Cork Airport

Even sadder was the fact that it was through ignorance Stobart Group got involved and the people running Stobart were even more stupid than those running Aer Arann. They knew it all when in reality they knew nothing. Tne fig leaf is that the service will continue as Aer Lingus Regional but this too is doomed as Aer Arann are incapable of running the traditional annual pissup in Murphys Brewery in Cork!

George Schutz the previous MD is gone and he more than anyone, an ignorant, arrogant man, brought about the downfall of Aer Arann. Now Sean Brogan has taken over and while he has a good track record he knows absolutely nothing about airlines. Not exactly the best qualificatiion to turn around whats left.

To give an idea of what has happened Aer Arann on one day last week they managed to have every flight out of Dublin and out of Cork operating at least 40 mintes late due to the poor condition of their aircraft. Why do Aer Lingus put up with it? Because Chris Mueller refuses to take a firm line and when the inevitable accident occurs it will have the name "Aer Lingus" on the side of the aircraft if he does not do something and fast. Aer Arann is not properly run and gets worse by the day. The Irish Aviation Authority knows and refuses to take action under political direction.

I need hardly mention that the Irish Aviation Authority are the people who allowed an unqualified airline Manx2 to kill people at Cork Auirport. Who are they?

Who are these geniuses? The following are:

Anne Nolan Chairman was first appointed to the Board of the Irish Aviation Authority in 2006 and was re-appointed by the Minister for Transport for a second term in 2010. She was appointed Chairman of the Authority in July 2010.

Anne is currently Chief Executive of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association Ltd. Anne qualified as a pharmacist in 1982 and became a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland in 1983. She obtained a Masters Degree in Business Administration from University College, Dublin, in October 1993 and in recent years has completed a number of the modules in the Director Development Programme at the Centre for Corporate Governance, UCD.

She was appointed Chief Executive of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association Ltd in July 1994. She is currently a member of the:

■Board of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland
■Board of the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP).
■Executive Committee of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA)
■Board of the Smurfit Graduate School of Business
She was formerly a member of the Irish Medicines Board and the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.
Anne is also a part-time lecturer (subject: management science) in the School of Pharmacy, Trinity College Dublin.

Imagine a stupid pharmacist running the Irish Aviation Authority and making decisions affecting tourism. Can you imagine someone with her qualifications heading up an Aviation authority. It's a sick joke.

Eamonn Brennan is Chief Executive of the Irish Aviation Authority with responsibility for the Safety Regulation of Irish Civil Aviation and the provision of Air Navigation Services in Irish Controlled Airspace, North Atlantic Communications and Air Traffic Control at the major Irish Airports. He was educated at St. Joseph's College and University College Galway where he graduated with a B. Comm. He subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He then worked for a decade in executive and consulting roles in Ireland, UK, Malta and in South East Asia, mainly in the travel, aviation and tourism industries. He has an avid interest in aviation and has held a private pilot's licence and has enjoyed flying in Ireland, the UK, Europe and Malaysia.

He was the Commercial Director of the Authority prior to his appointment as Chief Executive in 2003. The IAA has a similar structure to the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and Mr. Brennan is also responsible for the safety regulation of the worldwide operations of major Irish carriers, e.g. Ryanair, Aer Lingus, maintenance organisations, pilots, airworthiness and other regulatory matters. He was Chairman of the Eurocontrol Chief Executive's Standing Conference 2004-2006 and Chairman of the Air Navigation Services Board of Eurocontrol 2006-2007. He was a member of the Executive Board of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation from 2005 to 2011 and served as Global Deputy Chairman and Chairman for various periods.

He was Chairman of the North European Service Providers which includes Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the UK. This is an affiliation of Air Navigation Service Providers

He also served as Chairman of the COOPANS new ATM Systems Group Denmark/Sweden/Austria until 2010.

He is the only one with proper experience, knows his stuff and is enthusiastic about his work and he should be the Executive Chairman.

Lorraine Burke was appointed Board Director to the Irish Aviation Authority in November 2009. She qualified as a Solicitor in 1993 having completed a Law Degree at UCC.

She is Principal of the Solicitors Firm of Desmond J. Houlihan & Company in Ennis, County Clare.

Pat Dalton has extensive aviation experience gained during his career (1992 to 2002) with GPA Group plc and later with debis AirFinance B.V. - one of the then largest aircraft leasing companies worldwide and an associated company in the Daimler/Chrysler Group. Mr. Dalton held the position of Group Chief Accountant of GPA Group from 1997 until 2000 and subsequently was Chief Financial Officer (based in Amsterdam) of the combined GPA/debis AirFinance Group (a company with in excess of $5 billion in aircraft assets). During his career in aviation, Mr. Dalton was involved in the initial restructuring of the GPA Group in the early 1990s and then in a senior management role in various corporate restructurings and reorganisations involving GPA during the latter half of the 1990s. Mr. Dalton was also involved in a significant number of debt raising transactions including several aircraft securitisation transactions, numerous airline restructurings, and transactions involving the acquisition and sale of various companies.

