Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

Tenger

Sorry. The radio is wrong. 1st A321LR flight is to Hartford today. PHL and IAD will be changed to A321LR over the next month or two.
B757 will operate DUB-MSP unitl next year.

Obviously the researcher mixed up the new route and the new aircraft.

Dev1234

:-(

Thanks Tenger

NH2013

I see when booking a flight on the Aer Lingus Website to SFO in April next year that the flight numbers have changed in the booking engine from EI147/EI146 to EI61/EI60, with the numbers also having changed for;

LAX (EI145/EI144 ->EI69/EI68),
SEA (EI143/EI142 -> EI53/EI52) and
IAD (EI119/EI118 -> EI117/EI116) as well.

Wonder if this is a sign that the rumored additional frequencies to SFO could be making an appearance next summer with flight numbers now freed up for the extra flights (EI63/62)?

tricky D

Tenger wrote: »

Sorry. The radio is wrong. 1st A321LR flight is to Hartford today. PHL and IAD will be changed to A321LR over the next month or two.
B757 will operate DUB-MSP unitl next year.

Obviously the researcher mixed up the new route and the new aircraft.

Lining up atm.

cson

Tenger wrote: »

Sorry. The radio is wrong. 1st A321LR flight is to Hartford today. PHL and IAD will be changed to A321LR over the next month or two.
B757 will operate DUB-MSP unitl next year.

Obviously the researcher mixed up the new route and the new aircraft.

Pretty certain IAD is A332s thru October.

Bsal

Got a camera phone pic as she taxied past

WishUWereHere

tricky D wrote: »

Lining up atm.

Not doubting either you, Tricky D or Tenger, but I also heard what Dev1234 heard this morning. Bloody joke when a person representing AE cannot have his facts right.

Alpha Romeo

cson wrote: »

Pretty certain IAD is A332s thru October.

Yeah it looks like the A321LR is starting IAD on 29/10 every Tue/Thur/Sat, with the A332 covering the other days, but apparently going daily on 06/01

Jack1985

Alpha Romeo wrote: »

Yeah it looks like the A321LR is starting IAD on 29/10 every Tue/Thur/Sat, with the A332 covering the other days, but apparently going daily on 06/01

Which is the exact same schedule as the 757 last winter but substituted by a 21N. Early Jan to early Mar, is traditionally the quietest period for transatlantic services.

Alpha Romeo

Makes sense

Diego Tristan

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Not doubting either you, Tricky D or Tenger, but I also heard what Dev1234 heard this morning. Bloody joke when a person representing AE cannot have his facts right.

That was actually Eoghan Corry the travel journalist who said (wrongly) on Morning Ireland that MSP would be the first flight.

HTCOne

So does anyone know for sure what are the first 4 summer A21N routes once the 757s are gone? Because I’ve read in a number of places that MSP is going A332 in March because the LR hasn’t got the legs.

SNN-JFK, SNN-BOS, DUB-BDL for sure.

IAD is A330 in Summer, so is the 4th LR going to launch YUL or will that be LR #5?

tricky D

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Not doubting either you, Tricky D or Tenger, but I also heard what Dev1234 heard this morning. Bloody joke when a person representing AE cannot have his facts right.

I was looking at FR4 as it sat on the runway which clearly stated BDL/Windsor Locks/Hartford and cross checked with the departure boards as I was checking something else out on them.


Even old error prone FR24 gets its facts right more often than avjournos.

WishUWereHere

Diego Tristan wrote: »

That was actually Eoghan Corry the travel journalist who said (wrongly) on Morning Ireland that MSP would be the first flight.

Thanks DT, I would have thought OC would have His facts right too.

But mistakes can and do happen, and I for one am prone.

California Dreamer

My money is on a 3rd JFK flight using a 321 for early departure.

kevinandrew

It's been a surprisingly quiet launch for Aer Lingus, still no official acknowledgement about the aircraft being delivered or entering service, not even a boring press release. 

The video yesterday was released by another source and is now unlisted so only those with direct links can view it, there's been no official video from Airbus like they do for all their other customers and no official images or promotional material online or added to the media centre. 

The airline could learn a thing or two from British Airways in this department, they've had laser light shows, media flights, heavy social media focus and celebrations surrounding their A350 arrival. Granted it's a more impressive/exciting aircraft but still, Aer Lingus hasn't even done the bare minimum. Just seems odd considering they've been building it up for over two years.

Tenger

Diego Tristan wrote: »

That was actually Eoghan Corry the travel journalist who said (wrongly) on Morning Ireland that MSP would be the first flight.

Bad reporting indeed.
I think the original plan was for MSP to get it around now (after 1st in service early July) but the delivery delays messed up EI plans. Could well be wrong in my recall.


I would agree with the lackluster PR blurb. I was expecting videos on their social media of delivery and of the 1st departure. With a follow on '1st flight' video early next week.


Regarding routes; First four A321LR will directly replace B757. So 2 in Shannon.
Then 2 more doing DUB-BDL & -YUL.
Not sure on PHL, but someone found A330 on the seatmap for MSP next summer.
Thats 4 accounted for, with a ? over DUB-PHL.

