Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion was operations manager of the Arab-owned airline, based in the state of Dubai, before he took over from Willie Walsh last year. He is understood to be still held in very high regard by Emirates. Earlier this year Aer Lingus launched a direct non-stop flight to Dubai from Dublin.

"Emirates Airlines would be an ideal partner for Aer Lingus on a number of fronts, " a leading industry analyst said last week following the government's decision to sell off a majority stake of the state airline. The state-owned Emirates is also cashrich with oil-backed dollars and is actively seeking to buy into a European airline in order to give it access to European routes, said the analyst.

A link up between the Irish and Arab-owned airlines could also see the two airlines sharing the lucrative landing and take-off slots at Heathrow.

The government last week announced that special protection for those slots at Heathrow would be written into the articles of the company, and that this could not be changed without the agreement of the government, which will hold 25.1% of the shares. This may ease fears that private investors will cash in by selling the slots. But, such a sale may have proved difficult anyway given doubts over who technically owns the slots. And the measure may not stop the new owners . . . particularly if those owners operate another airline . . . from using the slots for routes other than Dublin-London.

Despite this, the purchase of what the analyst predicted would be a large minority stake in Aer Lingus could mollify the unions concerns over the sale. "Emirates is critically short of pilots and air stewards and Aer Lingus staff could be swapped over to work with the Emirates airline. This would minimise any job losses in Aer Lingus which is one of the union's main concerns arising out of the privatisation move, " explained the analyst.

Another huge benefit to Aer Lingus is that Emirates already has a large order in with Airbus and Boeing for wide-bodied aircraft for use on long-haul flights. A key reason to float Aer Lingus in the first place was that the state airline wanted to buy such aircraft to expand its long-haul routes.

"If Emirates buys a large stake in Aer Lingus it would allow Aer Lingus to use its aircraft without the state airline having to spend millions purchasing new planes, " said the analyst.