e-mail to greatsouthern@hotmail.com or telephone 087-240-555-0. We need to know what our civil servants and those in the DAA are up to and the only way to find out for sure is by way of leaked documents. So send them in. We already have access to all documents in Pat Keohanes office which is a good start.
May 14, 2009 A very disturbing thing has emerged from a study of records in Pat Keohanes office and it would be appreciated if soemone would tell us we are wrong and we will correct it. The problem is that there is very good reason to believe that at the Board meetings, when they appear to be over and the worker directors depart the room, then the rest of the Board have a second Board meeting where the real decisions are made. If true, this is so serious that anyone involved should resign. We extend this space to any board member to give his view.
May 13, 2009 A study of the way Aer Arann charges shows why they are going broke fast and how their commercial department simply has not a clue. Lets study a day trip to Dublin on both Aer Arann and Ryanair. First Aer Arann:
Total price
Thu, 14 May, 2009
Total price € 127.10 EUR
NOTE THAT THE ALLEGED CHARGES FOR CORK AIRPORT ARE €8 MORE THAN FROM DUBLIN.
Next Ryanair:
Total price
Thu, 14 May, 2009
Total price € 71.57 EUR
NOTE THAT THE ALLEGED CHARGES FOR DUBLIN AIRPORT ARE €8 MORE THAN AER ARANN.
The following conclusionsappear to arise:
1. Aer Arann have not a chance charging €50 more than Ryanair.
Now my question is a very simple one. Why have not the Board of Cork Airport dione something about the above. Answer: They don't give a damn. Twelve airlines lost to Cork in the last twelve months so what is another one or two?
It strikes me that as long as they get their €1,000 a day to attend board meetings they simply could not care less. Cork Airport is going down the tubes and all the Board want is €1,000 a day of the taxpayers money. Its criminal. And if you want to know about their competence read on on to later this page and you will see. Blarney schoolteachers know a lot about running airports!
May 13, 2009 Aer Lingus announced today that they are scaling back their Belfast operation by taking away one aircraft. However, and here is where the genius of Colum Barrington shows through, he announced today that there will still be no job losses.
This is generally known as a miracle as in my stupid brain, if you remove one quarter of your fleet from Belfast, you remove one quarter of your revenue. If you still keep all the staff then your costs skyrocket. Revenue down 25%, costs the same equals bigger losses. If you were losing money in the first place - actually Aer Lingus are losing their shirt - then your losses will skyrocket further also after the Barrington theory is applied. Q.E.D.
May 12, 2009 We have been busy reading the minutes of the board meeting and two things struck us. The first was that Gavin Duffy actually made a lot of sense. The minutes show he had a lot of msound ideas. However, it should not have taken €3,500 of the taxpayers money to get the message home. The rest of the board could easily have asked the worker members present but then they only work there so how would they know anything? The superior being members certainly do not talk to the peasant members.
Funnily enough the Dublin Airport Board meeting solved the problem even more brutally. They demanded all the worker directors leave while they worked out how to save the airport. You know, these other directors in Dublin are nothing more than a bunch of mad bolshies. To say that you will not allow your workers directors attend a board meeting to help solve the airport crisis is the hallmark of a bunch of buffoons headed by Declan Collier as Chief Buffoon. Of course these people have an exremely valuable contribution to make. They actually work there and know what is going on. They do not drift into the V.I.P. room, meet nobody and drift out again once a month. Is this country gone mad to have this sort of thing happening when our airports are in dire crisis?
But how come the worker directors put up with this treatment? Have they gone totally native? Are they going to pull the same trick in Cork next Monday. If they do then I expect you Sean and your colleagues to refuse to go as otherwise I will lose all faith in you also. You must not allow the rest of the board to intimdate you as you are the only people who know the reality on the ground.
One other thing is that it appears I might be wronging Alf Smiddy. It would appear from the minutes that he is genuinely concerned about Cork airport and is actually trying to do something but has been told not to talk to me. My mobile is 086-0444-017 and I would welcome a call from him to see how we can work together to save the airport.
May 11, 2009 You are not going to believe this either. Pat Keohane and his merry men have offered an explanation of why it will cost €1.4 million to move the glass wall.
It reminds me of the explanation of the poor woman out the Lee Road in the old days who got a puncture outside the place for the mentally challenged. She took off the wheel, put the wheel nuts on the ground and alas they rolled down the drain. As she was crying an inmate sitting on the wall suggested she take one nut off all the other wheels and that would get her home. This solved her problem and she told the guy that with such a brain he had no place in there and she would in return try to get him free which he explained was what he wanted. As she was about to get into the car, a stone demolished her, thrown by the inmate at her. "You won't forget now will you? " He said!
I am afraid there is a resemblance in the following explantion to the logic of the previous. Apparently the Manager and his buddies have determined that if one kitchen fed both sides of the restaurant then there was a serious security risk if food was passed out of a common kitchen to either side. Hence you first must have two kitchens.
Having solved that you now must have two chefs as if the chef went from one side of the kitchen to the other he might actually carry an offensive weapon and it would not be possible to place a friskem between both halves of the kitchen. Nor if they wanted to boil en egg in the other half, for example would the staff walk down to security, go through it and walk back the other side because it is too far.
Of course the Management do not trust anyone working at the airport up to an including their own duty officers. So you now need two staffs for two kitchens for less than half the number of pessengers per restaurant! So under the proposed system, if there were ten chicken pieces on one side and none on the other it would not be possible to send a couple over in case someone had hidden some semtex inside the chicken!
Ah, but here is the piece de resistance! The Dublin Airport authority have determined that sealing tape used for rubbish bags and boxes is an offensive weapon and therefore is not permitted airside so the rubbish bags must remain unsealed. However Health and safety say this is a health hazard and cannot be permitted either. So now consultants have to be employed at enormous expense to look into this matter.
You think I am joking? No wonder it is costing €1.4 million to move a wall twenty feet. Can nobody see the lunacy of what they are doing? Are we all gone mad? Cork airport is in a desperate financial crisis and they are spending €1.4 million to move a wall and even worse it is approved by the board which says a lot for their intelligence and simply proves they do not have an original thought in their heads.
All they have to do is spend 10,000 and move the thing! To be fair again I understand the directions have come from Declan Collier and his bunch of morons and as they are puppets they do as they are told or they will lose their 12K per annum which of course is unthinakable.
May 7, 2009 If you wanted to make this up and did so, nobody would believe you, but this latest story of the thieving board of Cork Airport takes some beating.
Believe it or not they actually hired one Gavin Duffy to come, to their Board meeting and teach them how to lie at a cost of €3,500 to the taxpayer.
Who is Gavin Duffy? He runs a crowd called media training and here is his approach to quote from his website and which is particularly relevent in the light of the fact that the airport is shortly to lay off employees.
I quote his website: "Gavin Duffy is Ireland’s leading Media Coach. That’s not our view - that’s how the top PR, Media and Marketing people rate him.
He goes on. "He’s a bit like a great football manager. Training is tough but enjoyable and clients know it was worthwhilewhen they see the results. As well as interviewing better, clients tend to think more clearly and act more decisively and that’s good for business." What a load of crap!
But there is even better crap to come, which must have been lifted from Brittas of the Brittas Empire fame: "So what’s a good start? A good start is achieving the following - saying something the listener, viewer or reader agrees with, and then, forcing the interviewer to ask you a question. In other words build your case from points of agreement, and set the agenda."
Here is what his site says :
It will cover:
Example:
“Yes we are to seek up to 38 redundancies and will immediately start negotiations with our employees. A decision like this is never an easy one, and for our colleagues the prospect of being laid off in this economic downturn makes a very bad situation even worse. (No one can argue with that). I think what they all want to know is, what is the timeframe we need to do this is in, and are the other remaining jobs at the plant safe? (Journalist or interviewer has to ask “And are the other jobs safe? Or Yes what is the timeframe?”)
Yes, watch the forthcoming redundancy announcement for the above. It will be there!
Now lets call a spade a spade. Gavin Duffy is a person who makes his living teaching people how to lie effectively. The Board of Cork Airport are thieves stealing taxpayers money to improve their own performance. If I want to improve my performance I pay for it out of my own pocket. It is totally wrong that the taxpayers should pay for improving the boards skills in lying - not that they are that bad in the first place! What Gerry Walsh needs it for is beyond the human mind as he cannot even be found, much less interviewed. But to hire people like Gavin Duffy who only spout crap is a disgraceful waste of the taxpayers money. Who authorised it? Gerry Walsh and Pat Keohane!
The only thing Gavin Duffys firm is good at is parting people from their money for no useful benefit. If he advocates people lying through their teeth or being economical with the truth then he is doing the people of Ireland a disservice, not that that would bother him so as long as he gets paid! In my view he is a conman and has no place near Cork Airport.
Does anybody care? No. Will anybody do anything about it? No. I had expected better of the worker directors who gave me the illusion that they were honest but they obviously have gone native. Put simply anyone who condones the above is a crook stealing from the taxpayer. Anyone who does it is a thief.
May 8, 2009
We go back to Gavin Duffy referred to above. I further quote from his website:
Company Name:
Telephone: +353 (0) 87 9111 682
Email:
THERE IS NO COMPANY OR BUSINESS NAME REGISTERED IN IRELAND CALLED MEDIA TRAINING.
The company is not listed in the telephone directory, probably because it does not have a Dublin phone or fax. How strange for such an important company.
