Aer Lingus Fleet/ Routes Discussion Pt 2 (ALL possible routes included)

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122560112#Comment_122560112

LRG at the moment but than can change anytime.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122562391#Comment_122562391

Thank you very much for that. LRG must be my lucky aircraft. My 4th flight on her.

bartkingcole

Landed in JFK today (not on EI) and seeing two Aer Lingus planes was a nice sight and recalled nostalgia on seeing EI planes in far off places - one with old and the other had the new livery. Thought occurred on why that changed happened - what was striking and was different is now just bla bla. Anyway, just a nostalgic grumble - 10 years ago I would have found a way to be landing on EI metal rather than any alternative.

dylan.hickey

Looking at FR24, EI-NSA flew from London to Shannon on EI385 and would do EI386, EI387 and EI388 going back and forth between LHR and SNN but for some reason AL flew in EI-CVC to do EI386 and EI387 from DUB and will go back to DUB from SNN with NSA doing EI388, find it a bit odd could NSA have problems?

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122586760#Comment_122586760

Could be a small tech issue and they sent CVC to in order maintain the schedule?!?

HTCOne

The lack of comment from the CEO and generally self destructive behaviour of management during the Pilot dispute gave the impression of a leadership vacuum. O'Leary has said the cap has prevented him from basing an additional 4 aircraft at the airport with a loss of over a million pax. Aer Lingus should be saying "we have 6 brand new Airbus Long Haul jets due to arrive in the coming x months. These would create x number of direct jobs and bring in x number of passengers generating x million for the Irish economy, as well as driving indirect economic growth and job creation in other industries in Ireland. If the cap remains, we may be forces to locate these aircraft in Manchester, costing the Irish economy these jobs, tourists etc".

jwm121

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122589081#Comment_122589081

They have permission to go to the high court but have they gone to it yet?

Any new routes coming for Cork and Shannon now airlines are being advised to divert traffic away from Dublin?
(That’s Sarcasm by the way) The nonsense that comes out of the ministers in this country.

StakeholderValue

Heard Hainan Airlines looking at SNN. The Chinese originating passengers have been told it’s the handiest airport on the Island.

shamrocka330

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594534#Comment_122594534

But, but, but that’s not fair on Shannon and Cork, Emirates should be made to fly there. I’m assuming that Emirates have never heard of these airports, a small drive down to show them around plus the guarantee of 10 passengers a day should easily convince them to set up a hub there. Can’t understand why this hasn’t been done already.

Gary walsh 32

Ei eav still in atlanta anyone know what happened to her

Van.Bosch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594581#Comment_122594581

we should offer Emirates 5th freedom rights to anywhere they want from Shannon

Astral Nav

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594881#Comment_122594881

Think we pretty much did that to Ethiopian some years ago and the UAE got a very beneficial bilateral deal back in the Bertie years IIRC.

Kuwait has a tech stop only arrangement some years ago in SNN which was mutually beneficial.

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594846#Comment_122594846

Not saying this is what happened on this occasion as I don’t know, but it had turned back in recent weeks from both BOS and JFK because of issues related to underfloor heating in the cabin!

kevinandrew

Been on its way home overnight, due to land back at DUB in about 30 minutes.

goingnowhere

EI-EAV looks like weather as she has nearer MCO than ATL before heading off course

Thunderstorm activity in Florida most likely the reason

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594972#Comment_122594972

It was a technical issue but of what nature, I don't know.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122597829#Comment_122597829

MSP? Surely it would work on a XLR

Tenger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122598546#Comment_122598546

My guess would be that MSP is discontinued (head to head with Delta)
No firm info or rumour about that, just my opinion.
Possibly blaming the pax cap for the decision

Deploy the XLRs to route without competition/with subsidies.

jwm121

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122599119#Comment_122599119

Is the MSP route with Delta daily year round? And if there was no cap would they keep up the fight with Delta? Surely the 321 on the route would work way better than a 767 with competition.

Tenger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122599398#Comment_122599398

DUB-MSP was launched on the A330, with the expectation/plan that it would change to the A321XLR for the Winter schedule.The A321 would be more efficient than an older Delta B767, but Delta can afford to operate at a loss in order to chase EI off the route, EI cant take a financial hit on any of their less than 20 TATL routes.

