Response to further Ryanair correspondence

Aer Lingus Group plc

ISE: EIL1 LSE: AERL

Response to further Ryanair correspondence

Dublin & London, 20 October 2011:  Aer Lingus Group plc ("Aer Lingus") Chairman, Colm Barrington, today responded to further recent correspondence from Ryanair. The letter of response is attached to this announcement.

Ends

For further information please visit www.aerlingus.com or contact:

Michael O'Leary

Chief Executive

Ryanair Ltd

Corporate Head Office

Dublin Airport

Co Dublin

20 October 2011

Dear Michael,

I refer to your recent letters, particularly your letter of 28 September 2011.

My letter of 22 September provided a comprehensive response to the points contained in your letter of 13 September. This included detailed statements of the views of the Board of Aer Lingus on pensions, on dividends and on the "leave and return" review. Aer Lingus management representatives addressed these same issues again in some detail when your representative raised them while disrupting our recent investor day in London.

In my letter of 22 September I also strongly refuted your false allegations that Aer Lingus does not listen to its shareholders or consider their views. We disagree with your views on the issues referred to above and don't intend to engage in further public debate with you on them. Such public debate with a single self interested shareholder is not in the best interests of all our shareholders.

You have not made any substantive new points on these issues in your letter of 28 September. In addition, you appear intent on ignoring our previous responses on these matters simply because the facts we have outlined and the views we have expressed are at variance with your own stated opinions. I disagree with your contention that your letter was "an open and genuine effort...to enhance shareholder value".

The "initiatives" referred to in your letter of 18 October are not new. You raised each of these matters at our AGM in May. In advance of the AGM you also sought to require Aer Lingus to include resolutions on the AGM agenda relating to two of these matters and this attempt was rejected by the High Court. Your current intention to requisition an EGM relates principally to these same matters. Therefore, I disagree with the contention that your "initiatives" and proposed requisitioning of an EGM will "boost shareholder value". We believe that the context in which you frame your proposals is a continuing attempt to de-focus and distract management with consequent potential implications for performance and, as such, are not in the best interests of ALL shareholders. We are and continue to be resolutely focused on the creation of value through a series of initiatives again for ALL shareholders.

Since I joined the Board of Aer Lingus three years ago, we have made very substantial changes at Aer Lingus, changes that were reflected in our significantly improved financial results in 2010 - a €139 million turnaround in operating profits from the prior year - and again in 2011 YTD. We have also improved our cash position to over €900 million - this despite your own repeated warnings to our shareholders and others that: "...Aer Lingus is going to run out of cash".

In the last two and a half years we have also:

·; Strengthened our board by recruiting directors qualified in several fields relevant to the success of the Company;

·; Strengthened our senior management team by recruiting and developing experienced executives from both outside and within the Company;

·; Increased our free share float by enabling the ESOT shares to be distributed to individual shareholders;

·; Adopted a demand led approach to capacity management and focused on yield per seat rather than merely on load factor;

·; Repositioned our customer offering to provide an even more attractive range of products than our major competitors;

·; Focussed on inter-connectivity between our long and short haul operations and on alliances and partnerships;

·; Focussed on Dublin as a hub, and particularly by recognising and utilizing the benefits of T2;

·; Redeveloped a multi channel distribution strategy;

·; Further reduced our cost base through the modernization of work practices and the lower costs produced by Greenfield (and the benefits of the 2008 "Leave and Return" scheme);

·; Rationalised our route structure by eliminating loss making routes, including those to Washington D.C. and San Francisco, and rationalising operations at Shannon, Belfast and London Gatwick in order to make these bases profitable in conformity with the principles outlined above; and

·; Rationalised our fleet and aircraft orders in order to align our future fleet with our expected business, and preserve and grow our cash.

I'm sure that you will recognise some of these activities - especially base flexibility - as similar to those adopted by Ryanair on a day-to-day basis and will agree that they are geared towards creating long term shareholder value. I expect such value enhancement will be available to Ryanair and to all our shareholders as we make further improvements at Aer Lingus and as global and domestic market conditions improve.

Regarding your points about Aer Lingus' share price, it was your decision to invest your shareholders funds to purchase Aer Lingus shares in 2006, with the stated intention of acquiring control of the company. This intention was rejected twice by Aer Lingus' other shareholders and by competition authorities. It could never succeed and it is our view that the shareholding cannot be maintained in the long term. It is also our view that Ryanair's shareholding has had a significantly detrimental impact on Aer Lingus' share price.

If Ryanair is truly interested in disposing of its shareholding in Aer Lingus, we re-iterate our willingness to have constructive discussions with you on this issue.

Sincerely,

Colm Barrington

Chairman