In short media training does not exist and is a con job. Just in case I am being unfair I invite that master of communications Gavin Duffy to respond and I will post his response unedited on this website but I will also expect a copy of the registratiion certificate of his company.
Naturally the Cork Airport Board fell for it and never bothered to check the credentials. After all he inflated their egos by telling them how wonderful they were and could be, so why should they bother checking him out - assuming they even knew how in the first place. Who decided to have Gavin Duffy? Gerry Walsh and Pat Keohane. I await Gavin Duffys response with baited breath and going on his reputation it should be a masterpiece of communication and will no doubt give me great pleasure pulling the crap he will spout to pieces. I am waiting Gavin! The Cork Airport Board met last week. They used to hold it in the Hotel at the airport but this meant they ran the risk of getting contaminated by the local peasants so this time they held it in the VIP room at the airport which meant they could go in and out without ever meeting a peasant or staff. These guys really have an inflated ego of themselves. And of course our bould Gerry Walsh never met anyone at the airport either! Oh, but they all got a grand each for turning up. They are nothing but airport robbers! As to what they decided read on...
May 7, 2009 Following the Dublin Airport Authority decision to make about 350 staff redundant, at the Cork Airport board meeting the board decided to cut up to 50 jobs from the airport staff as quickly as possible, using compulsory redundancies if necessary, so as to prove they are total puppets and do whatever their Dublin masters decide. In other words they will take it out on the staff! How about a few compulsory board directors being made redundant? Oh, No! To hell with the staff.
May 7, 2009 They made a major decision. They approved €1.4 million, yep €1.4 million to move the glass wall at the airside of the restaurant upstairs to the middle of room. What kind of stupids are these people? €10,000 should do it. The rest of the €1.4 million is going by way of backhanders and as profits to friends. They also said it was to be kept secret until it was done in case I found out! The wasted money would save forty of the 50 jobs likely to go and the money for the other 10 could probably be got from abolishing the Board in the first place. Do they take the public for fools? Sorry, I asked the question!
May 6, 2009 The duty free shop sales are plummeting and the board decided to take no action to deal with the problem. They sat with their heads in the sand, ostrich like (with their asses naturally in the air) and will take no action. Not even a peep have they uttered and they don't give a damn. They have done nothing. How could any city have been so unfortunate to get such a bunch of morons, headed by the invisible chief moron Gerry Walsh as their board? Does nobody care? Am I the only person in all Cork who cares?
May 6, 2009 We are happy to announce that the date of Aer Lingus going broke and becoming nationalised can now be estimated with reaonable accuracy. Having had almost a billion in cash, on March 31,2009 they had left €539 million and are losing €30 million per month. By simple mathematics therefore the date of extinction is about November 1, 2010. We will keep you updated.
May 5, 2009 The airport welcomes the announcement by the Board of Aer Lingus of the appointment of Zygos Partnership to find a new Chief Executive. It is refreshing in this day and age to find an airline board willing to admit that they have not a clue as to how to find a chief executive and that they are willing to pay vast sums to foreigners to do for them what they are being paid to do in the first place.
It is equally refreshing to see that their choice of headhunters are a group of Londoners, none of whom have any airline experience whatsoever which is absolutely ideal for looking for a chairman who probably doesn't have any experience either.
We quote from their blurb:
The Zygos Partnership was founded in 2002 by three experts in the field of Board recruitment and development; Julia Budd, Milena Djurdjevic and John Viney.
The Zygos Partnership takes its name from the Greek word zygosis, meaning the act of joining together in balance. Zygos is used to express the concept of teamwork in modern Greek.
The Founding Partners combine more than 50 years of experience in advising Boards on appointments in the UK and internationally. They recognised the benefits of creating a team of dedicated professionals who focus solely on the needs of clients without the distractions and demands of a larger organisation.
This ability to concentrate their efforts ensures that client's needs remain the priority and clients' interests are put first.
The real question is how many airline chief executives they have found and what any of them know about the airline business. In an effort to find out we have contacted them and asked them a few simple questions such as what is the experience of the partner handling the Aer Linguis search and how much are they being paid. We do not expect answers but will keep you advised. If the load of crap in the previous two paragraphs is anything to go by then God help Aer Lingus.
They are of course, very expensive and as they have been given no time frame - the airline is falling apart in the meantime - it is going to be a pretty costly exercise.
To be frank in our view, Zygos Partnership are a bunch of overpaid incompetents. We will keep you posted.
April 22, 2009 Fabulous news. The airport welcomes the fact that their new Chairman, Gerry Walsh, was seen at the airport last monday for a secret board meeting. The report of the Board meeting indicates it did nothing other tha decide that in the interests of the board members no reports of board meetings or any statement as to what went on were to be made public. As one Board member put it "The hell with transparency". Dead right, too.
Oh, and the Board meeting cost the taxpayer €12,000! The airport welcomes this approach of secrecy by the board and agrees that it is none of the public business what they do for their €12,000 per meeting. If the airport is going to lose €20 million this year and the car park building has to be demolished then it is clearly none of the public's business.
CORK AIRPORT NEWS
April 9, 2009.
SPECIAL: AER LINGUS TO BE NATIONALISED
2008 Cork Airport Accounts Useless and a Fraud. Nobody knows exact figures. Cork Airport Board suffering from Mushroom Syndrome. Kept in dark and fed shit.
New Cork Airport Chairman Gerry Walsh Ignorant, useless, Arrogant and incompetent like his board.
Still On : Crooked land deal by Cork Airport Board to sell off airport land cheap to Fianna Fail developers.
Shannon Airport Board led by Chairman Pat Shanahan apparently disappear €1.7 muillion mainly on first class junkets.
Aer Arann going broke. Another €7 million of taxpayers money dished out to them with no accounting whatsoever.
Cork Airport to lose €10 million this year.
Dermot Mannion Fired - Failed GPA Executive Colm Barrington takes over.
DISASTER - SCANDAL & CORRUPTION -
ROTTEN DIRECTORS - INCOMPETENT AIRLINES
Updates on www.corkairport.info
Published every two months.
FIRST LET ME TELL YOU WHERE I AM COMING FROM
I have been asked why I bother to write this newsletter. Let me tell you why. I am from Cork and I passionately care for Cork and, particularly, its airport. I can remember when we had none, and how proud I was when it opened and what it meant in not having to take a train or bus to Dublin first. It was wonderful. The people who ran it then really cared for the airport and did everything to build it up. Barry Roche and Joe O’Connor come to mind as outstanding airport managers. Cork owes them an immeasurable debt of gratitude.
Today I see that heritage been destroyed by a bunch of crooks and incompetents otherwise known as the Dublin Airport Authority and the Cork Airport Authority Public Limited Company. I see not alone incompetence but squandering of the taxpayers money on a grand scale and nobody does anything. Maybe I will get nowhere by drawing to public attention what is going on but so far I did get Gary Mc Ganns head on a plate so that was a start. That guy, who was Chairman of our Airport was an Anglo-Irish gangster director who has brought the whole country to its knees. That is the sort of person who was running our airport and having this kind of people simply has to stop. Read the history of our current board and you make up your mind as to whether you think they are the sort of people we want running our airport. I say definitely no!
I feel the public have a right to know what is going on. I feel that where taxpayers money is spent, then the public have a right to know where it is going. I feel that the Directors of the DAA and Cork airport Board have a duty to explain to the public of Cork what they are doing, how much it is costing and show in a transparent way where the taxpayers money is going. They have obviously failed on all these counts and have flatly refused to publish any figures whatsoever for Cork airport.With the country in the mess it is and with our current financial situation whereby Joe Citizen is being asked to pay for the mismanagement of these people I think if they cannot show they are spending our money wisely then they should be fired. Right now they refuse to tell us anything. We are paying them exorbitant sums every year. For what?
Maybe I am crying in the wilderness, but, if I fail, I at least I tried. So read on and you will see what exactly is happening at Cork Airport. It makes a fascinating story of greed, incompetence, theft, mismanagement and skulduggery. enjoy it!
NO ACCOUNTS FOR CORK AIRPORT
The 2008 accounts for the Dublin Airport Authority are now being prepared by Price Waterhouse Cooper. They are a fraud and absolutely not transparent and totally meaningless. No separate figures are given for Cork or Shannon Airport. Cork Airport lost €4.6 million last year and will lose about €10 million this year. Even worse, all the Board members do not receive any accounts for each airport so have no means of making rational decisions. Here we have taxpayers money being poured down the drain and they do not even feel they have to produce figures.Not one Director has asked for or received audited figures. They do not want to know. All the board members want is their €12,000+ per annum. If they got rid of the boards at Cork and Shannon Airport the taxpayer would save over €500,000 per annum.
LATE NEWS - DIRTY WORK ONGOING AT CORK AIRPORT
BOARD TRYING TO SELL AIRPORT LAND TO FIANNA FAIL DEVELOPERS.
In February we reported that apparently members of the Board of Cork Airport have been in secret discussions with County Council officials concerning planning so that they can sell off the valuable airport land for a pittance to Fianna Fail developers. This land, if sold, would end any chance of extending the second runway - in fact, cause its closure - which is vitally necessary and destroys any chance of expansion in the future.
I challenged the Board of Cork Airport to detail to the public what their plans are, what discussions they have had with the County Council and with developers. The Board are under the illusion that they are accountable to nobody, can do what they like and have no duty to keep the public informed. They are wrong. They are spending our money and we want to know where it is going. So far, a deafening silence!
