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

Jack1985

ShatterProof wrote: »

Anybody hear of the Dublin/Perpignan route returing in August?
Thanks.

The route won't operate in S21 unfortunately, the options with Aer Lingus would be DUB-Barcelona or Toulouse with a 2hr+ drive either end. Ryanair also operate to Carcassonne and Girona which both involve drives of just over 1 hour.

ShatterProof

Jack1985 wrote: »

The route won't operate in S21 unfortunately, the options with Aer Lingus would be DUB-Barcelona or Toulouse with a 2hr+ drive either end. Ryanair also operate to Carcassonne and Girona which both involve drives of just over 1 hour.

Thanks.
Had Ryanair Dublin/Toulouse booked for August but they pulled it.

kevinandrew

EI-ELA has been re-registered G-EILA

https://twitter.com/FlyingIreland/status/1412124774638276616?s=20

Jack1985

Some EI statistics to follow the recovery;

Total planned weekly capacity mid-July 21 -v- late-Aug 21: 285 to 354 flights per week (+24%)

Transatlantic weekly capacity mid-July 21 -v- late-Aug 21: 21 to 42 (+100%)

Transatlantic weekly seat capacity mid-July 21 -v- late-Aug 21: 5,726 to 10,521 (+84%)

Percentage difference late Aug S21 weekly capacity -v- S19 weekly capacity: -50%

HTCOne

Its a start. Let us hope there are no more backward steps required.

Jack1985

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117619337#Comment_117619337

Indeed. Jumping from op's of circa -95% -v- 2019 to -50% from by late Aug 21 will be noticeable particularly at T2 which has catered to more staff then passengers for many months. Some good rumblings from Biden Admin in the last 24hrs following the Merkel meeting too. Here's hoping!

Jack1985

Canada will re-open to vaccinated US Citizens by mid-August, and says it plans to re-open to other immunised passengers from early-September. EI have uploaded DUB-YYZ, daily on an A321neo from late-Sep.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/16/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur#canada-could-welcome-vaccinated-travelers-in-september-trudeau-says

Shamrockj

Today the early Malaga EI582 was operated by EI-GAJ A330-300. This must be the first A330 operated on this route since 2019?

RunningFlyer

Can anybody tell me if EI are looking to resume LGW soon or are they sticking to LHR only?

Clon63

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634168#Comment_117634168

Interested to know that too as have flights booked for Gatwick on 21st August and back a week later There are 3 morning flights to LG W on 21st August ( old full schedule) but nothing the week before.

If they do cancel they would offer a switch to a flight to LHR Would actually work out better for me being on the tube line etc.

goingnowhere

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634199#Comment_117634199

I'd guess we won't see LGW until BA start up again at LGW, connecting passengers are big business

Anything which shows a full schedule in August is just fishing to check demand

California Dreamer

For those that were holding out hope that EI would get the A350. Probably the same chance of a direct flight to.......

https://simpleflying.com/aer-lingus-new-airbus-a350s/

kevinandrew

I always thought there was a good chance we’d see the A350 or A330neo back in favour from 2025 onwards. The A330 fleet can’t go on forever and the ‘DUB HUB’ was maturing nicely which could have sent Aer Lingus on an early shopping spree but obviously they’re back at square one now thanks to the pandemic.

Lets hope they can recover their transatlantic business in time for the A321XLR or that’ll be the next one we’ll be left wondering about for years and years!

Locker10a

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634431#Comment_117634431

I’m not sure LGW was that heavily reliant on just connections. South of England/ London - Dublin is a pretty big market I’d be surprised not to even see a daily rotation back

Clon63

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637953#Comment_117637953

You are probably right. The Dublin airport as a breakdown of whats planned by route by airline. Intetesting read For LGW it is showing 3 Ryanair per say on the route with 6 per week for Aer Lingus. Seems plausible but strange their website seems more accurate than Aer Lingus' own one

Clon63

Just a further uodate. It seems Aer Lingus gave just uploaded their real flight schedule for Lindon up to mid September. Gatwick seems ban daily from Monday 16th usually at 1255 although earlier on Saturday as far as I can see. The LHR seems to be keeping wuth the 4 or 5 per day that they are operating as of this week

munchkin_utd

I spotted a strangely long turnaround time on the Dublin-Munich route where the plane is 2 1/2 hours on the ground, arriving in Munich at 9.40am and not departing till 12.10 , arriving into Dublin at 1.50pm (local time)

Is there any reason for such a long time on the ground, especially when you'd think they'd be looking to get as many flights operated with their planes as possible on a mid summer Saturday?

goingnowhere

Looks like a lot of messing with the timetable currently

The EI352 is leaving Dublin about an hour ahead of its normal time and it doesn't look like the return has caught up.

kevinandrew

Aer Lingus & JetBlue are looking to expand their codeshare partnership. 

