DUB old routes / destinations?

TK Lemon

Contrary to the new routes thread, what airports used to be served from DUB?

What routes can you remember? I suppose we could discuss routes from SNN and ORK and other airports.

I remember there was a route from DUB to Ljubljana and Tampere (both with FR) and one to Tunis as well, DUB also had a route to ORK and Sligo too (possibly Galway too). There was also ORK to Belfast.

Caranica

One of my favourites, though short lived was FR DUB-VGO I originally used to go Iberia Express via Madrid so a direct route was amazing. Miss it

L1011

Domestically, GWY, WAT, ORK, SXL. Possibly Oranmore before GWY was public if you go back far enough but not 100% sure on that. LDY and one or both of BFS/BHD in the North.

BLK, OXF, DSA, NWI and others in the UK.

BWI in the US. not served since it was dropped by EI quite a long time ago. I think they announced resumption just before the crash but never actually relaunched.

Van.Bosch

TK Lemon wrote: »

Contrary to the new routes thread, what airports used to be served from DUB?

What routes can you remember? I suppose we could discuss routes from SNN and ORK and other airports.

I remember there was a route from DUB to Ljubljana and Tampere (both with FR) and one to Tunis as well, DUB also had a route to ORK and Sligo too (possibly Galway too). There was also ORK to Belfast.

Don’t think Ryanair ever served Ljubljana?

ldeayton

My first flight ever was DUB to Algergrove sometime in the early 80’s. BAC1-11.
On the return flight we got back to our house in Dublin quicker than our grandparents returned to theirs in Belfast after dropping us off at Belfast airport.

Chris_5339762

Those were the days...

Dublin to Cork with FR
Cork to Derry/Londonderry with FR
Cork to Belfast with Manx

I'd love a new Cork to Belfast flight. And for Cork to Dublin to return 3x daily, say, with Aer Lingus and ATRs, allowing domestic passengers to connect through the Aer Lingus/IAG route system in Dublin rather than having to Aircoach it a million hours before the flight.

easypazz

I remember when going for a spin from Shannon to Dublin on a 747 with the kids was a thing.

Fly up, day out in Dublin, train home.

Gaoth Laidir

easypazz wrote: »

I remember when going for a spin from Shannon to Dublin on a 747 with the kids was a thing.

Fly up, day out in Dublin, train home.

1990, my first time in a plane. 747 to Shannon. Just after takeoff my name is called out as the captain wanted to see me. My neighbour had secretly organised a cockpit visit through an EI pilot friend. Amazing.

Spent a few hours in Shannon before taking a 737 back to Dublin. Getting on the plane, hostess checking the boarding passes, "Oh, the captain wants to see you after we take off". Twice in the same day. :-) Also, I was sat amongst a gang of French female exchange students, so for a young teenage boy that was an added bonus!

Those were the good ole days.

donvito99

Caranica wrote: »

One of my favourites, though short lived was FR DUB-VGO I originally used to go Iberia Express via Madrid so a direct route was amazing. Miss it

This was still offered as late as Summer 18 was it not? EI still fly to Santiago which is only about an hour and a half or so in the car, motorway all the way.

Dardania

donvito99 wrote: »

This was still offered as late as Summer 18 was it not? EI still fly to Santiago which is only about an hour and a half or so in the car, motorway all the way.

DUB-VGO would have been dead handy when I was studying there. First time I went I went via Madrid, on Spanair (think they were boarding from the tail?)
Then I ended up just taking the airport bus link down to OPO and FR from there - much handier than connecting in MAD.

Caranica

donvito99 wrote: »

This was still offered as late as Summer 18 was it not? EI still fly to Santiago which is only about an hour and a half or so in the car, motorway all the way.

They only ran it for two years iirc. Used it last in 2018, went to book for 2019 and it was gone. It was a busy flight every time I used it so was disappointed to see it gone.

donvito99

Caranica wrote: »

They only ran it for two years iirc. Used it last in 2018, went to book for 2019 and it was gone. It was a busy flight every time I used it so was disappointed to see it gone.

I think FR had a falling out with the airport. Flew it many time and it was always fully loaded as you say.

PinOnTheRight

I can't recall the operator but there was a 767 service to Cape Town via Palma back around 2006?

Board Walker

Didn't Gulf do Bahrain until 2006 or something?

Jonny one

Torp Norway

goingnowhere

Dublin Cherbourg

Back in the 60's EI flew this

faceman

Dublin to San Javier in Spain. Tiny airport so handy when flying to the southern part of Costa Blanca. Airport is now closed and the Murcia International opened

Noxegon

Board Walker wrote: »

Didn't Gulf do Bahrain until 2006 or something?

They did.

L1011

Malmo MMX sold subtitled as "Copenhagen" on Ryanair.

