Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

Karl8415 wrote: »

Wasn’t it Willie Walsh himself said within the last 12 months that he felt that the A350 was a step too far for EI,in other words the capabilities of it were more than Ei required and I think more so now that the A330-300’s particularly gaj and gcf can reach lax and sfo which gives them 313 seats which is more than they ever had,,my own personal view is should they buy new TA aircraft I think the A330 neo would be more suitable

WW clearly knows more on this subject than us, I imagine he has every figure available in front of him. But there is elements that I don’t understand. Iberia are using them to fly to JFK from Madrid off long runways. Yet our intention was to use them to fly likely to LAX and SFO off a shorter runway than Madrid where the 359’s capability would have come in to its own. Plus it would have saved nearly 10% on the fuel bill for every flight.

Aer Lingus I doubt would have bought an aircraft without doing their research fully on it and known the 350-900 was the plane for them especially with rising fuel prices.

At some stage EI is going to need new modern aircraft to combat rising fuel prices. At the moment IAG are only providing EI with cast offs from other airlines within the group and share owners castoffs. There is a need for a short haul order and a long haul order. There is an argument for an order for regional jets for Stobart to replace the ATR’s which struggle under full loads of pax and bags on the AM flights. EI had delivery slots originally for the 350’s for this year onwards now we will be years further down the queue for slots when eventually they realise they need them.

My fear is that EI is being run deliberately on a shoe string to maximise the profits and returns for EI hq bods to show proudly to their IAG overlords. We’ve seen it for the last few years how tight the Atlantic operation is being run, yet here we are another summer later with mass cancellations in Shannon and some in Dublin and hire ins. The operation is being run too tight aircraft wise and ground staff wise.

EI love pointing their finger at the DAA for the delays but rarely admit that they can’t meet their own schedules because they are running it too tight causing their own delays. I don’t know what overlap the DAA allow on stands but I can’t imagine the regular running late of an hour on the TA operation is helping their stand allocation plan.