From 2002 to 2006, Mr Dalton was Chief Financial Officer of Bord Gais (the Irish State owned gas utility company). At Bord Gais, Mr Dalton was a director of a number of companies and was actively involved in the formation of the Company's strategy and all areas across the management of the Company and had direct responsibility for the Treasury, Finance, Purchasing, Transaction Processing and the Information Technology departments. From 2004 to September 2009, Mr Dalton was a director of Cork Airport Authority plc. GPA went broke and Cork Airport are broke.

Since 2006, Mr Dalton has been Chief Financial Officer of a privately held international property investment and development group. The group operates internationally and has operations in Dublin, London, New York and Warsaw. Pat Dalton holds a B.Comm (1986) and a Diploma in Professional Accounting (1987) from University College Dublin. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Institute of Taxation. Pat trained as a Chartered Accountant with Price WaterhouseCoopers (1987-1991)

Peter Ledbetter is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and alumni of Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Having spent several years with Coopers & Lybrand, Mr Ledbetter joined GPA Group plc. at its inception in 1975 where he was closely involved in the formation of the company’s evolving strategy, as well as the execution of its policies from 1975 to 1990. He was an Executive Director of Irish Life and Permanent plc. from 1991 - 2000.

Peter Ledbetter also was a GPA alumnus. He also was an executive director fo Irish Life. I think they both went broke. But he needs a job Bloody useless.

Ms Rosheen McGuckian is the Chief Executive Officer of Greenstar Ireland.

She was the previously the Group Corporate Development Director for NTR plc, CEO of GE Money Ireland and Head of Strategy Change in the ESB Power Generation. She formerly worked in public relations and was a non-executive director of Forfas not that they do anything. She is a communications expert. Knows nothing about airports, of course

She has a PhD in change management and an MA in communications from Dublin City University and is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin.c

She was appointed to the Board of the IAA in June 2009 for a four year period.

Michael Norton graduated from UCD with a B.Comm degree after which, he was awarded the first Dr. Dempsey Fellowship by Aer Lingus to train as a Chartered Accountant. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1979.

He has held senior executive management positions in the aviation industry in Europe, Middle and Far East, the Caribbean and Africa.

He was a founder and then Chief Financial Officer for a number of years with Dubai based Emirates Airlines . He could be good.

Geoffrey O'Byrne White was appointed to the Board of the Irish Aviation Authority in December 2010. Mr O'Byrne White has over 30 years experience in the aviation industry. He started his career as a pilot with the Irish Air Corps and advanced to the position of head of operations for the Government Air Transport Service in 1985. From there he moved to PARC Group, becoming Director of PARC Aviation and establishing and growing the Maintenance and Consultancy divisions. He was the chief executive of CityJet. from 2000 to 2010 and during his time with the airline it grew from operating with five BAe146 jet aircraft to a fleet of 45 aircraft flying to most of the major cities in Europe. Mr. O'Byrne White is currently involved in Pilot Training. Cityjet lose their shirt and he was fired.

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE OVERSEEING AER ARANN.

THE AER ARANN (AND DAA AND AER LINGUS!) APPROACH TO BUSINESS

The Aer Arann approach to business can best be illustrated by the following cautionary tale in which they continue to ride the dead horse! My tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However in the airline business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

Buy a stronger whip.
Change riders.
Threaten the horse with termination.
Say things like, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse”.
Appoint a committee to study the horse.
Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
Lower the standards so that dead horses can be included.
Appoint a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
Ride the dead horse ”outside the box.”
Buy a commercial off-the-shelf dead horse.
Create a training session to increase our riding ability.
Reclassify the dead horse as “living-impaired.”
Compare the state of dead horses in today's environment.
Change the autopsy report to declare that “This horse is not dead.”
Kill all the other horses, so this one will look the same.
Name the dead horse “Aer Lingus Regional” and keep riding it.
Ride the dead horse “smarter” not harder.
Hire Aer Lingus to ride the dead horse.
Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders would improve productivity.
Declare that “No horse is too dead to beat.”
Call the dead horse a “joint venture with Aer Lingus” and let others ride it.
Provide additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
Do a cost analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
Purchase an aftermarket product to make dead horses run faster.
Declare the horse is “better, faster, and cheaper” dead.
Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
Declare that “This horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.”
Get the horse a Web site.
Promote the horse to a supervisory position such as Managing Director of Aer Arann.

CORK AIRPORT DECIDES NEITHER TO SELL OR RENT THE UNUSED TERMINAL.

October 31, 2011. Cork Airport loses € 20 million per year. They have been offered up to € 5 million to rent the old terminal which is worth € 20 million. They have turned it down, refused to negotiate and stated they will neither rent nor sell it. The rumour is that they have decided to demolish it and convert it into a management car park.