Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

alancostello

Time Magazine wrote: »

I was on EWR this morning. It's better than smelly old GEY but is an obviously inferior aircraft for the consumer, e.g. films were skipping and pausing on everyone's screen.

Aside: the ground staff at IAD were laughably bad. My boarding pass didn't initially print out my Aerclub status and so I couldn't get into the BA Lounge, and when I queried it the gate agent told me the only option was for me to ring Avios. Not even Aer Lingus... Avios! (I disabused him of that notion fairly sharpish.)

Calling GEY old and smelly is kinda funny, it's 18 months younger than EWR and after the poo-related incident that happened on it a few days ago you should be glad it wasn't smelly too. EWR also had an IFE update two-three years ago so it should actually be one of the more recent systems.

Last time I went through IAD the check-in agent had a list of all qualified status-entry passengers she could expect and accept for the day, I was on there and I watched her check me off. Did you not have an AerClub card or any other way to prove status?

Tenger

cson wrote: »

Anyone know what percentage of the fleet is leased v owned these days?

Not sure what is now. But about 2-3 years ago at an IAG presentation 40% owned, 60% leased was given as a statistic.

Time Magazine

alancostello wrote: »

Calling GEY old and smelly is kinda funny, it's 18 months younger than EWR and after the poo-related incident that happened on it a few days ago you should be glad it wasn't smelly too. EWR also had an IFE update two-three years ago so it should actually be one of the more recent systems.

<SNIP> Removed insensitive comment

Last time I went through IAD the check-in agent had a list of all qualified status-entry passengers she could expect and accept for the day, I was on there and I watched her check me off. Did you not have an AerClub card or any other way to prove status?

Yeah the BA Lounge lady had a list; we had a nice professional chat, and she told me it gets updated every day. My problem was something to do with the EI check-in counter. Not sure of the cause, I showed them my card and the status on my app, but apparently "It doesn't print SILV on the boarding card" and they told me to ring Avios. (Pause for a second, and consider again that an EI check-in agent told me I had to ring Avios to get my boarding pass sorted :eek:) Had to use my teacher voice before they took the minute or two to sort it out.

alancostello

Time Magazine wrote: »

Yeah the BA Lounge lady had a list; we had a nice professional chat, and she told me it gets updated every day. My problem was something to do with the EI check-in counter. Not sure of the cause, I showed them my card and the status on my app, but apparently "It doesn't print SILV on the boarding card" and they told me to ring Avios. (Pause for a second, and consider again that an EI check-in agent told me I had to ring Avios to get my boarding pass sorted :eek:) Had to use my teacher voice before they took the minute or two to sort it out.

I know they wear the green uniform, but they’re not really EI staff are they? I assumed they were just contract workers who wear the uniform, process the single daily flight/departure and then do another uniform and flight.

cson

Time Magazine wrote: »

I was on EWR this morning. It's better than smelly old GEY but is an obviously inferior aircraft for the consumer, e.g. films were skipping and pausing on everyone's screen.

Aside: the ground staff at IAD were laughably bad. My boarding pass didn't initially print out my Aerclub status and so I couldn't get into the BA Lounge, and when I queried it the gate agent told me the only option was for me to ring Avios. Not even Aer Lingus... Avios! (I disabused him of that notion fairly sharpish.)

The ex-QR 332 is the best equipment on that route, the alternatives are ASL or UA 757s which are a significantly worse configuration than the 332.

Bummer you missed out on the BA lounge though, it's pretty decent in the afternoon once they kick out the Priority Pass folk and put out the good spreads of food.

Arciphel

Anyone know what aircraft is flying the Dublin to Miami route today?

Rawr

Arciphel wrote: »

Anyone know what aircraft is flying the Dublin to Miami route today?

Looks like EI-LAX, an A330-200
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ei141

Van.Bosch

How often in advance do EI allocate routes to the LH routes? For example would it be known which plane is doing EI137 tomorrow yet?

