Direct flight Dublin to Beijing.

snotboogie

lxflyer wrote: »

snotboogie wrote: »

Oslo? Copenhagen? Helsinki? Lisbon? All have multiple direct Far East routes and similar catchment population to Dublin.

The first three are all located in Scandinavia and are hub airports for flights to the far east for Norwegian, SAS and Finnair. Perfectly located hubs for that purpose too.

Lisbon currently has no far east destinations - they only start in July. It is a hub however for Africa and Latin America.

Dublin is a hub for transatlantic destinations.

Prague, Budapest, Warsaw... These are airports with somewhere between half and one third of the volume of Dublin. It is nearly impossible to find a European country without routes going to the Far East.

lufties

snotboogie wrote: »

Prague, Budapest, Warsaw... These are airports with somewhere between half and one third of the volume of Dublin. It is nearly impossible to find a European country without routes going to the Far East.

EI did a route to dxb years ago and scrapped it after a while. Imagine seeing the green livery in SG or HK, it would be fairly spectacular, I really don't know why they don't focus on Asia, EI seem to have an obsession with north America..

Maybe an airline like Norwegian will get the balls to out and do a Dub to BKK route.

Noxegon

EI's service isn't in the same league as the Asian carriers. Emirates vs EI in particular is no comparison.

lufties

Noxegon wrote: »

EI's service isn't in the same league as the Asian carriers. Emirates vs EI in particular is no comparison.

In what sense? EI have 330s

JCX BXC

ohlordy wrote: »

Dublin would have about 5 million

5 million? Maybe 3 million at a push within 2 hours! Remember ROI has only 4.6 million people, and the north only adds around 1.7 million.

JCX BXC

lufties wrote: »

In what sense? EI have 330s

Are you actually asking this?

Let me put it this way, Wow air have A330's, do you expect the flight between Wow air and Aer Lingus to be comparable?

The onboard service on the ME3 and other eastern airlines are far superior to Aer Lingus, which has what appears to be a low cost offering compared to them.

lufties

JCX BXC wrote: »

Are you actually asking this?

Let me put it this way, Wow air have A330's, do you expect the flight between Wow air and Aer Lingus to be comparable?

The onboard service on the ME3 and other eastern airlines are far superior to Aer Lingus, which has what appears to be a low cost offering compared to them.

you misunderstood me. I've actually never flown EI LH, what i meant was EI could fly east as they have Medium to longhaul aircraft. The likes of polish national carrier dont have that luxury as they only have embraers and 737s as far as im aware.

what 'service' do the ME3 offer that is better? Hot eastern euro women smiling at you? Ok, im guessing the cabins and IFE are more modern, but honestly flying economy is a bit samey no matter who you fly with.

Noxegon

lufties wrote: »

but honestly flying economy is a bit samey no matter who you fly with.

I can only assume you don't fly long haul economy all that often. There's a world of difference between the different products on offer. I won't claim for a minute that all of the differences matter in the real world, but it's the sum of the parts. Emirates for example:

- The staff are friendly and responsive. On check-in, there's a "Welcome to Emirates". On boarding, there's a "Welcome back Mr $surname" even in economy.
- Printed menu cards are handed out after take off. The food is pretty good.
- Alcohol is complimentary, not a surcharge.
- The IFE has hundreds of movies including a good selection of recent titles. It also has outside cameras, and has screens as big as can be reasonably put on the back of a seat.
- Onboard internet costs USD $1 per flight and the first 10MB is free if you only need a quick email sync.
- Virtually every seat has a power socket and all seats on the newer aircraft have a USB port for charging devices.
- I've never been told to put my carry-on backpack under my seat so as to save overhead room for people with wheeled suitcases (which has happened to me more than once on EI).

In the interests of being fair, there are a few negatives too:

- 10 across on a 777 is definitely suboptimal (though it's the way the world is going). EK's A380s are far more comfortable for those of us with broad shoulders.
- I really wish I didn't have to watch the promo video for the IFE in English and Arabic on every flight, and the "spirit of possible" Dubai video loses appeal after the twenty-seventh viewing.

My favourite economy product is SQ, which still do nine across on the 777, but it's out of my price range for my regular trips.

