Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

Tenger

California Dreamer wrote: »

Out of curiosity has there been any mention of SH fleet replacement? 34 A320's with an age of 9-20 years old.

Anyone know the cycles on the oldest birds?

No direct mention in the IAG presentation this month. But the fleet plans did indicate that they expect to get over 100 shorthaul aircraft from 2022-2025. But no type shown or airline destination among the group.

California Dreamer

From a leasing point of view, I would have thought the market was flooded with A320 frames following the collapse of WOW, Monarch, Thomas Cook to name but a few.

Locker10a

California Dreamer wrote: »

From a leasing point of view, I would have thought the market was flooded with A320 frames following the collapse of WOW, Monarch, Thomas Cook to name but a few.

You’re probably right! They’re obviously not looking for any right now!

goingnowhere

Considering they have a whole pile of A321's coming, and will be using them on key EU short haul ops in the morning peak which is the peak fleet utilization time, that gets you a lot of new metal today.

The fleet is maintained to an exceptionally high standard and even the oldest in the fleet look great inside. Only the C reg birds give away there age due the older PSU's

The C reg hulls will likely be pensioned off, but EI owns many of them outright so likely to fly them until they cannot fly. The A321's appear to fly fewer flights per week than the A320's currently, they had a tough life as they spent most of there earlier life on DUB-LHR.

john boye

goingnowhere wrote: »

The C reg hulls will likely be pensioned off, but EI owns many of them outright so likely to fly them until they cannot fly. The A321's appear to fly fewer flights per week than the A320's currently, they had a tough life as they spent most of there earlier life on DUB-LHR.

The A321s usually have a lighter schedule in the winter months.

sherology

john boye wrote: »

The A321s usually have a lighter schedule in the winter months.

The Canaries seems to be their bread-and-butter (over and back all winter biking)... 2 take-offs... 2 landings... 8rs in the air... Easier of the old-joints my joints... Not so much

billy few mates

adam88 wrote: »

What’s the rationale behind this ??

The lease rental normally only becomes payable when you accept the aircraft, no point in accepting an aircraft low season if you don't really need it so they may have decided to delay the EIS until they're sure they can fully utilise it. It's not unusual for aircraft to be delivered straight to storage like this as you can't normally arrange for for them to come out of production at the exact moment you need them.

ohigg84

I noticed that A332 EI-GEY flew to Bordeaux earlier this morning for scheduled maintenance.

I wonder will it get the cabin reconfiguration fitted there, and will it get a cabin crew rest area?

Locker10a

ohigg84 wrote: »

I noticed that A332 EI-GEY flew to Bordeaux earlier this morning for scheduled maintenance.

I wonder will it get the cabin reconfiguration fitted there, and will it get a cabin crew rest area?

I hope so!!

goingnowhere

It won't get crew rest, not needed

Plan is to move SFO/LAX to -300 HGW hulls next Summer (4 hulls for 17 weekly) which would leave SEA as the only -200 crew rest location

Karl8415

Just been looking at recent inserts on Aer Lingus source and I noticed that Ei-CVA entered dub maintenance on nov 10th and came out on 16th however 2 days later on the 18th it went out to Abu Dhabi for more maintenance.Any idea why so much work been carried out on this aircraft

Shamrockj

goingnowhere wrote: »

It won't get crew rest, not needed

Plan is to move SFO/LAX to -300 HGW hulls next Summer (4 hulls for 17 weekly) which would leave SEA as the only -200 crew rest location

At the moment SFO is still down as x7 a week next summer. Will it be added later because the summer schedule was announced?

Karl8415

Karl8415 wrote: »

Just been looking at recent inserts on Aer Lingus source and I noticed that Ei-CVA entered dub maintenance on nov 10th and came out on 16th however 2 days later on the 18th it went out to Abu Dhabi for more maintenance.Any idea why so much work been carried out on this aircraft

Weren’t some of them having serious work done of the cockpit/cockpit window area ? Maybe it’s related.

goingnowhere

Shamrockj wrote: »

At the moment SFO is still down as x7 a week next summer. Will it be added later because the summer schedule was announced?

Slot allocations for Dublin 2020 show extra SFO flights by EI, 3 extra/week has been suggested

Bussywussy

Karl8415 wrote: »

Just been looking at recent inserts on Aer Lingus source and I noticed that Ei-CVA entered dub maintenance on nov 10th and came out on 16th however 2 days later on the 18th it went out to Abu Dhabi for more maintenance.Any idea why so much work been carried out on this aircraft

Cost saving/penny pinching....A330 aircraft a lot of time come back from Heavy Maintenance and EI do an 'A' check and/or even mods

Karl8415

Anyone know why EI-EIM on Aer lingus source is saying the aircraft was delivered but instead of going to Dublin it went to Brussels, any idea when it'll arrive in Dublin or even enter revenue service

EI321

Karl8415 wrote: »

Anyone know why EI-EIM on Aer lingus source is saying the aircraft was delivered but instead of going to Dublin it went to Brussels, any idea when it'll arrive in Dublin or even enter revenue service

It's going into storage until next year apparently.