Previously, apparently Joe Gantly, Pat Keohane, Minister (then) Martin Cullen and Miceal Martin had a secret meeting to discuss what to do about the debt to be owed by Cork Airport. The purpose of the meeting was to carve up Cork Airport and see what they could get away with and Joe and Pat told the Minister they were sure they could swing €100 million past the Board so they shook hands on it. When Joe reported back to the Board they went ballistic. That is how the €113 million came into being. Fortunately some of the Board had minds of their own but nevertheless they had not the guts to bluntly say “no” but instead organised “Consultants”. In my book you get consultants when you have not a clue yourself. We pay an incompetent Board, totally bereft of thought capability, good taxpayers money and the stupid fools cannot even figure out a basic business plan themselves. What happened in the end? Joe Gantly betrayed the people of Cork and cast his vote to screw Cork Airport for the future by accepting €113 million of debt. The majority of the Board supported him. They betrayed the people of Cork.
Now two months later I can reveal that the plans to destroy the airport land bank are still full steam ahead. If I am wrong, how come that nobody on the board has come out and denied it? And what about the secret compulsory purchase orders whereby they are going to purchase land at a minimum price for their developer friends? How come nobody on the board tells the truth? Have members of the Cork County Council or staff been promised brown envelopes if they get away with this? Believe you me, there are people on our Cork Airport Board and the Cork County Council who would sell their grandmother - or in this case part of our Cork heritage otherwise known as Cork Airport - to line their own filthy greasy pockets for their own benefit.It’s a bloody disgrace what is going on behind the publics back.
CORK AIRPORT HEADED FOR DISASTER.
The new €10 extortion tax - courtesy Brian Lenihan - per passenger has come in to effect yet no arrangements have been put into place at Cork airport to collect it. This means that passengers - and tourists - will be bumped unless something is done. Another brilliant initiative by our brilliant management! And the tax will further destroy Cork airport. It is sheer lunacy. Can nobody see that? Why has not even one member of the board objected? This tax will destroy tourism to Ireland and end up closing Shannon Airport. Suits Dublin, doesn’t it?
CORK AIRPORT SAVE TIME - BRILLIANT NEW IDEA OF MANAGEMENT
You’re not going to believe this but it shows the amount of thought capability and initiative that exists amongs the management of Dublin Airport Authority at Cork Airport. In February the car park clocks at Cork Airport were eight minutes behind. Well, what happened since then is absolutely hilarious.
As their contribution to the current crisis the management at Cork Airport decided to save eight minutes of torture for people by running all the car park clocks eight minutes behind. This has unbelievable possibilities and I am not for one moment suggesting Ryanair asked for it. You plan to arrive at checkin two minutes before it closes to discover it actually closed three minutes earlier. Result : Instead of your Ryanair ticket to London for 99 cent you now need to buy one for €224 as per todays prices.
Or you plan a toilet stop at the free airport toilet to discover there is not time as you need 4.68 minutes. Now, under new proposals from Ryanair you will have to “go” on the aircraft thereby contributing an extra €3 to the revenue from the flight under their new proposal to charge for going to the toilet! There is of course a legal case that if they supply you with drink on the aircraft thereby necessitating the said event then they would have to let you go for free. Of course, knowing Ryanair, they more than likely would put in a measuring system to weigh you before you go into the toilet, weigh you again when you come out and then calculate the difference. Finally, they deduct what they fed you and work out a reduced charge on that basis! The mind boggles!
Now any other manager would simply adjust the clocks to the right time, even if he had to do it himself. Not our bunch! I suppose to be fair that if their theories of management come from the dark ages, being behind in time comes naturally. Because they were terrified of making a decision without Dublin’s approval the management at Cork applied to Dublin for permission to bring the clocks on time. This was refused, owing to budget constraints, believe it or not, and the clocks were still wrong by eight minutes weeks later! Every two bit airport in the undeveloped world manages to have íts airport clocks on time but not us in Cork!
But seriously, what sort of looney management would run its business with its clocks eight minutes behind? What really entertains me is trying to figure out the logic of a management which allows this to happen and does nothing. The country is going bonkers which is more than can be said for the management of the Dublin Airport Authority as they are bonkers already!
BOARD ALLOW CORK AIRPORT DUTY FREE SALES COLLAPSE
This is serious in that Ryanair have instituted a €30 charge on anyone buying duty free at Cork Airport and attempting to take it on board the aircraft in the airport duty free bag. Pat Keohane and his Board have agreed to this with the inevitable result that it will destroy duty free sales at Cork Airport. Even worse, there is no means of collecting the fee at the gate so the passengers are being thrown off the flights by Servisair who could not care less. This is how we treat our tourists at Cork Airport all due to the inept management of Pat Keohane and his team who have done nothing about this. It’s a bloody disgrace and makes you wonder who is running the airport! How come not one single member of the Cork Airport Board has objected? Because they don’t give a damn even if it destroys our duty free shop. As for Shannon where Ryanair have 85% of the passengers, it will totally destroy their duty free shop. Ryanair are certainly making a case for government regulation and it is now necessary tos top this as he is a dictator.
YANKEE GO HOME! WE DONT WANT YOU IN CORK!
Ryanair have instituted a new charge of €20 at Cork airport for U.S. passport holders to travel from Cork Airport. Not alone that but they make the passengers go back down to the ticket desk, pay it and then go through security all over again. I saw this happen to one elderly couple and it would make you cry as they were simply barely able to do it. It is scandalous treating U.S. citizens like this and again Pat Keohane and his team do nothing about it. What sort of society are we when we treat Americans, particualry elderly Americans, like this at Cork Airport? The problem of course, is that this happens only when boarding the flight and of course the passengers miss their flight - and connections - and then have to buy an instant ticket for the next flight at €242 oneway to London. It certainly suits Ryanair but what is Pat Keohane doing about it? I will tell you, sweet damn all! Servisair, their agents, tell me that it is to check that Americans are not running around the country without visas. What a load of crap!
On April 6, Servisair forced four young American tourists to fork out over €1,000 to go to London after throwing them off the aircraft because they were U.S. citizens and had not paid then €20 fee for being American. Tony Tully, Servisair Chief Executive should be ashamed that his company behaves in this manner. And equally to blame are Pat Keohane and Gerry Walsh for doing nothing about it. What is happening at Cork Airport to American tourists is nothing short of a national scandal and must stop. The Minister, the Cork Airport Board and Sevisair have to make it quite clear to Michael O’Leary this will not be tolerated.
IRISH, YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO HOME AS WELL!
While we are at the subject of destroying airports, let us for once, have some sympathy for Dublin. SR Technics is being closed down with a loss of 1200 jobs. Why? because our Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey so directed. All he had to do was direct Aer Lingus to negotiate a new contract with Aer Lingus and he declined to do anything but instead, as the major shareholder in Aer Lingus, allowed all the jobs to go to the bloody swiss instead. Are we all mad? We will never replace those skills, most of these people will have to emigrate and the local economy in Dublin takes a major hit. This act of stupidity by Minister Noel Dempsey aided and abetted by his stupid sidekick, Transport Secretary Julie O’Neill - who really makes the decisions - is another example of our own government destroying ourselves and our airports through sheer ignorance and incompetence. Noel Dempsey is going to cost the country €24 0 million a year in unemployment and tax loss owing to this stupid decision. But the whole point is that we ourselves destroyed SR Technics and it was done by our own elected government Minister Noel Dempsey.
CAR PARK CHARGES.
You know, when writing The Cork Airport Times there is absolutely no shortage of material. This next shows the total lack of communication with the actual mangement on the ground. The car park charges rose substantially recently and are now about double those of Dublin Airport. I don’t suppose this has anything to do with the fact that Dublin Airport now has competition, perish the thought! However, not alone did the charges go up, but the twenty minutes free parking was overnight abolished by some faceless moron which is grossly unfair and wrong and again shows the third world thinking of Cork Airport management.
However, believe it or not but the Airport Duty Managers - the people who actually run the airport day in, day out - were never informed of the parking charge increases and were faced with irate customers complaining about something they had not been told about. I bluntly say this was Gerry Walsh and Pat Keohanes fault. But don’t you think they would tell their own Managers what they are doing? It’s no way for any management to run an airport! Which brings us to ..........................
GERRY WALSH
This guy is the new Chairman of the Cork Airport Board at Cork. What he does for his money is beyond human knowledge but he was an unemployed friend of the Minister and needed to supplement his income. For that matter it is not known whether it is he or his company which is pocketing the €12,000 as no figures on anything are being published.
This guy has a rather unique history in that his last employer was An Bord Gais which he ran with an iron hand and obviously did not have to put up with people like me. He sued them for money when leaving - and got it - as well as leaving their pension fund in a disastrous state. Just the guy we need to run Cork. However, he is an ignorant, arrogant man who knows nothing about airports.
Believe it or not, but none of the duty managers - or it seems, anyone else for that matter - has even met him. He belongs to the superior being staff of Cork Airport which he runs is inexcusable, rude and stupíd. I wrote to him nicely asking to meet him but of course got no reply as he does not answer his mail either. I wrote a second time, this time telling him how I wanted to interview him to see if he was suited to being Chairman and of course still got no reply. He definitely has no place at Cork Airport.
Well, he will be reading this, so let me tell him he will meet me - or else - so he might as well do it sooner rather than later! And in case he misses the point, until I meet him I will post posters at the airport stating what I think of him and every passenger will see it every day. I have no tíme for pigs running airports. I wrote to Pat Keohane warning him this and suggesting he have a plan to deal with me and this in turn was passed to Dublin but, naturally, no instructions have come back yet. I have suggested suitable alternatives such as having me arrested, with resultant publicity which might not suit the airport. He could always ban me from the airport, which did not work before or just simply throw me out. This last would be the most fun as whoever did it would be instantly famous in the High Court the following morning and might well have no job some weeks later.
