Shannon gets four new UK routes

Shaneboyle

Shannon airport will get four new routes into the UK as a result of an extension of the services operated by Aer Lingus Regional, a franchise operated by Aer Arann and Aer Lingus.

Good to see improvement in Shannon traffic

From 1 July Aer Lingus Regional will provide direct flights to Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol from Shannon airport.
The services to Manchester and Glasgow will operate daily, while the services to Birmingham and Bristol will operate six days a week, excluding Saturday.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0531/shannon.html

Lifelike

Yeah I heard. A much-needed boost for the airport. Passenger numbers have been going into freefall at SNN since Ryanair axed 75% of their routes.

Growler!!!

Great news indeed.

Anyone have any idea if Arann will be be getting more aircraft to service these routes? Or will they make do with the aircraft they have?

Shaneboyle

Lifelike wrote: »

Yeah I heard. A much-needed boost for the airport. Passenger numbers have been going into freefall at SNN since Ryanair axed 75% of their routes.

Hopefully, they do well, might see A320 to Europe being introduced again

Shaneboyle

Growler!!! wrote: »

Great news indeed.

Anyone have any idea if Arann will be be getting more aircraft to service these routes? Or will they make do with the aircraft they have?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aer_Lingus_Regional

Three ATR 72-500 aircraft are ordered with one aircraft due to arrive from Toulouse on 1 July 2010 to commence flights from Shannon

Not reliable sources i know

Dacian

Growler!!! wrote: »

Anyone have any idea if Arann will be be getting more aircraft to service these routes? Or will they make do with the aircraft they have?

Not a great source but an EI mate told me about 2 weeks ago that 2 more ATR72 are expected.

Looking at the Jethros Fleet List for RE Link
RE have 2 other ATR72 (REH and REI) however these are 201 models while the EIR a/c are all 212A models. I'm not sure how different these are from each other. RE already have a leased Air Contractors ATR72-500 (212) to replace the regional a/c on RE routes. RE also have 4 212A on order,the first shows due Aug 2010.

Maybe jethros will have new info in a week or two.

Edit: Wiki info on 201 and 212A subtypes.
ATR 72-201: Higher maximum take-off weight variant of the -101 (initial production variant), a PW124B powered variant.
ATR 72-212A: Marketed as the -500 the -212A is an upgraded version of the -210 using six-bladed propellers on otherwise identical PW127F engines. Other improvements include higher maximum weights and superior performance, as well as greater automation of power management to ease pilot workload.

Shaneboyle

Well looking at that,

Seems like one id due in Aug10

Maybe its coming early or they just us the 212 that are being leased in.

A320

what happens when ryanair decide to drive them out by introducing these routes again???????

Shaneboyle

A320 wrote: »

what happens when ryanair decide to drive them out by introducing these routes again???????

Will they because of the fee's reason they left.

gihj

A320 wrote: »

what happens when ryanair decide to drive them out by introducing these routes again???????

How would Ryanair introducing these routes again drive them out?

vulcan57

Seems to be doing well already for them. I'm going to RIAT in july and have already booked flights with aer lingus to heathrow. Since i heard about the new routes i thought i'd check the prices out of curiosity. The flights both ways (friday 16th july-monday 19th july) were full !

Dacian

A320 wrote: »

what happens when ryanair decide to drive them out by introducing these routes again???????

FR can try to drive them out. But using a 189 seater aircraft to operate a route which a competitor is using a 70 seater on seems a way to lose money. FR have already taken the PSO route from RE, which was seen as keeping RE afloat. And then there is the fact that FR will have to pay full (normal) charges at SNN, can't see them offering FR any incnetives to return.

Mind you with such huge profits FR can afford to lose money to do this.
And we can all see MoL being vindictive enough to do this to an ailrine that is no competition to FR. Why? Because they can.

A320

Thats what i mean about ryanair trying to drive them,agree with dacian,although Aer Arann held their own on the Cork/Dublin routes!!!

globemaster1986

A320 wrote: »

Thats what i mean about ryanair trying to drive them,agree with dacian,although Aer Arann held their own on the Cork/Dublin routes!!!

Ya Ryanair can be ruthless like that. Remember what they did when easyjet started routes into Dublin! Undercut prices on all the same routes and made it impossible for them to compete so they stopped

A320

Same thing happened in cork on the gatwick route then again easyjet went without a fight!!

Dacian

A320 wrote: »

Same thing happened in cork on the gatwick route then again easyjet went without a fight!!

EasyJet were smart enough to realise they could not win against FR. Ryanair are so big they can take losses on small routes purely to disrupt their 'competitors'. They have reached the status of 'behemoth' by now! 3 more B738s delivered this week alone.

Look at the recent profits announced. With that behind them FR could decide to play hardball against RE/EIR out of SNN purely to prevent EIR growing and becoming a competitor to FR regional operations.

The FR vs EI will be with us forever,lets try not to get into that again, but EI are one of the few airlines in Europe able to directly compete with FR.