Tenger

I don't look at that blog too often. But I find it a little odd. The person running seems to get unusual snippets of info. And has an inordinate focus on aircraft going through regular scheduled maintainance.
I suspect the ferry flight was technically a delivery flight (delivery to the leading company) which is why they described it as as such.

kevinandrew

Photographer comment on this shot of EI-EIM suggests it's in Brussels for wifi installation with Lufthansa Technik.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9528254

Says delivery to Aer Lingus in December but I'm guessing it will head down to Malta, or wherever they plan to store it until late February.

EIN123

Interesting that EI-LRA positioned from SNN-DUB after it arrived from Boston. It’s now due back into Shannon at 11:40 from DUB. Does anybody know why? Essential maintenance that couldn’t be carried out at Shannon?

Aviation2K16

EIN123 wrote: »

Interesting that EI-LRA positioned from SNN-DUB after it arrived from Boston. It’s now due back into Shannon at 11:40 from DUB. Does anybody know why? Essential maintenance that couldn’t be carried out at Shannon?

I am wondering was there meant to be an air craft change? EI-LRA positioned to DUB this morning after arriving from BOS. EI-LRB positioned down to Shannon and is operating SNN BOS now.

pm.

kevinandrew wrote: »

Photographer comment on this shot of EI-EIM suggests it's in Brussels for wifi installation with Lufthansa Technik.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9528254

Says delivery to Aer Lingus in December but I'm guessing it will head down to Malta, or wherever they plan to store it until late February.

I'm heading to lax on 31 March any chance I could be on the new A330?

EI321

pm. wrote: »

I'm heading to lax on 31 March any chance I could be on the new A330?

I think LAX will continue to be operated by A330-200s while they are still in the fleet. I think SFO will be the first west coast route to move to all -300s.

goingnowhere

SFO is entirely a -300 operation during the Summer months already, it alternates -300/-200 during the winter schedule

I'd imagine we see LAX go -300 at least part of the week as soon as the 2020 Summer schedule starts

Tenger

If both new aircraft are in service by March 31st then its a 50/50 chance of a new A333.
SFO/LAX will be served by a mix of GCF/GAJ/EIM/EIN as they will be the 300s with bunks.
EI summer schedule usually lasts from the last weekend of March until last weekend of October.

Karl8415

Karl8415 wrote: »

Anyone know why EI-EIM on Aer lingus source is saying the aircraft was delivered but instead of going to Dublin it went to Brussels, any idea when it'll arrive in Dublin or even enter revenue service

Brussels for biz seat installation, they weren’t ready during construction. Then on to Malta for storage till Feb/Mar. Next for Aer Lingus will be delivered to Dublin for storage.

GFrye

Good thing I went back to catch up on this thread
I'm scheduled to fly DUB-IAD at the end of this month, and I would have been mighty surprised if I had stepped on the flight and realized that I wasn't on the expected A321Neo

As others pointed out in September, the initial booking screen on aerlingus.com still shows the A321Neo (as does my flight info on UA, where I booked the ticket), but the seat map shows the A332 config.
While I originally changed my booking to avoid the A332 operating weekdays (because of EI-GEY), I'm fine with the switch back to the A332 for two reasons:
- My selected seat (3K) is still throne seat. I thought one A330 config had the throne seats on even rows instead of odd rows, but maybe I'm simply misremembering.
- With EI-GEY currently in Bordeaux and posts a few months back stating that EI-GEY will receive the upgraded C class cabin around this time, I believe my throne seat is safe.

goingnowhere

3K and 5K are always throne seats across the fleet.

The A seats vary between -200 and -300

Tenger

goingnowhere wrote: »

3K and 5K are always throne seats across the fleet.

And the A321 3A and 5A are additional throne seats too.

My mate was in EI marketing 6ish years back. This number set up was deliberate to allow regulars to be able to select the throne.

goingnowhere

Tenger wrote: »

And the A321 3A and 5A are additional throne seats too.

My mate was in EI marketing 6ish years back. This number set up was deliberate to allow regulars to be able to select the throne.

Problem is word is out and its nigh on impossible to get your hands on one unless you book ages in advance. That said I'm not a fan for an overnight flight, the A row has better leg room in bed mode.

They do need to renumber the A seats for consistency across the fleet, it's quite annoying when a -200 shows up.