Now it is probably a little unfair to blame Manager Pat Keohane too much, as he is a Dublin Airport Authority employee and must serve his masters or he loses his loverly job but if that is the case what the hell is he doing running Cork Airport? These guys simply have to learn that they have to meet the public, be accountable to them and do what the public - who pay their salaries - me - want. So far they have not shown the slightest intention of doing so. But they will learn! Maybe I am being too scathing in this newsletter on these people but they have only themselves to blame. They and the Board Members sit like parrots in a cage uttering cliches but nobody actually does anything. They deserve every criticism they get. They take their money and hide and in my book that is criminal.
THE OLD TERMINAL
Talking of stupidity, they are leaving their most valuable asset go to waste, namely the old terminal. Its sole purpose is now to provide Pat Keohane and his staff with an isolated office so they can be totally detached from the running of the airport. Before they had to mingle with us peasants on the way to their offices. Now they do not have to do even that. But what is totally insane, is that Ryanair are willing to rent it, but Dublin Airport Authority hate Michael O’Leary’s guts with such a passion that they would rather see it decay and become worthless rather than rent it to Michael and do something to benefit Cork Airport. They don’t care. And even worse, they are spending three million euro a year on heating the old building and another two million per year on maintenance. Are we all mad?
Michael O’Leary and Ryanair have promised an extra one hundred flights per week from Cork if they are allowed use it and still the ostrich like board with their heads in the sand refuse, and when that happens you know what part of them is presented to the public! Please note that the number of flights out of Cork Airport at the moment is almost halved from twelve months ago and yet the Board does nothing to increase them. Where are Easyjet, Malev, Czech Airlines, Centralwings, Sky Europe? All gone. BMI have cut back to only Manchester and that is also scheduled to go shortly. Next Aer Arann will be gone for reasons discussed later in this report. The current level of traffic cannot support the existing infrastructure or the way the airport is run.
And what have our brilliant marketing department done about replacing them? Sweet damn all! Incidentally, apart from Cork to Manchester - BMI are leaving this soon - there is no competition on any route out of Ireland from Cork. What an amazing coincidence! There is no point arguing that Ryanair will have a monopoly, as, at this stage, there is little left to monopolise!
NOW LET ME EXPLAIN A FEW UNPALATABLE FACTS AS TO HOW CORK AIRPORT IS CURRENTLY RUN.
1. Cork Airport is a part of the Dublin Airport Authority run by Dublin morons otherwise known as the Dublin Airport Authority.
2. Cork Airport has not now, and will not, in the future, have any say, good, bad or indifferent, in any financial decision affecting it. All decisions will be made in Dublin and by Minister Dempsey and his political appointees.
3. Cork does have a zero power, equally useless, do nothing, get paid, board of directors including a useless schoolteacher who knows nothing about running an airport. Paid for what? It has as Chairman an unemployed friend of the Minister who has zero airport experience. They have no money and no power and will not get it either. They are being paid €12,000 per annum each for doing sweet damn all. It’s a disgrace and I am amazed that they have the guts to accept the money. I would have expected at least one of them to have some honour! But no, alas! That is €200,000 per annum which would pay for one airbridge or even fix the one they have.
4. Minister Dempsey has decided that Cork Airport is not going to become independent, now or in the future. End of matter. So why did they waste all the money on “consultants”? For that matter can anyone explain what the board of Cork Airport Authority plc is for? Nobody needs them but they are jobs for the boys - or girls as the case may be!
5. Brian Cowen, Minister Noel Dempsey and his civil servants have decided that one hundred and thirteen million euro of the cost of the new terminal is going to be paid for by Cork Airport and the people of Cork - if they can get it - even if it destroys Cork Airport, as this decision must inevitably do. Miceal Martin and Batt O’Keeffe agree and are traitors to Cork.They have betrayed their people for their own power. Batt O’Keeffe has supported screwing the elderly through removing their medical cards and screwing the Cork kids in the schools so why not screw Cork Airport? Judge for yourself what a friend of Cork he is.
6. Minister Seamus Brennan gave a solemn commitment to the people of Cork that the cost would NOT be borne by the people of Cork. An Taoiseach, and Minister Noel Dempsey have reneged on this commitment. Batt O’Keeffe says it was a typical double speak political utterance and should be treated as such and not relied on. The translation of this is that all Fianna Fail politicians are liars!
7. On December 12, 2005, Dublin Airport Authority Chairman Gary Mc Gann wrote to the Board of the Cork Airport Authority Public Limited Company - wonder who thought up that mouthful - and said No, there would be no further funding for the Cork terminal from the Dublin Airport Authority and they would have to service the debt from the new terminal. Now what I find difficult to understand is, even given the level of intelligence currently on the board of the Cork Authority, is what part of the word “No” in Mr. Mc Gann’s letter that they do not understand.
8. The entire board of Cork Airport Authority have refused to make any comment in public standing up for Cork. All they want is their €12,000 a year for doing nothing - a bit like Beverley Flynn - and they will do and say nothing to their political masters for fear of losing their money. Their last Chairman, Joe Gantly, sold the airport down the swanee by agreeing to the €113 million debt before resigning. Put simply, he betrayed the people of Cork. Not one of them has the guts to say anything in public.
9. Not one Fianna Fail or Fine Gael politician is prepared to put their jobs on the line to support the airport. They waffle!
10. As for Deirdre Clune when she spoke on 96 FM she was not prepared to support debt free either, mainly because Fine Gael had already made a decision to make it pay, but she talked an even bigger load of crap than Batt did and all she was trying to do was score political points. Bloody hypocrites, her and all the Fine Gael crowd as well! Ask Deirdre Clune for a simple answer to a simple question. Will Fine Gael, if elected, allow Cork Airport to be independent and not have to pay for the new terminal? You will not get an answer. You will get waffle. Because they won’t and have not the guts to say so. Ask Simon Coveney also. He will not answer.
11. The cost of the new terminal instead of being the original 70 million euro was actually of the order of €234 million. Nobody has ever said what it cost or how it cost so much. Do accounts even exist? If so, why cannot the public have access to them? There is also only one airbridge - which rarely works - for the €234 million. Some bargain! Some airbridge! Dublin scrapped the airbridges and in his letter Gary Mc Gann made this clear and he unambiguously said no more airbridges. No is No! Gary Mc Gann has made it clear the airport will never be finished. Why are the Cork Board not finishing the airbridges? €12,000 a year if you keep your mouth shut!
12. Instead of having airbridges to get to the aircraft the new terminal is an operational disaster and involves three flights of stairs with 61 steps in total for boarding and disembarking from aircraft. We will get soaked in the rain, hail or snow walking to the aircraft. Even worse, when the elderly arrive at the bottom of the steps, if they need the lift, they have to wait there in the freezing cold for ten or more minutes. In every civilised airport in the world one goes to a lift, pushes a button and goes either up or down as is necessary. Not in Cork! Who approved of this? Gerry Walsh, Pat Keohane, our beloved airport manager and the other traitor Joe Gantly. There are, of course, no escalators! Every two bit airport in Europe has air bridges at every gate but not our Cork and neither are we getting them!
13. I do not know of any other airport in the world with such a stupid design. It breaks health and safety rules and discriminates against the elderly and the infirm and is therefore illegal, not that that bothers anyone. I am sure the board of Cork Airport are proud of that because nobody does anything to rectify the situation. Not one member of the board has ever said anything in public. One can understand the worker directors as if they say anything in public they get fired but the rest are spineless hypocrites. Right now the elderly and infirm arriving at Cork Airport are treated like dirt and Servisair do not even have enough staff meet the aircraft to help them. Dorothy better pull her socks up and stop this or she will have a war with me on her hands! Ireland of the welcomes, how are you?
14. I have had a look at the last annual accounts of the airport authority and they show it to be totally insolvent. There is no money to pay for a new Dublin terminal much less anything to do with Cork. My current thinking is to apply to the High Court to wind up the lot and that will no doubt concentrate Minister Dempsey’s mind and that of the Government, not to mention the Boards.
15. I now put all the Directors on notice that they are Directors of an insolvent company trading recklessly and can be disqualified from being Directors of any Irish Company as well as face penalties from the Court. I repeat, insolvent! Wait until Paul Appelbe finds put!
16. I decided to organise a trawl around the Airport Managers Office and see what was in there. The result was most illuminating and I would like to share what was found with you. There was a strange secret payment of some €225,000 to a crowd in London for doing nothing. That would have bought another airbridge. Wonder why? I emphatically point that it has nothing to do with backhanders. No wonder they dare not publish their accounts. They are a fraud on the taxpayer. Wonder what the auditors are doing? Oh, I forgot they got €225,000 to keep their mouths shut also. There is no proper accounting whatsoever with regard to the cost of the new terminal.
17. But strangest of all was a document showing that the airport now expects an operating loss of €10 million this year, yep, 10 million, even before any of the costs of the new terminal are taken into account or the effect of the current financial crisis. Now add the10 million per annum capital cost of the new terminal to the extra costs of running the terminal and would somebody explain to me, a poor peasant, how this airport is expected to survive? It is totally insolvent by any standards. I will be very interested in seeing what, if any, qualification the auditors put on the accounts. At a rough estimate the total loss for the new Terminal is about 20 million euro per annum. Who is going to pay? The public are being lied to and fooled. And Shannon, of course, is a total basket case. Same DAA Board!