As above I think an extra DUB-JFK seems like a no brainer (thats 5)

Maybe double daily on a current route next summer, YYZ or IAD? (Thats 6 which frees up an A332 for PHL)

*that post took me 15 mins with pen and paper gaming the options while lookng at the route map online. I need to lie down now.

cson

PHL is showing up as 21N around Xmas time on aerlingus.com

cson

Tenger wrote: »

Maybe double daily on a current route next summer, YYZ or IAD? (Thats 6 which frees up an A332 for PHL)

I would think they'd be better off trying to get a deal off BWI instead of an x2 IAD. As posted a couple of weeks back BA are running a 772 on BWI-LHR at the moment so they'd be able to get an idea of the figures via IAG, the demand would definitely be there in the summer, I've no doubts about it. Its not a sexy destination but its practical, especially from an air frame utilization perspective.

Locker10a

kevinandrew wrote: »

It's been a surprisingly quiet launch for Aer Lingus, still no official acknowledgement about the aircraft being delivered or entering service, not even a boring press release. 

The video yesterday was released by another source and is now unlisted so only those with direct links can view it, there's been no official video from Airbus like they do for all their other customers and no official images or promotional material online or added to the media centre. 

The airline could learn a thing or two from British Airways in this department, they've had laser light shows, media flights, heavy social media focus and celebrations surrounding their A350 arrival. Granted it's a more impressive/exciting aircraft but still, Aer Lingus hasn't even done the bare minimum. Just seems odd considering they've been building it up for over two years.

Do you think it’s possibly related to the recent press the NEO options have got regarding “excessive pitch” ? EI may not want to risk publicising a new aircraft that’s being investigated for this given the MAX pr disaster being experienced by other carriers, obviously the NEO is nowhere near the max regarding this anomaly and I’m not suggesting it is.

HTCOne

Tenger wrote: »

Bad reporting indeed.
I think the original plan was for MSP to get it around now (after 1st in service early July) but the delivery delays messed up EI plans. Could well be wrong in my recall.


I would agree with the lackluster PR blurb. I was expecting videos on their social media of delivery and of the 1st departure. With a follow on '1st flight' video early next week.


Regarding routes; First four A321LR will directly replace B757. So 2 in Shannon.
Then 2 more doing DUB-BDL & -YUL.
Not sure on PHL, but someone found A330 on the seatmap for MSP next summer.
Thats 4 accounted for, with a ? over DUB-PHL.

As above I think an extra DUB-JFK seems like a no brainer (thats 5)

Maybe double daily on a current route next summer, YYZ or IAD? (Thats 6 which frees up an A332 for PHL)

*that post took me 15 mins with pen and paper gaming the options while lookng at the route map online. I need to lie down now.

Thanks Tenger, I forgot about PHL!

So logically it'll be PHL & BDL from DUB & JFK & BOS from Shannon for the first 4 LRs, leaving the last 757 on DUB MSP til the 332 takes over. I'd guess the extra 2 HGW A333s will at least free up a 332 from LAX to operate MSP instead of the final 757 when it goes. That allows SEA to go daily, leaving 5 unaccounted for 330 weekly slots to go elsewhere in addition to current schedule.

5th LR takes YUL. That leaves 3 LRs unaccounted for next year not including any spares to cover tech issues, mx etc. If they're operating LRs to LHR, CDG etc I'd imagine they'll want to have one lying around to cover tech issues, so even if they're that cautious that leaves 2 LRs spare.....

My bets....CLE because of the billboards around CLE this year when EI route team visited, & the return of the 3rd daily JFK.

Phil.x

Im sorry to sound negative but I'd go out of my way to avoid flying on this type of aircraft for that type of journey.

kevinandrew

The aircraft received a water cannon salute by crews at Bradley, so the first arrival was acknowledged there at least.

Locker10a wrote: »

Do you think it’s possibly related to the recent press the NEO options have got regarding “excessive pitch” ? EI may not want to risk publicising a new aircraft that’s being investigated for this given the MAX pr disaster being experienced by other carriers, obviously the NEO is nowhere near the max regarding this anomaly and I’m not suggesting it is.

I would be very, very surprised to be honest. Unless they know something we don’t of course. At the moment it’s nowhere near a big enough news story to be in the minds of the general public, hopefully it stays that way.

Either way, they should be able to market the aircraft as the ‘A321LR’ which wouldn’t, as yet, gain much attention.

Noxegon

I'm holding out hope for the return of the daytime eastbound JFK.

Cloudio9

Noxegon wrote: »

I'm holding out hope for the return of the daytime eastbound JFK.

Yeah. Also opens up more connection options if travelling from west coast.

Van.Bosch

Noxegon wrote: »

I'm holding out hope for the return of the daytime eastbound JFK.

What were the departure times when this ran in a 757? 9am ex Dub arriving approx 11am and leaving JFK around 1pm arriving around midnight?

kevinandrew

The daytime JFK service was;

EI102 DUB-JFK
07:50 - 10:20

EI103 JFK-DUB
12:00 - 23:40

pm.

Im heading to lax in april 2020 any chance it could be a new aircraft? When I booked it a month or so ago it was an A330 not sure what type

Tenger

Will be a A330. Mid/late April is generally seen as part of the Summer schedule so should be a -300 by then.

Karl8415

Just wondering if the 321 LR went to Europe this morning once it came off T/A, curious to see if EI are starting it’s full utilization immediately