The competition ruling from the first attempt by Ryanair to buy Aer Lingus actually has most of the European routes listed in it in different sections - there's a few more there.

https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m4439_20070627_20610_en.pdf

cson

L1011 wrote: »

BWI in the US. not served since it was dropped by EI quite a long time ago. I think they announced resumption just before the crash but never actually relaunched.

I think this is ripe for them to look into again, I don't doubt they could make an A321LR route pay given that BA run a 772 on this during the summer and the only other European route is Condor to FRA.

brettmirl

JetMagic on ORK-DUB

Czech Airlines to PRG

Jack1985

JetMagic never operated ORK-DUB ? Was EI then RE and finally FR.

A320

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Cork to Derry/Londonderry with FR

When was this? I remember Aer Arann Cork to Galway

FunkyDa2

Skiathos was served for a year or two, from Dublin, about 15 years ago I think. It was on my list of Greek island destinations for a holiday, but unfortunately was cancelled before I got a chance to go. :-(

EI321

The Capetown route was an A330 charter with LTU around 2006.

EI321

I flew Malev to Budapest in 2006. Think it lasted until the airline went bust.

cson

Not a DUB route but one of the good old boom time routes that got going was GWY-WAT-FAO on a Avro/BAe146 iirc.

Just looked on Wikipedia and GWY handled 300k passengers in 2007. That's pretty wild there's not 1 commercial route 13 years later, absorbed by NOC & SNN no doubt.

L1011

cson wrote: »

Not a DUB route but one of the good old boom time routes that got going was GWY-WAT-FAO on a Avro/BAe146 iirc.

Just looked on Wikipedia and GWY handled 300k passengers in 2007. That's pretty wild there's not 1 commercial route 13 years later, absorbed by NOC & SNN no doubt.

The M6 and Gobus will have made a significant impact also - DUB flights were generally cheaper and more available.

titan18

Used to be a Cork to Krakow route. Think it was Ryanair or Wizz Air

Van.Bosch

Sky Europe did Bratislava and Centralwings had routes to about 4? Polish destinations - Wroclaw, Gdańsk, Warsaw and somewhere else I think.

Locker10a

L1011 wrote: »

Domestically, GWY, WAT, ORK, SXL. Possibly Oranmore before GWY was public if you go back far enough but not 100% sure on that. LDY and one or both of BFS/BHD in the North.

BLK, OXF, DSA, NWI and others in the UK.

BWI in the US. not served since it was dropped by EI quite a long time ago. I think they announced resumption just before the crash but never actually relaunched.

Also NOC-DUB and you could connect on domestically too. I remember flying NOC-ORK, short stopover in DUB where you changed planes, just entered Pier B (200 gates) and walked from one gate to the next without any security checks, was very hand.

EI321

Aer Lingus served Montreal at one stage in the 70s or 80s, was that via Shannon?

Singapore Airlines Cargo had a DUB route until not too long ago.

Irish Steve

There was indeed a Cape Town service using a 767 earlier than 2006, was a nightmare of a flight to handle, (Servisair handled it) it came in from Manchester, and had to be turned in 40 minutes, if it wasn't, they couldn't go due to crew duty time limitations.

Not sure if it was non stop or if it had a fuel tech stop on the way. Charter operator, can't remember now at this stage who ran it or supplied the airframe for the service

Noxegon

EI operated to HAJ for a while.

cson

EI flew DUB-DXB for a period during the boom too iirc.

Chris_5339762

Galway - Waterford - Amsterdam was a very useful route back in the day.... was the only jet serving Galway back in 2008-ish when I was there. Lovely RJ-85. Never got to use it before it was pulled though, sadly.

TheDriver

titan18 wrote: »

Used to be a Cork to Krakow route. Think it was Ryanair or Wizz Air

Central wings did it in 07, they used to run planes through the night.

EchoIndia

EI321 wrote: »

Aer Lingus served Montreal at one stage in the 70s or 80s, was that via Shannon?

Yes, of course - all T/A flights had to route vis SNN in both directions. I can recall in the 1970s some flights routeing DUB-SNN-BOS-JFK, loads not being what they are today.

Singapore Airlines Cargo had a DUB route until not too long ago.

Yes, this went via CPH or SHJ, IIRC.

Noxegon

FDH, FKB, HHN, and NRN were all served by Ryanair at one point.

BlackandGreen

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Galway - Waterford - Amsterdam was a very useful route back in the day.... was the only jet serving Galway back in 2008-ish when I was there. Lovely RJ-85. Never got to use it before it was pulled though, sadly.

ah I remember waterfords apron absolutely jam packed with 5-6 RJ's and ATR's at it's peak as well as private jets. They could hardly turn.

It really was a busy airport during the boom.



The RJ is a horribly uncomfortable plane though. I wouldn't fancy flying to Faro/Malaga/Amsterdam on it.

L1011

The RJ with 5 across - or 4 across as the Nex plane that route I think? - is comfortable enough

6 across as WX do is hideous.

