Dublin-Canada Year-round?

charliehotel

Seeing this I know Air Transat and Air Canada fly during the Summer season, but I've always wondered why there is no solid year-round schedule. Surely there is enough demand?

Could Aer Lingus try it, they've done it before?

BuffyBot

Unlikely. If there was a market for it a) Air Transat would already be picking up the low-end, price sensitive traffic with a year round service and b) Air Canada would be putting it's prime aircraft on it and not a "holiday" aircraft (no proper business class, no video-on-demand etc). Even with their extensive feed from other parts of Canada and the northern US, Air Canada feel it only works as a tourist route for them in the summer,

Obviously there isn't demand year round for the low-end, and there isn't business class demand to prop it up. Sandwiched between these two operators, why would EI throw a massive A330 on the route year round. That's a lot of seats to sell on an expensive aircraft to operate on the service with no onward connecting traffic to speak of.

Dacian

charliehotel wrote: »

Could Aer Lingus try it, they've done it before?

Well it was mentioned as a possible area for expansion during the AGM last month......I'm sure if they think they can turn a profit on a Canadian route they will launch it.

L1011

"before" in Aer Lingus's case was in the 1970s, with the plane continuing on to the US afterwards.

Long enough ago to reconsider it, but definitely not recent!

Zonda999

There had been talk of it as a future EI route but I dont think all year round was ever mentioned. Like was already said, Air Transat could put an A310 on the route all year round ,and that is almost as small a long hail aircraft as you can get. The fact that even they are not doing it speaks volumes IMO. In any case, Toronto is only a short hop beyond JFK or Boston or Chicago, Ei's codeshare with JetBlue or United would work well in this instance I suspect.

BTW, the A310 is such a nice looking aircraft, looks well in that video. Having been in one of them with Air Transat before though, i have to say very tight legroom for such a long haul flight. No wonder when it such a small long haul plane, compared to, say, an A330-300

ardmacha

Canada has fallen out with the UAE re direct flights. Perhaps Etihad could pipe 50 passengers onto an EI flight, making it viable.

DazzlerIE

BuffyBot wrote: »

Unlikely. If there was a market for it a) Air Transat would already be picking up the low-end, price sensitive traffic with a year round service and b) Air Canada would be putting it's prime aircraft on it and not a "holiday" aircraft (no proper business class, no video-on-demand etc). Even with their extensive feed from other parts of Canada and the northern US, Air Canada feel it only works as a tourist route for them in the summer,

Obviously there isn't demand year round for the low-end, and there isn't business class demand to prop it up. Sandwiched between these two operators, why would EI throw a massive A330 on the route year round. That's a lot of seats to sell on an expensive aircraft to operate on the service with no onward connecting traffic to speak of.

I'm taking this flight to Toronto in four weeks or so...

So they send over a scaldy old 767 with no in-seat IFE?

Well that's going to make for a fun flight

KCAccidental

DazzlerIE wrote: »

I'm taking this flight to Toronto in four weeks or so...

So they send over a scaldy old 767 with no in-seat IFE?

Well that's going to make for a fun flight

yup will be on the 3 tatty 767-300's that they didnt modernize, I'm afraid.

DazzlerIE

Annoyingly, I'll be connecting in Toronto to Vancouver, where the Air Canada a319 will have touch screen IFE

charliehotel

Okay, considering that EI's A330s are purely too much capacity for such a route, would A321NEOs make Canadian routes work?

BuffyBot

DazzlerIE wrote: »

I'm taking this flight to Toronto in four weeks or so...

So they send over a scaldy old 767 with no in-seat IFE?

Well that's going to make for a fun flight

Possibly. Or you get a "pineapple" (2 ex-Hawaiian Airlines birds which have individual screens I believe, but not on demand [edit actually they may not have this from what I've read[/edit]) or you get real lucky and they send a "proper" 767. Plan for the worst, hope for the best

L1011

charliehotel wrote: »

Okay, considering that EI's A330s are purely too much capacity for such a route, would A321NEOs make Canadian routes work?

Range would be a serious issue, particularly in winter (can be head-winds that make even 757's unable to get further than Gander without a stop).

Zonda999

The idea of EI using A320/A321NEO's has come up quite a bit here recently. I, for one can;t see it happening anyway. As you say range is a big problem and I think its fair to say EI will have plenty transatlantic aircraft in a few years already, even if they don't take delivery of all 9 A350-900. Remember they will still have plenty A330 at that point, so whatever way you look at it ,their transatlantic fleet will be getting bigger anyway, never mind buying more A321NEO's