Aer Lingus has applied for permission to allow the B6 code on its EI operated transatlantic flights. The current codeshare is a one way affair, the EI code is applied to a number of B6 operated flights across North America but this new deal would expand that use to cover going the other way with the B6 code appearing on EI metal to Europe. 

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-2021-0082-0001

Interesting timing with JetBlue gearing up for its own trasbaltice ops, IAG has already indicated it sees B6 as more of a partner than a threat.

SNNUS

EI-LAX being brought back to life in SNN for one last trip, To NOC I believe to the scrapper.

Jack1985

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117647746#Comment_117647746

That's correct, should be by mid next-week that it is flown up. Served EI well over the years!

goingnowhere

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117648156#Comment_117648156

Sad day, probably flew more miles on St Mella/EI-LAX than any EI aircraft over the years. The economy section looked almost new after it got refreshed about 2 years ago. There is a rumour the old screen projector is still there...

Tended to appear on the first flight on new/reopened routes, SFO/LAX/EWR/IAD

Super reliable but had a tendency to involved in collisions with things on the ground through no fault of its own or its crew, fairly major structural works were coming soon. The WiFi never worked right on her though, had a different wiring setup vs the rest of the fleet.

EI own her outright so the engines, landing gear and all the LRU's in the EE bay will likely head back to Dublin as spares.

HTCOne

That’s sad really. Haven’t known an EI airframe as well by reg since Big Ed.

BZ

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117647746#Comment_117647746

There's a possible change of plan where by it may go to the UK now for scrap and not Knock.

Jack1985

Bit of guidance as to what EI are doing with their key markets from week commencing 23rd Aug based on current level of service.

Belgium (+25%)

Bulgaria (+50%)

Croatia (+33%)

France (+47%)

Germany (+150%)

Greece (+13%)

Italy (+50%)

Netherlands (+56%)

Portugal (+11%)

Spain (+15%)

United Kingdom (+11%)

United States (+38%)

There is no increase in weekly services to Austria, Hungary or Turkey. Route resumptions include DUB to DUS (4 weekly), HAM (3 weekly) and LGW (11 weekly).

Nibs05

Wild guess here, but I presume EI will be predominantly be A330-300 fleet and we’ll never see a A330-200 with EI again ?

Kermit.de.frog

Aer Lingus cancels order for 5 A350's according to the Sunday Times

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aer-lingus-cancels-order-five-jets-airbus-czb0ldcxs

Aer Lingus will not take delivery of five wide-body Airbus A350 aircraft it has on order, calling into question the future of its transatlantic operations that had expanded rapidly before the pandemic.

The troubled airline declined to comment on reports in the aviation press that its orders had disappeared from Airbus’s delivery books, having been transferred to another, unidentified, airline. They were part of an original order for nine A350s, four of which have ended up with Iberia, the Spanish sister airline of Aer Lingus within the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) that also includes British Airways.

goingnowhere

This is old news

The A350 order was transferred to AIG and Iberia? I don't think at any time was EI expecting to get 9 A350's. The maths done at EI show the A350 is only worth it if flying to SFO/LAX.

The A330-300's came via an IAG option, hence the short delivery time

HTCOne

Worth remembering they ordered the 350s before the 330 Neo was announced. The 350 vs the 330 is like the 777 vs the 787, only worth the extra weight and more importantly cost of finance if you are either really going to stretch its legs on 10+ hour trips or you really need the extra cargo capacity (777 and 350 have the most cargo capacity of any pax aircraft).

A big attraction for EI on the 350 was that the A359 is the first (and still only) ULH capable widebody that can get off existing runways in DUB at MTOW when TOGA is used on a standard day, even when wet. 28R/10L should somewhat mitigate any weight penalties on the 330s.

kevinandrew

Didn’t Aer Lingus review the A330neo against the A350 shortly after the neo was launched? I think it was around the time they opted for the ‘regional’ A350 option!

In the long term Aer Lingus will once again need to decide on a new long haul aircraft, it’ll likely be another battle between A330neo and A350 but in the more immediate term they’re going to need to start looking at short haul replacements, some of those A320s are stretching into their 20s now.

While times are tough now, there needs to be some big decisions on the future of the fleet in a couple of years, the future strategy post recovery will no doubt be the biggest deciding factor in those decisions.