18.Another item of interest is that they have made a decision to demolish the old terminal - worth 90 million - because they will not allow the old terminal to be used by Ryanair . What sort of raving lunatics are running Cork Airport when they make a decision like that? It is, I understand to become the management car park, believe it or not! I tell you, I understand perfectly how Alice felt! If nothing else, it would make a super conference arena for Cork City, so why not do that? It would be perfect!
19. The Dublin Airport Authority Board are the people responsible for giving Ireland a third world airport in Dublin which is arguably one of the biggest self-inflicted messes in the world. And there is no use blaming anyone else for the mess. It is totally the fault of the Board of Directors and who do nothing. And now the same board are trying to make Cork Airport a fourth world airport - and, even worse, succeeding!
20. For an analysis of all the directors involved read the rotten biographies following. They are real, true and accurate.
21. You will find it highly entertaining. It lists every director, their background and how many are failed businessmen and people who have never had to make a bob in their lives. As for the Board of Cork Airport Authority - they get €12,000 per annum for doing nothing - not one of the government appointees has ANY experience WHATSOEVER in running an airport. No other business in the world, other than possibly in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe - could have such a board of incompetents dealing with matters of vital importance to Cork City. Not one director has volunteered even a sliver of information to the people of Cork as to what they are doing. They think they are God’s gift to the people of Cork and they do not need to explain anything. It is the classic case of the Emperors New Clothes. I challenge any of them to come on 96FM opposite me and explain their positions, plans and decisions, and why they make them.
CORK AIRPORT CURRENT BOARD - DUBLIN AIRPORT AUTHORITY
1. Gary Mc Gann was Chairman of Cork Airport (and Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport).To make matters worse, this incompetent fool was a Director of Anglo Irish Bank who have brought the country to their knees just as he effectively has done with Dublin Airport. They stole peoples life savings and have left many people penniless. In any other country he and his fellow bank robbers would be in jail. When he resigned in disgrace, our current transport minister Noel Dempsey praised him!
Naturally Minister Dempsey will appoint another, useless, crony to the Chairman position so don’t hold your breath for any worthwhile appointment to benefit Cork Airport. Dempsey has no interest in appointing anyone competent. All he wants is a compliant hack who will not cause him any problems. He could always appoint me and I would run the best airport system in the world with one of the best staffs who do not get a chance at the moment. I would take no fees and Cork would thrive.
2. Next Oliver Cussen. A civil servant until he joined Aer Rianta and who never had to fight to make a bob in his life. No airport experience of course. Never worked in an airport in his life. I would say that his main claim to fame is that he has been on the Board of Great Southern Hotels which was insolvent, run like a lunatic asylum and lost its shirt. Totally incompetent.
3. Mary Davis is National Director of the Special Olympics of Ireland. Just what we need in an airport director particularly one in Cork! She is current Chairperson of - wait for it - St. Patricks Festival. Excellent! Dublin Airport looks like the remains of a festival grounds after a festival and she should be right at home in the mess. What is the director of Special Olympics Ireland doing on an airport board? She was a physical education teacher which will be very valuable in teaching the public to prepare for the olympic walk from the one airbridge terminal to either the Aer Arann aircraft parked in Carrigaline or Ryanair in Ballyphehane.Totally useless. If she had any integrity she would get the hell out of the board right now. Integrity? Don’t make me laugh!
She is Chair of the task force on Active Citizenship which was established to advise the Government on “the steps that can be taken to ensure that the wealth of civic spirit and active participation already present in Ireland continues to grow and develop”.
As Chair of the new Steering Group, Mary Davis has said, “Active citizenship is, by its nature, difficult to measure. Nonetheless, if we as a group can achieve greater participation by all sectors through a number of worthwhile initiatives that complement what is being done by the State and its agencies, then we will have achieved a lot.” What a load of crap she spouts! Some Board Member.
4. Who next? Bill Cullen. A Renault expert who knows sweet damn all about airports. However he is a successful author which should give him some talent for writing fantasies otherwise known as the story of Dublin Airport. Brilliant and most useful background! I am so pleased that “its a Long Way from Penny Apples” has become an international bestseller but what has that to do with running an airport? Another useless political appointee as they all are. He is also a director of, wait for it, Chicken Amazing Limited, no doubt named because he is too chicken to do anything about the amazing Cork Airport Terminal. I wonder what happened the five companies he was a director of which met a sticky ending not to mention the two which went into Receivership. Receivership generally only happens when a company goes broke.
5. Now we come to Declan Collier whose main claim to fame is that he was on the Board of Great Southern Hotels Limited which despite being one of the best hotel business in the country lost its shirt in a spectacular manner and had to be sold cheap because the board - of which he was a member - could not run it. Interestingly he does not mention Great Southern Hotels in his resume but I don’t suppose that should be any surprise. Ideal for Dublin Airport. He presides over what is arguably the worst airport in the world in Dublin. He is the Chief Executive and he more than anyone else bears responsibility for the mess that passes for Dublin Airport. And he is in charge of Cork airport as well. We do not need that sort of person involved in Cork.
6. Des Cummins is Chairman of the Cummins Group. It employs over 50 people in Ireland and the UK. A member of the National Executive of the Small Firms Association for the past ten years, he has participated in Government-sponsored Task Forces on Small Businesses and Company Law Reform.
He is a member of Comhar, the National Sustainable Development Partnership, established in 1999 and is quote “the forum for national consultation and dialogue on all issues relating to sustainable development”. Comhar has recently been renamed as Comhar - Sustainable Development Council! Comhar’s 25 members are drawn from five pillars: the State sector, economic sectors, environmental NGOs, social/community NGOs and the professional/academic sector. Comhar is supported by a full-time Secretariat based in St. Andrew Street, Dublin. Did you ever hear such nonsense? Another crap body wasting the taxpayers money doing god knows what! How people like Des Cummins, have even the nerve to agree to being appointed to such bodies beggars belief as none of them achieves anything. Just like the Dublin Airport Authority Board! Was a director of Liam Conway Limited which met a sticky ending. Wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that the Companies Office Record shows a total failure to file accounts. Now wonder where he put those accounts for Cork Airport?
7. Ah, now comes a real gem. Marie O’Connor, Audit partner with Price Waterhouse Cooper, the crowd who produce fraudulent accounts for CIE Group year after year. In CIE they did not even bother to check the assets much less the amount of cash going to the bank against what is taken in. Last year they said CIE made a small profit when in reality they lost €892 million - yes 892 million euro. That is three million a day and they showed a profit1 That is how Price Waterhouse Cooper audit companies! In my view they are one of the most bent accounting firms in the world closely followed by Ernst and Young.
Allow me to list only one scandal involving Price Waterhouse Cooper. In December 2003 a U.S. judge signed a $54.5 million settlement between Price Waterhouse Cooper and its former clients, Warmack-Muskogee Limited Partnership who claimed they were overbilled by the accounting company for travel expenses.The plaintiffs were overcharged by as much as 50 percent. Its beginning to sound familiar is it not? “Defendants accomplished this overcharging by a stratagem that involved their negotiation of confidential relationships and arrangements with third-party travel vendors who provided defendants with invoices for travel costs or expenses, which did not reflect massive and secret kickbacks of as much as 40 percent”.
I further quote from the Court documents: “The kickbacks were remitted by such vendors to, and improperly retained by, defendants, rather than being returned to the clients who paid for the underlying cost”. The accounting firm used the amounts identified on the invoices provided by the vendors as the basis to seek “reimbursement” from their clients of alleged “out-of-pocket costs.” This included airlines, ticketing and reservations systems, hotels, car rental agencies, restaurants, travel agencies and credit card issuers. Of course there would never be kickbacks in Ireland, now would there?
So she comes from a firm of impeccable pedigree. If we are going to fiddle the accounts then why not get on the Board someone from a firm with vast experience of these techniques? She is absolutely perfect. They have also been involved in some rather, some people would say false, and fraudulent, audits of big companies and have been well censored internationally. An absolutely ideal background for the Dublin Airport Authority who has not a clue what they are doing about terminals, no idea what they will cost and much less what they will earn. Equally she is responsible for Cork Airport whose accounts are clearly fraudulent.
What did her firm do for the €275,000 which the Board of Cork Airport gave them one year? I have a sneaky feeling not very much. I don’t suppose the fact that her firm gets €275,000 per annum from Dublin Airport Authority would have any influence on her thinking. Perish the thought! She is an independent director naturally. Excuse me for a moment while I nearly die laughing. In my book if her firm of consultants are screwing the airport for €275,000 per annum then she has no place on the board!
Marie O’Connor is involved in conflict of interest up to her neck. Equally she has no other board experience. The whole appointment system of members of the Board is corrupt and stinks and is jobs for the cronies and boys - and girls! Minister Dempsey has no interest whatsoever in having competent people on the board and is simply a politician who has no interest in Cork or Cork Airport. Why are Noel Dempsey, Batt O’Keeffe or Miceal Martin afraid to go on 96 FM to debate the airport issues unless they are guaranteed no questions and can spin and waffle, not to mention lie through their teeth as politicians always do without being challenged on the air? They are incompetent cowards.
