Aer Lingus Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, today announced a further major reduction in the cost of air travel to benefit business travellers into and out of Ireland.

Speaking at the Annual Conference of the Small Firms Association in Dublin Willie Walsh said that Aer Lingus was committed to cutting the cost of business travel “so that people can do more business at less cost”.

“In the current environment of rising costs and tightening budgets for business Aer Lingus will shortly announce details of a significant reduction in air fares worth over €65 million to Irish business. The message for Irish business is clear, check with Aer Lingus first before making your business travel plans.” Willie Walsh said.

“We are committed to reducing our fares across the board. We have already cut our economy fares this year making over 3 million cheap seats available at prices up to 60% lower than last year. Everybody in Aer Lingus is committed to driving costs out of our business and passing on the benefits to our customers in lower fares. More and more customers are responding to the combination of low fares and good service. Our costs are going down, our fares are going down, our passenger numbers are going up. This is the only way to a sustainable, profitable airline.” He concluded.

Willie Walsh also told the Conference that over 30% of total sales in Aer Lingus were now coming through the internet - aerlingus.com - up from just 2% less than a year ago. With more than half of these sales coming from outside Ireland access to cheap travel into and out of Ireland has never been easier.

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