Aer Lingus to Hong Kong / Bangkok?

Zaph0d

Aer Lingus has Hong Kong and Bangkok listed as destinations from Dublin in its online booking web site. No flights are available. Is this a mistake or is Aer Lingus planning to fly there direct?

I hope so.

BuffyBot

There is a bit of speculation about what is going on, and whether this is an arrangement where they will sell tickets onwards via Dubai (with Emirates), as a way to fill seats on the Dubai route. I guess this speculation is due to Mannions previous role in Emirates.

If this is the case, I can't see pairing up with a non-OneWorld airline (especially one that is positioning itself as a challenger to the big boys) going down to well with Cathay, Qantas and BA who serve those destinations via LHR and are Aer Lingus's OneWorld partners - so they *should* be getting the connecting traffic. However Aer Lingus gets a better cut of the revenue via the first option.

They are also rumoured to want to serve these directly, but can't really do that till they expand their fleet.

Metrobest

There was a travel piece about Dublin in the Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago. (A supremely cheesy piece about "U2's Dublin" - apparantly Nude on Sussex Street is "full of U2 fans" because Bono's brother owns it, and a U2-linked hearing aid shop in North Earl Street is a "must see" - goodness knows why!).

But I digress. The "getting there" column said fly to Dublin with Emirates and Aerlingus, stopping over in Dubai. Generally it's the airlines who pay for the travel journalists' flights.

dmeehan

this is the error I got trying to bok flights to hong kong in june

Flights do not operate on your selected travel date/s. Aer Lingus operates from Mar 28 2006 - Mar 24 2007 on days Tue Thu Sat


but when you select the correct days it says all flights are full :-(
looks like they will be flying 3 times weekly

BuffyBot

The flights haven't been loaded yet - which is why you can't book them.

MT

Increasing transport links with Hong Kong could be good for business. It's a major centre of commerce and as the people there are pretty well disposed to the British, Irish firms could establish a good relationship - what with people in SE Asia being somewhat vague on the distinctions between Britain and Ireland. Ireland could piggyback on the reservoir of good will the UK seemed to have left HK with.

patsyh

good move by aer lingus into dubai. Emeriates are set to become the biggest airline in the world(look at the number of A380s they have on order).

Id say wait a few months and gulf air will pull out of its dublin route