8. Anthony Spollen was Head of Group Internal Audit at AIB which is very useful when you consider the absolutely immense losses in AIB that were racked up on his watch. Of course he neither noticed nor was responsible for them. Absolutely ideal for an outfit which has no system and racks up fantastic losses. The sort that if all the toilets in the airport got stolen he would not know what to do as he would have nothing to go on! Currently a director of a company Solaco Limited which having failed to file any accounts for the last four years also met a rather terminal ending.
9. Ah, but now we have the token expertise of none other than Sir Michael Hodgkinson, BART. - that BART really sounds good - savour it on your tongue by rolling it around - with vast experience of the motor and food industries in Europe. Maybe he could sort out the restaurants and maybe clean Dublin Airport up but he is an executive and does not dirty his hands. Wait for it, though! He had responsibility for expansion planning at BAA including Heathrow and Stansted. You may recall his planning for Heathrow was so perfect that the airport collapsed one day last year at one stage and is in a dreadul mess. On the other hand Dublin almost collapses every day so he is really well fitted.
For that matter he could not even be bothered going to 25% of the Board meetings of DAA. Well, I suppose if you do not go you cannot be blamed! What the hell are we doing with him on our board when he does not even go near Cork Airport? More than likely does not even know where it is!
I asked some staff at Cork Airport if they knew him. Not alone did they not know him, but they never even heard of him. Now that is what you call an active Director when he is so upper class he could not be bothered meeting the peasants of Cork whose lives he helps control. He calls it management without consultation. I call it no management.
10. Finally there is Brian Lynch, Marion Keating and Barry Nevin none of whom have any board experience on record.
11. These morons, ladies and gentleman are the people currently responsible for Cork Airport. None, other than the worker directors, are competent and none have actually worked in an airport. Ally that with a Chief Executive, Pat Keohane, who knows nothing about the airport and you have a recipe for disaster. Dublin Airport Authority is a lunatic asylum run by the inmates aided and abetted by a moronic board. (Definition of a Moron : A lift operator who forgot his route). None of them actually visit Cork in an attempt to meet the staff because all the staff - and the public - are peasants and superior beings do not talk to peasants!
12. Finally allow me to tell you how interested the board members are in our airport and how much effort they make to attend the board meetings.
The Chairman Gary Mc Cann could not be bothered going to two meetings.
Its a bloody disgrace that those listed above as not being bothered to attend board meetings still take the taxpayers money. They ostensibly run a huge company and cannot even be bothered to go to the Board meetings. They should all be fired and it is no wonder the company is in such a mess. There are only a few meetings a year and they can’t be bothered!
THE CORK AIRPORT AUTHORITY PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
1. But if you think that shower are bad, you should see what a rum lot are on the new board in Cork allegedly to run the 400 million euro airport. It would be hilarious if it were not serious. Let’s look at their pedigree which takes some beating.
2. Who shall we start with? How about Humphrey St. Jude Murphy whose claim to fame lies in stainless steel, to wit Global Stainless. I need hardly say the training to supply stainless steel is absolutely invaluable to an airport. On the other hand he is Miceal Martins constituency organiser who gets rewarded with these plum jobs so as to be Mickeys eyes and ears. The fact that he is totally useless is of course completely irrelevant. Its called jobs for the Mickey boys with a vengeance. And they do get fantastic travel perks! St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes. He is absolutely ideal for Cork Airport Authority.
Dear Humphrey has only been the director of four dissolved - did I hear the word “failed” somewhere? - companies. For example Global Metal Technology Limited never seemed to file any accounts in its ten years of existence.He was also company secretary so he was the responsible officer. Then there was the Dublin Dome Limited which also seemed to forget accounts. Bit like the London Dome maybe? I will not mention H & C Personalised Gifts Limited which never filed any accounts either.
3. Next we come to that eminent authority on airports Veronica Perdisant. She is Chairperson of the Kilkenny Group and cut her teeth in Ovens. What she is doing on the board is hard to imagine. Another know nothing. To be fair at one meeting after listening to 20 minutes of waffle by the Minister when she asked him who was going to pay for the airport she did try and pin him down but as she failed totally it appears to be the reason she has not been heard from since. She has now gone totally native. Never did get an answer to that question, did she? Come on Veronica, surely you at least will come out and tell the true story? Why will you not meet people or tell the public what is going on. No board experience on record.
4. Then we come to Don Cullinane. His travel agency went broke so no doubt he needs the Board job but the fact that he has been involved in a failed travel company should be sufficient to bar him from the board of any semi-state. Its wrong and an insult to the people of Cork. And do you think he will resign? No bloody chance.
5. How about Pat Dalton? A well known gas expert, no doubt, with a vast experience of hot air. Now I just wonder if the Debis Air Finance group of which he is a director of a number of their companies could be the same Debis Air Finance that screwed EU Jet and left all the passengers abandoned. Another well known authority on airports, I don’t think! I could not find out anything he was famous for but he does like being on the board of a useless company. It makes him feel good.
6. Of course we have Alf Smiddy who to be fair to him has an excellent record at Beamish. Don’t tell me Beamish have gone too! But what has it to do with airports? Sweet damn all. But for years he has wanted to be on a state body so now he got his opportunity. It’s amazing how the egos of these people are so huge that they can be so easily bribed. To be fair, rumour has it that he has fought against Dublin but again stays silent. He too has gone native.7. As for Dick Lehane, ex EMC2, I have absolutely no idea what he is doing on the board as he has no airport experience either. I am sure he is competent when running EMC2 and again he has done wonders for Ballincollig but that still does not qualify him to be on the Board of Cork Airport.
7. As for Dick Lehane, ex EMC2, I have absolutely no idea what he is doing on the board as he has no airport experience either. I know he was extremely competent to run EMC 2 and that he has done wonders for Ballincollig but that still does not qualify him to be on the board of Cork Airport. A company board should only be people experienced in that busines.
8. Noel Dempsey recently appointed Ms Annette McNamara who, wait for the list of her vast experience, is Assistant Principal of Scoil Muire Gan Smál, Blarney, County Cork. Of course, she is a Fianna Fail activist and needs this to supplement her income and it is the only reason she got appointed. She knows absolutely nothing about airports and is a total incompetent when it comes to Cork Airport. It is a bloody disgrace and an insult to the people of Cork that stupid Fianna Fail activists are appointed to the Board of Cork Airport. And if Ms. Mc Namara had any integrity in the first place she would not have accepted the appointment.
9. Lastly the new Chairman of Cork Airport Gerry Walsh. I have already discussed his situation. I had hoped for some improvement here as Joe Gantly was a total disaster and sold the airport and the people of Cork down the drain and then abandoned ship. Joe Gantly, had an ego is bigger than the rest of them put together and sadly, it looks like Gerry Walsh is no better. He does not answer his mail and does not meet peasants like me. I try and be fair in this publication but if the guy is so arrogant that he feels he does not have to explain himself what else can you do other than presume he is sent in by the Minister to destroy the future of Cork Airport such as selling off the land surreptitiously! Anyhow what exactly does he do? Dublin runs the place so what is he there for other than to supplement his retirement by €12,000 per annum at the taxpayers expense like the rest of the board. I call that theft from the taxpayer.
The Minister said appointing him,” I know that he will bring the same levels of skill, energy and enthusiasm that he demonstrated in his previous work to the challenging field of aviation.” I seem to recall his previous work screwing his previous employers - the taxpayer - for considerable sums of money - and getting it - when leaving! No doubt he will sue Cork Airport as well!
10. The only reasonable thing about this board is that they have a number of airport workers who would have the airport at heart and will do their best but they simply do not have the experience to run a 400 million euro company, will be outsmarted by the others, and probably go native shortly after starting, as all worker directors do. Anyhow, why a board of over a dozen people?
11. Just in case anyone involved in running the airport might try and tell them anything they have appointed a Manager, Pat Keohane, who while on the face of it has a good industrial track record, has absolutely zero airport experience. He is used to the private sector where nobody tells bosses what to do. I have news for him. As a manager in the public sector he must, I repeat, must, meet people who want to meet him, must, repeat must, answer questions, account for his actions to the public and show transparency in his dealings. He lives in isolated splendour in the old terminal and talks to nobody.
Incidentally this is the guy who banned me from the airport by e-mail without thinking how he was going to enforce the ban. He did not like my comments, so exercised - as he thought -his divine right. I think I can safely say that not one member of the airport police would try and enforce the ban! They have more sense as none of them want to become instantly famous in the High Court!
12. But why are we paying the Cork Airport Authority Board for no job, no power and to do nothing. It’s crazy but nice if you can get it! What are they doing? They are making the Emperors New Clothes! And even worse, not one of them explains where they spend the taxpayers money and say it is none of our business. I suppose I can be criticised for issuing this leaflet but in this country people sit back and say nothing and suffer. At least I have the guts to come out and tell the truth. The people mentioned here are the type that they would be afraid to cross the road in front of my car - in case they had to show if they had any guts! Will it make any difference? Doubtful, as nobody cares! What they will probably do is consult their lawyers to see if they can make more money suing me for libel but remember Noel Fox, who did just that, it cost him €100, 000 euro, which was a lot of money at the time, and naturally, he lost! I would actually pay anyone to sue me for libel as then it would be all over the papers.
In short God help us all in Cork at Cork Airport. We are to be screwed unless someone can stop the Minister. Send your comments to busmuseum@hotmail.com or alternatively take a look at the website www.corkairport.info which also has current flight arrivals and departures. The official airport website is rarely accurate anymore and their offering on eirtel is a disaster.