EICVD

lufties wrote: »

you misunderstood me. I've actually never flown EI LH, what i meant was EI could fly east as they have Medium to longhaul aircraft. The likes of polish national carrier dont have that luxury as they only have embraers and 737s as far as im aware.

what 'service' do the ME3 offer that is better? Hot eastern euro women smiling at you? Ok, im guessing the cabins and IFE are more modern, but honestly flying economy is a bit samey no matter who you fly with.

The Polish national carrier had 767s & now they've 787s with more to come

lufties

Noxegon wrote: »

I can only assume you don't fly long haul economy all that often. There's a world of difference between the different products on offer. I won't claim for a minute that all of the differences matter in the real world, but it's the sum of the parts. Emirates for example:

- The staff are friendly and responsive. On check-in, there's a "Welcome to Emirates". On boarding, there's a "Welcome back Mr $surname" even in economy.
- Printed menu cards are handed out after take off. The food is pretty good.
- Alcohol is complimentary, not a surcharge.
- The IFE has hundreds of movies including a good selection of recent titles. It also has outside cameras, and has screens as big as can be reasonably put on the back of a seat.
- Onboard internet costs USD $1 per flight and the first 10MB is free if you only need a quick email sync.
- Virtually every seat has a power socket and all seats on the newer aircraft have a USB port for charging devices.
- I've never been told to put my carry-on backpack under my seat so as to save overhead room for people with wheeled suitcases (which has happened to me more than once on EI).

In the interests of being fair, there are a few negatives too:

- 10 across on a 777 is definitely suboptimal (though it's the way the world is going). EK's A380s are far more comfortable for those of us with broad shoulders.
- I really wish I didn't have to watch the promo video for the IFE in English and Arabic on every flight, and the "spirit of possible" Dubai video loses appeal after the twenty-seventh viewing.

My favourite economy product is SQ, which still do nine across on the 777, but it's out of my price range for my regular trips.

None of what you've mentioned mean much to me tbh..Although, If EI staff can't even give a nice welcoming for longhaul flights, then they really should have a hard look at their product.

Saying that though, I've flown longhaul with BA and KLM recently business class, and the 'superior service' only kicks in when your in you are boarded.

I've flown CX also and didn't find their service all that great, in tatty old 777s. SQ and Emirates actually seem to care somewhat about their economy product.

Mister R

Noxegon wrote: »

I can only assume you don't fly long haul economy all that often. There's a world of difference between the different products on offer. I won't claim for a minute that all of the differences matter in the real world, but it's the sum of the parts. Emirates for example:

- The staff are friendly and responsive. On check-in, there's a "Welcome to Emirates". On boarding, there's a "Welcome back Mr $surname" even in economy.
- Printed menu cards are handed out after take off. The food is pretty good.
- Alcohol is complimentary, not a surcharge.
- The IFE has hundreds of movies including a good selection of recent titles. It also has outside cameras, and has screens as big as can be reasonably put on the back of a seat.
- Onboard internet costs USD $1 per flight and the first 10MB is free if you only need a quick email sync.
- Virtually every seat has a power socket and all seats on the newer aircraft have a USB port for charging devices.
- I've never been told to put my carry-on backpack under my seat so as to save overhead room for people with wheeled suitcases (which has happened to me more than once on EI).

You forgot the hot towel, like an idiot I flew EI back in November long-haul and I'm sitting waiting for a hot towel before realising EI don't do that.

Complemtary alcohol is the obvious point where EI really looks cheap compared with other long-haul offerings. I've had American friends also comment on it.

Agree about 10 across with EK on the 777 but it seems most airlines are going that way with the 777 unfortunatly.

As for the Beijing element, in terms of attracting post-Brexit business from London the lack of a direct flight has been a negative for Chinese investors, so I've been told by a mate who works in a state agency that promotes that kind of thing.

Blue House Bear

Noxegon wrote: »

- I really wish I didn't have to watch the promo video for the IFE in English and Arabic on every flight,.

Totally agree!!!! They should only show it in Arabic as thats where the airline is based!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Noxegon

Blue House Bear wrote: »

Totally agree!!!! They should only show it in Arabic as thats where the airline is based!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

I'd be okay with that. No reason why it couldn't be shown in Arabic with subtitles. Or better yet, not shown at all but available on request from the main screen for those who've never seen it before.