Bussywussy

Van.Bosch wrote: »

How often in advance do EI allocate routes to the LH routes? For example would it be known which plane is doing EI137 tomorrow yet?

The plan is there for months but realistically it's only a few days with chopping and changing and can change withing a few hours of departure

Edit...ELA down for 137 tomorrow in case you were specifically asking

Chris_5339762

I wish EI would go back and do ORK-LGW. One flight per day with FR at a stupid time just isn't any good

ohigg84

Was GEY fitted with a cabin crew rest area?
With some speculation regarding EI sourcing 2 ex Jet Airways A330s, would it not be feasible for EI to deploy one of the ex-Jet Airway A330s on the IAD route, and deploy GEY on West Coast routes (when required).

Air Italy (of which Qatar Airways holds a majority stake) is recently deploying ex Qatar Air A330-202s on the LAX and SFO routes.

Did these aircraft require a significant upgrade?

HTCOne

ohigg84 wrote: »

Was GEY fitted with a cabin crew rest area?
With some speculation regarding EI sourcing 2 ex Jet Airways A330s, would it not be feasible for EI to deploy one of the ex-Jet Airway A330s on the IAD route, and deploy GEY on West Coast routes (when required).

Air Italy (of which Qatar Airways holds a majority stake) is recently deploying ex Qatar Air A330-202s on the LAX and SFO routes.

Did these aircraft require a significant upgrade?

The West Coast routes are very high yielding due in large part to the high load factor in Business. Those customers would not suffer GEY well.

Shamrockj

ohigg84 wrote: »

Was GEY fitted with a cabin crew rest area?
With some speculation regarding EI sourcing 2 ex Jet Airways A330s, would it not be feasible for EI to deploy one of the ex-Jet Airway A330s on the IAD route, and deploy GEY on West Coast routes (when required).

Air Italy (of which Qatar Airways holds a majority stake) is recently deploying ex Qatar Air A330-202s on the LAX and SFO routes.

Did these aircraft require a significant upgrade?

-GEY doesn't have crew rest area fitted so cannot operate west coast currently.

Bussywussy

ohigg84 wrote: »

Was GEY fitted with a cabin crew rest area?

Did these aircraft require a significant upgrade?

No but it will be fitted in November when cabin is modified...the structural provision is there on GEY but not all 330s have the provision....it's not a very big job during a cabin reconfigure

ohigg84

Shamrockj wrote: »

-GEY doesn't have crew rest area fitted so cannot operate west coast currently.

Very true, but it is more than capable of flying West Coast.


I do recall a few years ago, it might have been 2016/early 2017, EI-EWR was deployed on the San Francisco route, albeit for just one day.


I think this was the time that LAX and DUO were out of service.

Jack1985

ohigg84 wrote: »

Very true, but it is more than capable of flying West Coast.


I do recall a few years ago, it might have been 2016/early 2017, EI-EWR was deployed on the San Francisco route, albeit for just one day.


I think this was the time that LAX and DUO were out of service.

Deployed alright with curtained off Business Class seats for both flight deck and cabin crew.

California Dreamer

And not a single mention of Irish Steve’s favorite destination!!! 😝😝

https://m.independent.ie/business/irish/aer-lingus-cleared-for-extra-flights-to-the-us-and-canada-38100959.html

basill

Not a mention of much in fact. Was a PR piece for Boeing if anything. But hey its the Indo so we wouldn't expect Pulitzer prize winning journalism.

HTCOne

"The new jets are likely to be delivered from 2021-2023". I believe the XLR is tentatively slated for EIS in 2024, and is sold out until 2025 at the earliest, so it sounds like either more LRs or 339s

Karl8415

2 questions and Forgive me if these questions are outdated but with that announcement about expanding with extra jets is that including EI’s recent ( within last 12 months) forecast where they say A330’s were coming up to 16 and balance made up of LR’s or is this in addition to that.
If it is additional frames any idea on how many aircraft because if it is then by the end of the mentioned timescale then that is seriously incredible expansion since IAG took over and at such a rapid pace

kevinandrew

Essentially the plan is to double the long haul fleet over the next five years, this was revealed late last year and reiterated at the brand reveal in January.

