Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

joeysoap

Inquitus wrote: »

Seems to be one en route EIN9020

https://www.flightradar24.com/EIN9020/244cedcc

I make 5 live at the moment, between returning and going

Inquitus

Only 8 Aer Lingus craft in the air, 5 going to China or coming back, and 3 TATL flights to the East Coast.

neris

How easy or difficult from a beauracy & red tape point of view is it for AL to have arranged those flights or will they have been in planning for a while? Also do the crew need to do anything as it's not a regular route from them

Clon63

How do Aer Lingus get around the entry bans for Irish and other citizens entering USA and Canada for the teansatlantic flights?

Normally the crews would overnight there but now do the return crew travel as pax on theoutbound and the outbound crew just pax home on the return?

Stephen Strange

Clon63 wrote: »

How do Aer Lingus get around the entry bans for Irish and other citizens entering USA and Canada for the teansatlantic flights?

Normally the crews would overnight there but now do the return crew travel as pax on theoutbound and the outbound crew just pax home on the return?

Crew are exempt as far as I know

goingnowhere

neris wrote: »

How easy or difficult from a beauracy & red tape point of view is it for AL to have arranged those flights or will they have been in planning for a while? Also do the crew need to do anything as it's not a regular route from them

Russia and China didn't sign the Chicago accord so overflights require agreement, its bureaucratic and political. Thankfully Ireland is well placed to negotiate (Aeroflot has access to Dublin and Aer Lingus & Aer Rianta actually partnered with Aeroflot for a time in 80's) so you would expect a degree of understanding, but normally these things take months, years to sort out.

Russia and China have a non standard quasi metic RSVM level system, not the same in Russia and China so you need to carry a cheat sheet to translate the numbers. So if someone barks an altitude in meters in less than great english, you have to do the conversion, crosscheck and turn and pull the altitude selector.

You need to work out diversion airports (not many options across Russia) need someone to handle you at Beijing, fuel etc. EI sent out 2 engineers and a load master to manage a lot of the ground ops.

Need visas etc, the Chinese waived the fees and issued same day to approx 90 EI staff. Joe Soap doesn't get that. The Ambassador really helped in pulling strings to get the visa's get the overflight permission, landing slots etc.

And no-one will know what Shamrock means so its EIN with ATC

I imagine the A330 sim is running a of approaches to PEK this week..

Noxegon

goingnowhere wrote: »

the Chinese waived the fees and issued same day to approx 90 EI staff.

I've been thinking about this - are visas actually necessary for the crew given that they are not crossing the border in Beijing?

billy few mates

Noxegon wrote: »

I've been thinking about this - are visas actually necessary for the crew given that they are not crossing the border in Beijing?

Maybe it's a requirement in case the aircraft goes tech there and they have to then enter the country..?

goingnowhere

Better safe then sorry with the visa's

Back on for Thursday 5 flights showing this morning as planned

smurfjed

are visas actually necessary for the crew given that they are not crossing the border in Beijing?

For China, Russia and USA, the answer is YES.

but normally these things take months, years to sort out.

I think that you are talking about bi-lateral air agreements rather than overflight permits, standard overflight permits can be set up rather rapidly, hours rather than days.

The encounter FLIGHT LEVELS are in METERS, the approaches are in FEET.

goingnowhere

If the Russians don't want to play ball you won't get far, https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2018/05/19/icelandic-carriers-seek-russian-overflying-rights/

Tenger

Clon63 wrote: »

How do Aer Lingus get around the entry bans for Irish and other citizens entering USA and Canada for the teansatlantic flights?
...........

The “entry ban” exempts non-US citizens with certain visas, such as ship and aircraft crew. (Diplomats would also be exempt etc)

Qprmeath

goingnowhere wrote: »

Better safe then sorry with the visa's

Back on for Thursday 5 flights showing this morning as planned

No Dublin bound flights tomorrow afaik.

EchoIndia

Qprmeath wrote: »

No Dublin bound flights tomorrow afaik.

But further flights over the weekend - that's the plan so no alarm needed.

PCros

I was just wondering are Aer Lingus footing the fuel bill for this?

IngazZagni

So is this a case of Russia dragging their feet with regards to overfly rights? Typical Russian bureaucracy if it’s the case. Especially disappointing as these are flights to deliver essential health equipment. I doubt the same issues would happen if the roles were reversed.

Nijmegen

Not like they ask permission for their bears... But deeply disappointing if true that they have not facilitated the flights.

goingnowhere

Only showing 1 outbound tomorrow now.

Shamrockj

Showing 5 a day from Sunday

GTE

goingnowhere wrote: »

Only showing 1 outbound tomorrow now.

Where do you get this info? Sounds like a cool resource to have.

goingnowhere

No secret the Aer Lingus website will tell all

MICKEYG

goingnowhere wrote: »

No secret the Aer Lingus website will tell all

Problem is that Beijing is not on their list of cities so to find the flights you need to type in each flight number individually.

Tenger

Nijmegen wrote: »

.. But deeply disappointing if true that they have not facilitated the flights.

May not be overfly rights, could as simple as a delay in getting the "Irish supplies" to be in place after the first few collections.
I'm sure the production chain in China is overloaded with orders at the moment

neris

One of today's Beijing flights not far from landing

omega man

goingnowhere wrote: »

Only showing 1 outbound tomorrow now.

2 ops tomorrow.

goingnowhere

Yup

EI9018 and EI9020 are showing now

goingnowhere

EI-GEY appears now to be stored at Shannon

Shamrockj

Anyone know what will now happen to EI-EIN and -EIK put into storage?

California Dreamer

PCros wrote: »

I was just wondering are Aer Lingus footing the fuel bill for this?

I would think the the 300k that EI are charging the government for each flight will well cover that!

PCros

California Dreamer wrote: »

I would think the the 300k that EI are charging the government for each flight will well cover that!

Where did you get this information and figure from?

Are you not mixing up the repatriation flight that cost 300k?