Aer Lingus

The Aer Lingus mission is to be the first choice airline serving business and leisure passengers and customers of its cargo services, in a safe and reliable manner on all of its chosen routes. It will also strive to attain a position in which its subsidiaries are profitable and viable within themselves, are strategic to the core airline business and the ownership of which enhances the achievability of the airline's objectives. Aer Lingus will operate a commercial and profitable business and will reinvest in the development of its people, its fleet and its products to achieve these ends. Key Dates: U.S.-Ireland landing rights dispute nearly costs Aer Lingus access to New York. A relatively late starter among European flag carriers, Aer Lingus Group plc has grown quickly in its first few decades to a stature belying the size of its tiny home base. Although Ireland has less than four million inhabitants, about six million passengers a year fly Aer Lingus, which also handles a significant amount of cargo. On April 11, 1928, Major James Fitzmaurice, Officer Commanding the Air Corps, had made the first aerial east-west crossing of the Atlantic with Hermann Koehl and Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, leaving Baldonnel, county Dublin in a Junkers W33. In spite of the celebrity he achieved, Fitzmaurice was unable to persuade the Irish government to start a national airline, probably because the venture would have likely lost money at first. Nevertheless, in the next few years a number of air companies sprang up, at least on paper, eager to supply transatlantic air service to the Emerald Isle. Richard F. O'Connor, County Cork Surveyor, originally proposed the name 'Aer Lingus Éireann.' His prospectus noted that Bulgaria was the only other European country that had not yet started its own airline. Interestingly, Ireland was also the only country which allowed civil aircraft to fly into all its military airfields. When the illustrious British aviator Sir Alan Cobham pulled out of a prospective cross-channel venture with the Irish government, Captain Gordon Olley was left as the government's partner. The new company, then referred to as Irish Sea Airways, was based at 39 Upper O'Connell Street in Dublin. It had just a handful of staff. The airfield, in somewhat remote Baldonnel, doubled as a sheep pasture. The airline was formally incorporated on May 22, 1936, as Aer Lingus Teoranta, a corruption of the Gaelic for 'Air Fleet ( Loingeas) Limited.' At the same time, Aer Rianta was established as a holding company for diverse national aviation interests including Aer Lingus itself. The company's first plane, a twin-engined de Havilland DH-84 Dragon, was dubbed Iolar , Irish for 'eagle.' Transferred from Olley Air Services, it had cost £2,900 new. Its first Aer Lingus flight, carrying five passengers, was from Baldonnel near Dublin to Bristol on May 27. However, the maiden voyage of the luxury liner Queen Mary stole any hope of press coverage that day. In fact, the board would come to avoid publicity of the airline's regularly unreliable service at the hands of uncertified crew. Nevertheless, the company's route system grew within the first year, adding the Isle of Man and Liverpool. Sightseeing flights around Dublin were even made part of the program. Aer Lingus purchased a second aircraft in September, a DH-86A. A DH-89 followed and two years later the company ordered a couple of Lockheed 14 aircraft, which were soon sold and replaced by the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. In spite of the large number of types flown, at any one time the company fielded but a handful of aircraft. Aer Lingus flew 4,987 passengers in 1938, a more than fourfold increase from 1936's 1,130. Although Ireland was neutral during World War II, the conflict scuttled plans for a continental route, either to Paris or Amsterdam. Aerial warfare complicated service to England, closing access to cities under bombardment and necessitating complex approach procedures and camou