BlackandGreen

L1011 wrote: »

The RJ with 5 across - or 4 across as the Nex plane that route I think? - is comfortable enough

6 across as WX do is hideous.

Ah that explains why I've always had such horrible experiences.
I've flown on a lot of aircraft and the RJ is definitely was one of the most uncomfortablly cramped and noisy aircraft.

hurleronditch

I remember booking my parents holiday flights from Cork to Nice I think, on JetMagic. I think they had a handful of Embraers which seemed to mix between midweek business routes and weekend sunshine spins from memory.

They loved the trip, had all the bells and whistles of old school service like free booze and newspapers etc

Gaoth Laidir

I remember taking a BA ERJ-145 (2 + 1 across) from Dublin to Southampton years ago. A nice flight.

Irish Steve

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

I remember taking a BA ERJ-145 (2 + 1 across) from Dublin to Southampton years ago. A nice flight.

Still operating, different operator and different aircraft type, Flybe are operating the route, from memory up to 3 rotations a day, Dash8-400

A thread like this should use the airport names rather then the codes for interested lurkers like myself.

Interesting that in an increasingly connected and global world, connections within Ireland actually got worse.

No flights from Cork to Belfast or Dublin to Derry (Donegal airport is useless to most of the northwest, half it's catchment area is an ocean, the other half a giant National Park).

For business, travel within Ireland is still relatively slow.

Blut2

salonfire wrote: »

A thread like this should use the airport names rather then the codes for interested lurkers like myself.

Interesting that in an increasingly connected and global world, connections within Ireland actually got worse.

No flights from Cork to Belfast or Dublin to Derry (Donegal airport is useless to most of the northwest, half it's catchment area is an ocean, the other half a giant National Park).

For business, travel within Ireland is still relatively slow.

A quick google of "XXX + airport" where xxx is the code generally shows it in the top few results, if you can't guess any of them!

A major factor in the decline of domestic Irish flights has been the massive improvements in our motorway network over the past 30 years. Its hard to justify flying Cork to Dublin these days when its only a fairly easy 2.5hr motorway drive.

Blut2

Blut2 wrote: »

A quick google of "XXX + airport" where xxx is the code generally shows it in the top few results, if you can't guess any of them!

A major factor in the decline of domestic Irish flights has been the massive improvements in our motorway network over the past 30 years. Its hard to justify flying Cork to Dublin these days when its only a fairly easy 2.5hr motorway drive.

That's understandable enough I know.

Still though, if you're an important business person, that 2.5hrs you could be spending doing something more productive.

If the route was still in place,it would still get used I'd imagine plus make Cork more attractive for investment.

hurleronditch

salonfire wrote: »

That's understandable enough I know.

Still though, if you're an important business person, that 2.5hrs you could be spending doing something more productive.

If the route was still in place,it would still get used I'd imagine plus make Cork more attractive for investment.

That’s what the train is for. If you left Dublin City centre at say 5:30am for a cork meeting, you’d be there by 8-8:30am by car, if there was a 7am flight you’d be in cork city for roughly the same, but on both of those options you’d have limited scope to work apart from making phone calls when driving. You’re only sitting for 40 mins or so on the flight (including boarding/taxiing etc), and the rest of the time is moving through the various phases of navigating to and through the airport. The train allows you to sit at a table with a power socket next to you in relative peace for over 2 hours.

I sound like an Irish Rail salesperson, but you be fair, bar the slightly slow running speed by international standards, the cork Dublin route is one of the things they do very well and has massively contributed to killing off the air route

One thing I would say as someone with family in Cork who lived in the US for years, a huge amount of people like to depart cork on medium to long haul, connecting through LHR/AMS/CDG. EI might be missing a trick not running a flight that would put people on their transatlantics, but I’m sure they’ve thought about it and done the sums

Chris_5339762

hurleronditch wrote: »

EI might be missing a trick not running a flight that would put people on their transatlantics, but I’m sure they’ve thought about it and done the sums

Thats what I can't help but think. A morning and an evening ATR from Cork - Dublin and back? Possibly? I'd rather that than the 747 bus to Heuston and then Irish Rail from there, or an Aercoach. Given the option I'd always connect via LHR or via Zurich, and I've worked out roughly that connecting via Cork rather than driving to Dublin (hassle etc getting to the bus on my end and extra waiting), the flight would have to be €200 more expensive out of Cork to make me want to go to Dublin.

MrMusician18

Blut2 wrote: »

A quick google of "XXX + airport" where xxx is the code generally shows it in the top few results, if you can't guess any of them!

A major factor in the decline of domestic Irish flights has been the massive improvements in our motorway network over the past 30 years. Its hard to justify flying Cork to Dublin these days when its only a fairly easy 2.5hr motorway drive.

Even quicker would be if the airport name was written in the post.