AND THE LAST LOONEY TALE
When Brian Lenihan brought in the new €10 tax he neglected to make arrangements to have it collected. The airlines say it is the responsibility of the airport, the airport says it is the responsibility of revenue, revenue say it is the responsibility of the airlines. End result : No tax was collected. Brian Lenihan is even more stupid than the Cork Airport Board. Imagine bringing in a tax without bothering to arrange for its collection.
Dr. Michael Grimes,
e-mail: michael.grimes@hotmail.com
AER ARANN.
Because Aer Arann are vital to the Cork Airport and they are being run into the ground I felt it desirable to analyse them carefully in the hope that somebody reading this might take some action. I said this before and nothing happened so I will say it again just in the hope someone might be listening. Right now they are a basket case living off Noel Dempsey and losing their shirt.
1. Aer Arann are headed for bankruptcy unless management gets off its rear end and does something about it. When I was young, I looked at guys like the management of Aer Arann and said what geniuses they were and that they must know something I did not know, but now with long experience behind me I simply shake my head and say the bloody fools!
2. Operations are a shambles. No airline can survive posting the delays that they post, day after day. Ryanair, for all it failings, manages to keep the best on time record in Europe. It is nothing short of amazing, but is due to ruthless management attention. That management attention is missing at Aer Arann and the managers do not manage but instead the airline just happens. There is not sufficient management attention being paid to delays, their cause and their prevention. The Aer Arann management do not believe in hands on management. They are executives and they do not dirty their hands.
3. The management have little or no experience of hands on running an airline and so they lack the necessary experience to make Aer Arann operationally sound. They certainly have no idea how a ground operation should be conducted properly.
4. Aer Arann have tremendous advantages such as short checkin, baggage allowance etc. but do nothing to promote it properly. In fact, they allow the airports to tell people come two hours before departure when all is needed is fifteen minutes. They totally fail to stand up to ridiculous security rules imposed on them by both the airports and the Department of Transport.
5. The entire Aer Arann checkin system is crazy, uneconomic and needs radical overhaul. Nobody has ever looked at what they are trying to achieve by checkin and whether there is a better way of doing it - and there is! A totally new approach is needed.
6. In flight service again tries to be good but nobody has looked at the simple things such as the fact that tea has to be made with proper milk. The milk supplied for the tea would make any decent cow sick at the thought that the milk originated with her. Again here management either do not know or are indifferent to the situation. But it is cheaper.
7. Baggage handling is appalling and crazy. This too needs radical rethinking as the way they are doing it has to be uneconomic.
8. Whoever picks their routes needs their head examined. It should be absolutely clear-cut that the two flights per week from Galway to Cork was a no brainer and totally uneconomic yet they persisted - and lost their shirt. It should have been equally obvious that any service from Galway to Cork was stupid but Padraig O’Ceidigh, Paul Schutz and Fergal Barry knew better!
9. For that matter their proposed schedule using ATR aircraft is totally uneconomic. Nobody, but nobody, makes money with ATR aircraft but Aer Arann intend re-inventing the wheel. Only two airplanes in the jet category make money which are the 737 and 320 families. The Aer Arann current route schedule is a recipe for disaster. Quite apart fromn the fact that the published block times are too short. The commercial director was the finance director so they must know the truth of what I am saying! They need to take drastic action right now and cut out everything that is unprofitable. There may not be very much left, but so be it. Their operation is engineering led, not market led.
10. In October: Aer Arann announced that it would serve Cork – Glasgow (Prestwick) from 28th October 2008. It forgot to mention that it would not last two months and that they would lose €250,000 in the intervening two months!
“This is an excellent opportunity for Aer Arann to take over an existing route and develop it by offering our unique brand of quality service” said Fergal Barry, Aer Arann’s Commercial Director. Boy, has he egg on his face! It is one of the most ludicrous decisions ever made to operate this route, guaranteed to lose your shirt and he could not even see it. It lasted two months!
Somebody also forgot to mention that the service went nowhere near Glasgow but to a remote location generally called Prestwick some 50 miles from Glasgow. In fact Edinburgh airport is nearer to Glasgow. To compound the matter they then offered a 1145 departure from Cork returning at 1340 which is useless to any business person and there ain’t no tourists going that way! Who else in the management team signed off on the decision? None other than CEO Garry Cullen.
11. Next, equally as predicted, the losses on the Cork to Dublin route have been astronomical so what do they do? They cut all the profitable flights and only operate at 1135 and 1620 northbound and 1015 and 1500 southbound. Nobody in their right mind would think that timetable could be profitable and it will not be either. It is worth noting that these are the only times of the day Ryanair do NOT operate so that says something! Why did they lose their shirt? Because their time keeping was absolutely appalling, thats why. Nobody could rely on them and Ryanair walked away with the passengers.
12. On November 24th. Aer Arann announced its debut at London City on a route from the Isle of Man. Its services commenced on 19 January, 2009. They operate three times daily flights with ATR72-500 aircraft. What they neglect to mention is that a very well established, well run, airline, Flybe, operates three times a day to Gatwick and they have not a chance against them. In any event, nobody wants to go to London City as it connects with nowhere. And to add insult to injury they start these routes in January, the worst time of the year. On their own admission “Although VLM has continued to operate its daily service originating from London, the monthly average has recently dropped to less than 1,000 passengers”. Now it does not take Sherlock Holmes to figure that if there are already 26 flights per week or 104 per month that there is simply no market whatsoever for Aer Arann adding another fifteen flights per week or 60 per month. Put simply, this route may be the last straw that puts Aer Arann out of business. Nobody in their right mind would make the decision to operate this route. Even in its heyday the route never went over 5,500 passengers per month.
13. But the joke of the century is that they are “looking at setting up a base in the Isle of Man. They need this like they need a hole in the head! They would do far better to run their current operation properly. Nobody, but nobody can make money out of the Isle of Man, least of all, Aer Arann with toy airplanes.
14. On December 3rd. Aer Arann announced that it is to launch a new route from Dublin to Blackpool in January. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the confirmation of the airline’s new route from the Isle of Man to London City. Dublin to Blackpool has never worked for anyone and is total lunacy for Aer Arann and they will lose their shirt again.
15. To show how spin has become everything in life and everyone lies through their teeth I quote:
“Aer Arann and Aer Lingus ink new interline deal - Fly Aer Arann from Cork and connect at Dublin with Aer Lingus to the USA through a single booking via aerlingus.com. Aer Arann and Aer Lingus have signed an Interline Agreement that allows customers to directly connect to Aer Lingus transatlantic services from Cork Airport. From today, bookings can be made on aerlingus.com directly both to and from Cork to all seven Aer Lingus USA destinations in one single booking transaction. Customers will be able to check-in at Cork Airport, through check luggage directly to their final destination in the USA, and transfer to their flight at Dublin Airport. The new arrangement is also available for customers travelling from the USA connecting to Cork”
Aer Arann’s Managing Director, Garry Cullen said, “The ability to through check luggage all the way to your final destination from Cork, and transfer seamlessly to Aer Lingus’ USA services in Dublin will be of great benefit to Aer Arann and Aer Lingus customers. The partnership with Aer Lingus will benefit Munster by making the region more accessible to the USA inbound tourist and USA corporate travel markets.”
Dermot Mannion, Chief Executive, Aer Lingus, said, “This agreement creates a natural synergy between Aer Lingus and Aer Arann, offering customers in the Cork market greater accessibility to the USA. The streamlined booking process allows customers to book flights on aerlingus.com both to and from Cork direct to seven destinations in the USA in one single booking transaction. Customers can now enjoy ease of transfer at Dublin Airport with the benefit of through checking luggage and pre-clearance facilities, giving an overall seamless and enjoyable travel experience.”
The joke is, of course, that Aer Arann do not have any flights to Dublin to connect with Aer Lingus. It is probably unnecessary to point out that Aer Lingus think so much of their Aer Aerann partner that they do not even offer quotes on their website, much less timetables or bookings. Of all the screwed up deals this has to be a candidate to win first prize! Of course, the Aer Arann management cannot even read the Aer Lingus web site so they cannot see the joke! How can you have such stupidity at the top of major Irish Companies? I suppose you could ask Irish bank board members!
16. Aer Arann route changing and timetable changing is unbelievable. A successful airline cannot be run the way Aer Arann chop and change routes and timetables at the drop of a hat and run routes that are so obviously uneconomic, that it is impossible to figure their logic. Galway to Luton flight goes at six different times during the week. Dublin to Donegal is seven times per week. They even tried Waterford to Galway, a guaranteed loss maker if ever there was one. You can’t do that if you want to build customer confidence.
17. Their website while not the worst in the business needs major improvements. They should simply copy Ryanair, Easyjet or Aer Lingus which are better and stop trying to re-invent the wheel. And to make matters worse their timetable often refuses to open. Interestingly they charge €24.38 taxes for a trip from Cork and only €16.38 from Dublin. This bears out my point that the Cork Airport Board are deliberately pricing themselves to drive away traffic. Something is wrong somewhere!
18. Equally interesting and equally stupid is that they have no through fares on their website with their “partners” E tihad and Aer Lingus. Could it be that their “partners” do not trust them and refuse to accept their tickets?
18. Aer Arann advertise Hertz at €16 per day. I did one check for April 4 and came up with the cheapest at €63.50 per day. Why cannot they tell the truth? People would use them then but they are losing the most important commodity of all – trust. For their information, another company is €42. They can neither justify their false advertising but much less justify charging drastically more than the competition. Why not do a deal with the competition instead? The other car hire company even at their full rate would be almost half Hertz. But why does Aer Arann fashion a stick to beat themselves with? At the end of the day false, fraudulent, advertising never works.
