Aer Lingus launch Gatwick hub; lose CEO
07.04.09
Aer Lingus launched flights from its new base at Gatwick Airport this morning, but also announced the surprise departure of chief executive Dermot Mannion. A 06.10 departure for Malaga was the first of eight new routes Aer Lingus will launch from Gatwick this month, using a fleet of four aircraft based at the airport.
The Irish airline will also launch services to Knock today. It will launch routes from Gatwick to Vienna, Nice and Munich on April 20 and to Faro and Zurich on April 26. The services are in direct competition with Ryanair flights from Stansted, with Aer Lingus offering one-way fares from £9.99. Aer Lingus said more than 220,000 seats from Gatwick were sold in advance of the launch and it plans to double its fleet at the airport within a year.
The launch of its second UK base (the first is in Belfast) coincided with the surprise resignation of CEO Dermot Mannion, who said he was stepping down after four years to ‘allow a new chief executive officer to bring fresh thinking and new ideas’. Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington will act as chief executive until a replacement is appointed.
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