The industrial dispute changed that plan. Currently the website shows the route stopping on October 25th (end of their summer schedule) So the expectation would be that it will resume in late March/early April 2025. (The XLRs being in service before then) However EI may change their minds in the meantime.

kevinandrew

I think Aer Lingus was up for the fight with Delta on MSP with the original XLR plan, it certainly hasn’t done too badly in the summer with the A330 so an XLR would have definitely given them the edge, even at a DL fortress hub.

Unfortunately the delays or uncertainty around the XLR arrival, industrial dispute and resulting fall in profits has put them on the back foot. The review of the network and loss making areas is ominous.

Airlines are willing and would expect to take losses on new routes, it usually takes a transatlantic service a good 2-3 years before full maturity, instant hits are rare so time is allowed for things to improve but I think we’re going to see the first major transatlantic failures at Aer Lingus in many years in the form of MSP and DEN.

DEN came too late in my opinion, they launched it at a time when the were winding down their relationship with United, a major hub carrier at DEN. At the same time, nothing can/has been done on the DUB side to secure as many European connections as possible. It really had to stand on its own two feet as a point to point route and there just doesn’t seem to be enough of a market locally for that.

LAS potentially looks like another one, launching it as a ‘winter sun’ route was bizarre anyway.

Without drastic infrastructure improvements at Dublin and a complete rethink of how short haul works, it’s possible Aer Lingus has reached its peak for A330 ops to North America, there's very few cities left that can sustain a wide body service in the current form. So either they look to diversify with true winter sun routes like the Caribbean, South Africa and Mexico or they focus all growth entirely on east coast and mid west US cities with the XLR for the long term.

All of this is of course pie in the sky until the cap is removed.

DEN seems to be resuming March 2025. Aer Lingus showed a fam trip to Denver on Instagram and that date was mentioned.

Good to see it returning. Definitely not a failure anyway!

kevinandrew

Well I’m pleasantly surprised, makes you wonder what “weaker parts of the network” are being reviewed or was this more management scaremongering. Maybe there’s hope for MSP too?

Unless this review was just a few short haul adjustments like the two daily LHR slots. That being said, I wouldn’t like to see more LHR slots being lost to BA.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608133#Comment_122608133

No one actually said DEN and MSP were ending. All the stuff online is hear say and rumours. And also peoples very pessimistic opinions.

Personally I defo think there’s hope for MSP since the XLR is arriving.

LimaBravoTango

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608298#Comment_122608298

Absolutely. As said above, routes take time to mature but it would make little sense for EI to pull the plug on either route after just a few months of operations.

kevinandrew

EI-XLT was photographed today in full paint, without engines.

https://x.com/tobias_gudat/status/1834261207529783566?s=46

St. Mella (previous EI-LAX name I believe)

HTCOne

Funnily enough I've heard MSP is doing very well, DEN is struggling so far and that forward bookings on LAS are abysmal.

Regarding 5th freedom from Shannon….Kuwait were forced to land in SNN by the US as there were security issues in Kuwait and the US wanted passengers re-screened. It only stopped westbound in SNN and didn't pick up any new pax or freight.

Emirates already get 5th freedom in Athens for anywhere they want to operate, so far they've only launched ATH-EWR. Athens is a lot different from Shannon; big local market both inbound and outbound, with very little competition since Olympic when bust and Aegean stopped flying long haul. Shannon's big problems in contrast are a small local market outbound and highly seasonal inbound demand. Cork can't handle widebodies so that's a non starter.

5th freedom is very rare nowadays also, it suits very few situations. In the old days when aircraft had much shorter ranges, stops along the route were necessary so getting 5th freedom created extra earning potential. Now 777, 787, A350 can operate between virtually any city pair in the world non-stop. The few that do exist need a major codeshare partner in place (EG Singapore effectively operating one of Lufthansa's FRA-JFK rotations for them on the A380), a unique market (EG Singapore on MAN-IAH for the oil business….oil workers would connect in MAN to ABZ. This route has been discontinued) or the Airline are uniquely compromised from their base (ADD being too hot and high for widebodies to get out at MTOW). Shannon fits none of these criteria from what I can see.

How many XLRs are actually due on property by Summer 25? I've read in various places it'll be 2, or 3, or all 6!

kevinandrew

It’s interesting timing/coincidence for Aer Lingus to suddenly be posting Denver related content on their social media pages this week. First there was the ‘influencers’ promoting the route on Instagram and now they’ve uploaded a behind the scenes look at the inaugural from the pilots point of view.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122612140#Comment_122612140

Ive read elsewhere MSP is doing well as well. Both DL and EI getting over 80% load factor.