It has been an interesting year for Irish carrier Aer Lingus. Perhaps we should say interesting month.
In mid October 2004, four of every 10 employees filed for a lucrative severance package offered for a limited time. Not all will receive the $50,000-$90,000 USD buyout, but an airline executive told Associated Press he was pleased with the response.
It was the second eye-opening development at Aer Lingus in as many weeks. In late September 2004, Ireland's flagship airline made a radical departure from its major competitors -- it slashed and simplified its fares.
You might think the "slash" is the most important part of that sentence. I might argue "simplified" is even better.
Here's why: It's high time the industry started looking at travel through the eyes of customers. We want reasonable prices without having to jump through a series of uncomfortable hoops.
You know the jumps: Saturday night stays, 21-day advance purchases, required roundtrip purchases, ridiculously high penalties for rescheduling. The price structure for an airline ticket is unlike virtually any other commodity on the market today.
A friend told me this week that he inquired about changing the time of a booked flight and found out the penalty would double the cost of his trip. Unfortunately, this is not at all unusual.
But unusual does describe Aer Lingus' approach to intense competition from discount carriers, and the need to be lean.
Click "next" to read more about an encouraging approach to providing air transportation from a variety of carriers.