19. Next, Aer Arann advertises hotels from only “€60” per night on the website. They must be joking! The reality is and I quote from further into their own website when you go to book : Cork €146, Dublin €109, Waterford €148, Killarney €243. Who is kidding who? Again I would not mind but most hotels are offered to the punter directly for half those prices so either they are making an exorbitant profit or else are being screwed by the hotel, the latter being more likely.
But again why make a stick to beat themselves with? Can nobody in Aer Arann see that this is no way to do business? What is even more looney is that the hotel itself only wants €126 directly and Aer Arann wants €146 for their special discount! Again it is a fraud on the punter. It cannot and will not work.
20. Nowhere in their website does it indicate who runs what in the company, which may well be sensible as nobody can blame anyone then, but is not the way to do things. Why are they afraid to put up their corporate structure and who runs what? It does appear from a press release that none of the executives, much less the board, of course, has any hands on experience in running an airline and this needs to be remedied drastically fast.
21. If one is to read the papers one could be forgiven for thinking they now want to turn into a leasing company and have set up a separate company to do this, it appears. Tough on the creditors when the main Aer Arann goes broke and it can always be blamed on oil prices! Heaven forbid that anyone should think it was its own management which caused it! In the current aircraft supply climate, becoming a leasing company is lunacy. You can get all the leases you want, such as Manx, provided you do not expect to get paid for them! Aer Arann management make one bad decision after another!
22. Aer Arann needs to ruthlessly cut everything which is losing money right now and deal with all the problems listed above as fast as possible, and, before they go broke. And go broke they must, if they carry on the way they are. Time is running out!
23. Internal documents of Aer Arann show that it lost €1,225,000 last year. Even worse confidential predictions drawn up for 2009 show the loss rising to almost €2,500,00. Aer Arann do not publish accounts and have left the Department of Transport in a quandary as they refuse to provide them with figures even though the taxpayer is footing the bill.
24. The credit card companies are so alarmed they have demanded €2 million up front as a guarantee which says volumes.
25. Once you accept that the airline is losing money, in order to ascertain how long the airline will last is very simple. All you have to do is to divide the amount of cash plus available credit by the loss per month and you very quickly discover how many months you are going to remain in business. Very, very, simple! My research leads me to the conclusion that no accurate finance figures are available to the management of Aer Arann due to inaccurate and incompetent accounting systems and management fight on with a wing and a prayer? It is no way to run any airline.
26. The fact they receive public money and yet publish no accounts of any kind is a fraud on the taxpayer and if a company receives public money then it should publish its accounts. In this case, I believe, the taxpayer’s money is being wasted. It would be very interesting to know what their bankers are being told! The Minister for Transport is worse to allow the situation to continue and should demand detailed accounts so that his department can assess the situation. Aer Arann are a vital part of the Irish economy and the fact they want to commit suicide is not a good reason to allow them to do so.
27. As for load factor Aer Arann boast 46.2% which is totally lossmaking by any standards whereas Ryanair achieve 80.8%. In plain English, Aer Arann have such a lousy commercial department they simply fail to sell seats. Somebody should be fired. Every Ryanair passenger was a potential Aer Arann passenger from Cork to Dublin so why were they not on Aer Arann? Simply because nobody expects Aer Arann to turn up on time and they do not generally. Their punctuality record is appalling.
28. The cure is to fire the Operations Manager and fire the Commercial Manager and keep replacing them until things go right and if that does not work then fire Padraig O’Ceidigh. It is simply not good enough for Padraig O’Ceidigh to take taxpayers money and have no accounting for it. A lot of small suppliers are going to come badly unstuck when Aer Arann go bankrupt and that is neither right nor fair. Minister Dempsey also has a duty to ensure they are financially sound and is failing in that duty.
29. Aer Arann maintenance is substandard and leads to an unacceptably high tech rate on the aircraft. The normal reason for this is that the maintenance chiefs either do not know what they are doing or simply cannot get enough downtime on the aircraft to keep them adequately maintained. Somebody needs to get their head of maintenance, give him targets for performance and tell him either he produces or he is fired as otherwise if they do not get that department in order they are doomed and they have far too many tech aircraft. The number of total engine closedowns is too high.
In short, in my view their maintenance is not up to a safe standard because the maintenance staff is failing to deliver. Now is the time to take severe action, not after the
inevitable accident when everyone will say they did not see it coming and that it was someone else’s fault. On August 15, 2008 for example they achieved a record 100% of every flight late out of Cork. This takes some achieving!
30. The management have come up with the novel solution of spending €180 million on new aircraft which they need like they need a hole in their heads. This is insane for an airline like Aer Arann. They would be better giving Michael O’Leary ten million per year to run the place – which he would – and then they might have a chance. Nobody but nobody with Aer Aranns route structure can make money with ATR 72 aircraft, much less the ATR 42 which is even more uneconomic. A guaranteed recipe for bankruptcy is what they have done in buying new aircraft and one can only surmise it was to satisfy the ego of the Chief Executive. You cannot reinvent the wheel and nobody can make money with an ATR especially in Ireland. And as for new aircraft, forget it. The depreciation will kill you. The only hope at all is with written down aircraft.
31. It is interesting to note that their own figures indicate a average load factor of 36 passengers per ATR 72 flight or roughly 50% . Who is kidding who? Nobody can make money on this load factor. Cork to Dublin is a total disaster, yet it is not a lack of passengers, as Ryanair have much larger aircraft and carry vastly more passengers. Every Ryanair passenger should be a potential passenger for Aer Arann but the ineptness of the Aer Arann management makes sure the passengers flocked to Ryanair and they do.
32. Next I quote Padraig O’Ceidigh: “It was a major coup for Aer Arann when Garry Cullen agreed to join us as CEO almost three years ago”. “His experience as a senior airline executive over many years, including those as Chief Executive of both Aer Lingus and LIAT (Ed. note. Liat? Oh, they went broke too!) in the Caribbean, was invaluable as we developed our route network and built an airline that could compete successfully in the European market”. “Personally, I am delighted that Garry has accepted our invitation to join the board of Aer Arann”, he continued, “and the fact that his knowledge and experience will continue to
WE WANT LEAKS.
CORK AIRPORT BOARD MEETINGS A SHAM.
CORK PASSENGERS BEING SCREWED BY AER ARANN
Thu, 14 May, 2009
11:35 Cork (ORK)
12:30 Dublin (DUB)
1 Adult(s)
Fare € 42.99 EUR
Tax € 24.38 EUR
15:00 Dublin (DUB)
15:55 Cork (ORK)
1 Adult(s)
Total € 42.99 EUR
Tax € 16.74 EUR
(Incl. taxes and fees)
Thu, 14 May, 2009
10:10 Cork (ORK)
11:00 Dublin (DUB)
1 Adult(s)
Fare € 9.99 EUR
Tax € 26.21 EUR
13:30Dublin (DUB)
14:20 Cork (ORK)
1 Adult(s)
Fare € 9.99 EUR
Tax € 25.37 EUR
(Incl. taxes and fees)
2. Aer Arann will not last much longer on the Dublin route.
3. Ryanair are screwing the passenger from Dublin.
4. All of the alleged taxes and charges are fiddled.
COLM BARRINGTON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS ALA GUINESS PEAT
CORK AIRPORT BOARD MEETING MINUTES
MORE DETAILS OF THE LOONY €1.4 MILLION MOVE A GLASS WALL CAPER!
CORK AIRPORT BOARD SPEND €3,500 TAXPAYERS MONEY LEARNING HOW TO LIE
What You Will Learn. The training session will be a highly intensive, practical workshop delivered in a morning or afternoon session (all for obnly €3,500 of the taxpayers money!).
Why you will improve 100% with this training
Is the media out to trip you up?
Coping with nerves
Making a positive start
Taking control
Handling interruptions
Getting your message across
Being memorable
Dealing with crossfire
Giving quotable quotes
Having the last word
Let’s pick a really difficult one. You are being asked to confirm 38 job losses at your company. Remember the two things; firstly say something most people will agree with, and secondly force the next question.
CORK AIRPORT BOARD TAKEN IN BY CONMAN WHOSE COMPANY DOES NOT EXIST
Media Training
Address: MediaTraining
7/8 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
info@mediatraining.ie
CORK AIRPORT BOARD MEETING HELD SO AS NO CONTACT WITH THE PEASANTS
AIRPORT BOARD DECIDE TO CUT UP TO 50 JOBS
AIRPORT BOARD DECIDE TO SPEND €1.4 MILLION ON LOONY VENTURE
DUTY FREE SHOP SALES PLUMMET - BOARD STICK ASSES IN AIR!
AER LINGUS DATE OF BANKRUPTCY AND NATIONALISATION NOW AVAILABLE
AER LINGUS BOARD APPOINTS ZYGOS PARTNERSHIP TO FIND NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Also Cork Airport Live Flight Information.
Colum Barrington missed three. Hope he shows a little more attention to Aer Lingus!
Michael Hodgkinson missed three meetings so you wonder why he bothered to come at all.
Typical Englishmans approach.
Bill Cullen and Mary Davis missed two.
Des Cummins and Marion Keating missed one.
Declan Collier, Brian Lynch, Barry Nevin and Marie O’Connor attended all board meetings and good for them.
Grianan House,
Tramore Road,
Cork. Ireland.
Mob : +353-(0)87-240-5550.
April 7, 2009