The idea is to go from the current 17 frames to around 30, this would take seat capacity across the Atlantic from 2.8m a year to over 4.7m annually.

Nijmegen

Yeah, the expansion under IAG has been mighty. Let us pause now to wait on congratulations from the knee jerk naysayers back in the day.

sandbelter

Karl8415 wrote: »

2 questions and Forgive me if these questions are outdated but with that announcement about expanding with extra jets is that including EI’s recent ( within last 12 months) forecast where they say A330’s were coming up to 16 and balance made up of LR’s or is this in addition to that.
If it is additional frames any idea on how many aircraft because if it is then by the end of the mentioned timescale then that is seriously incredible expansion since IAG took over and at such a rapid pace

Actually, I'm kind of confused as well, the Irish examiner indicated that the growth will be on top of what's been previously been announced.



"In a briefing, he told reporters Aer Lingus had performed strongly on the transatlantic routes and IAG saw opportunities “to expand even further beyond what we previously announced”. He cited discussions with US airports for not providing more details."


Source: https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/iag-boss-willie-walsh-reveals-aer-lingus-early-plans-for-new-atlantic-routes-923424.html


My reading of this they are flagging they're expanding beyond what they disclosed at the capex day last year.

john boye

kevinandrew wrote: »

The idea is to go from the current 17 frames to around 30, this would take seat capacity across the Atlantic from 2.8m a year to over 4.7m annually.

If that happens and the 3 existing A321s leave then that would bring the LH fleet almost level with the SH fleet. Although the double-jobbing LRs would blur the lines somewhat.

Nijmegen

john boye wrote: »

If that happens and the 3 existing A321s leave then that would bring the LH fleet almost level with the SH fleet. Although the double-jobbing LRs would blur the lines somewhat.

My guess is that they're chasing yield - They might not increase SH capacity but abandon the tenner weekend break fares to Ryanair and seek to get a larger percentage of the SH fleet seats filled with connecting fares. It'd be a prudent strategy that wouldn't see them overburdened with SH aircraft during any downturn.

alancostello

Nijmegen wrote: »

My guess is that they're chasing yield - They might not increase SH capacity but abandon the tenner weekend break fares to Ryanair and seek to get a larger percentage of the SH fleet seats filled with connecting fares. It'd be a prudent strategy that wouldn't see them overburdened with SH aircraft during any downturn.

Surely if they're expanding LH capacity so dramatically part of the feed has to come from an expanded SH network, Ireland only has so many passengers. If they're almost doubling LH aircraft they can't expect to automatically double or even triple their connecting traffic from existing European destinations unless they start doing transatlantic fares that are so attractive you couldn't reasonably pick any other carrier, at which point they're basically the transatlantic Ryanair.

GFrye

Bussywussy wrote: »

No but it will be fitted in November when cabin is modified..

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is your source for the EI-GEY cabin modification schedule?

Since I have a DUB-IAD flight booked in December and EI-GEY currently appears to be the airframe most commonly used on that route, a cabin modification in November would certainly be welcome.

Nibs05

Any plans to replace the Avro’s Since the sukhoi’s were a disaster.

kevinandrew

Nibs05 wrote: »

Any plans to replace the Avro’s Since the sukhoi’s were a disaster.

That would be for CityJet to decide.

Choices are limited in terms of jets, it’s either Embraers or the A220 but both of which are rather expensive. The Avros are likely to solider on for a few more years, until at least the end of the current contract with Aer Lingus.

Locker10a

kevinandrew wrote: »

That would be for CityJet to decide.

Choices are limited in terms of jets, it’s either Embraers or the A220 but both of which are rather expensive. The Avros are likely to solider on for a few more years, until at least the end of the current contract with Aer Lingus.

I wonder if regional flying might be extended to jets ? CityJet have along with LCY started doing BHX for EI.