Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

JCX BXC wrote: »

Cork.is 153m, Knock is 203m!

Dublin is 74m, it's inconsequential. You'd have to have an airport on top of Carrauntoohil for it to have a major difference.

Any reason why the newer fleet won't have premium economy?

ted1 wrote: »

Any reason why the newer fleet won't have premium economy?

PE is pretty much disappearing in all but widebody long haul aircraft. Most new aircraft have the same seating and then just superficial add ons to make a PE or business class (e.g. the table insert into the middle seat). I think the future of PE and business (in short haul anyway) is going to be made up in the service rather than seating, e.g. priority boarding, checked bags, food drinks etc.

LiamaDelta wrote: »

I've only experience of my own company and that of colleagues in the same industry. In this case rather than stopping people flying business it's actually a case that they are willing to allow more people to PE rather than flying economy in order to encourage them to travel and/or compensate for having to travel for work.

Either way we are agreeing that businesses are willing to pay for premium economy for their staff

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Oh most certainly....in general we fly economy or PE up to 5 hours and business over 5 hours.

We fly to often so HR won't allow us buisness unless we can charge back to the customer. Our costs would make us to us too uncompetitive.

Tenger wrote: »

Now that we've sorted out what your company travel policies are lets try to dial in a heading back to the current and future Aer Lingus fleet. Thanks.

Are companies policies not important when deciding the seat configuration of future aircraft? I'd hazard a guess and say the number paying fir buisness class seats out if their own pocket are in the minority.

Airbus A320 wrote: »

Will EI ever get A300/310s or Boeing's ever again? Why/why not?

The a330 is the modern incarnation of the 300/310, I can't see why EI would get planes that are no longer in production and nearly all relegated to cargo service. The a330 is massively more efficient, modern, capacious, and safe.

Pre-IAG the likelehood of buying Boeing again was slim, they were burned badly by the 747s and got a bad deal out of the 767s in the early 90s. Airbus sweetened the deal so much that going for anything else but the a330 was just bad business sense.

Going forward, IAG will give EI whatever it feels it needs/can successfully use. BA operates a highly successful mixed fleet, though they carry dramatically more pax every year. In the near term it's likely to continue to be a330(supplemented by the incoming a321LRs), perhaps a350s in a decade or so. But I wouldn't rule out some 787s or 777s in the long term, again, it'll be whatever fits and can be filled reliably.

Airbus A320 wrote: »

I remember going on the EI-BED 747 all those years ago. Ah, the memories. It's a pity she was put to BED, see what I did there?
Would EI never get any more 747s or 767s? What about 737's?
A bit off topic, but will Ryanair ever get any other planes apart from the 737's?What would it most likely be?

Aer Lingus doesn't have the right structure for 747s, nor routes that demand them. At this stage 747s are only being used profitably for ultra long hauls and long over-water flights and by carriers offering premium service like Lufthansa. Aer Lingus is served better by sending two a330s to a destination than one 747 as it allows for more connections from the route network, transfers are a big part of their transatlantic business.

There's no need for a 767, the a330 has slightly higher capacity, and generally better economics, most airlines are beginning to retire their 767s and replace them with a330s or 787-8s. With such a comparatively small fleet to begin with it doesn't make sense to fragment it, it'll result in far higher maintenance and training costs. Fewer types, fewer costs. Kavanagh said that 737s were in competition for the recent lease, however unsurprisingly the a321LRs won(as they have across the industry, at a four to one ratio).

Ryanair benefits similarly at such a large scale as Aer Lingus do, with only a single type maintenance is massively streamlined and cheaper. They have placed large orders for the 737 MAX so it's unlikely to change in the near future. However O'Leary will do whatever makes good business sense, with lower orders of 737 MAX compared to a320neo I would imagine he'll be getting great deals on Boeing metal for the foreseeable future.

Airbus A320 wrote: »

What's the oldest plane still in EI? Are any EI planes going to retire soon?

Technically the 757s and ATR 42s, however they're both not mainline, they're ASL Ireland and Stobart Air, respectively. The oldest mainline are the three a321s and three of the a330-200s. Both are likely to stick around for another while, though some of the oldest a320s are getting replaced in the next few months as they'd have much higher cycle counts than the transatlantic planes.

Airbus A320 wrote: »

What's the oldest plane still in EI? Are any EI planes going to retire soon?

Currently EI-CPE, an A321 delivered new in 1998. EI-CPG and CPH were delivered new in 1999, they're also A321's.

My belief is that all three will be retired in the coming years.