Dublin routes news and general chat

But they are not being back the 787-10 which was nice from a comfort level. The route will be offered by a 777 (hopefully not that horrible domestic configuration) and the 2nd flight a 757.

Sorry if this has been asked already but just curious as to why are Turkish using wide bodies (A330's 789's and sometimes 773's) on the Dublin route recently? I know they use them to some other European cities whose countries that have large Turkish communities like London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Can't be that many flying out of Ireland to Istanbul or connecting onwards? Cargo maybe.. tks

Hair Transplant and Dental Surgery...interesting.... and I thought Dubai was just for boob jobs! 😁

They used to fly x2 daily A321/B737. I think its a daily A330-300 for winter before x2daily narrow-body resume next year.

+1, I think so too.. THY have so many destinations in Africa and Asia, where legacy carriers in Europe (AF,BA,KL) have cut services over the last 1,5 year. I've even heard of Brazilians in Ireland using the Istanbul connection for competitive prices (although going in the wrong way) when traveling home to Brazil.

Added benefit here is also the generous luggage policy of them, especially compared to any US or European carrier.

I also expect Turkey itself to become a more popular destination in the next spring and summer season, as their currency is currently devaluating by the hour making it a very attractive destination price-wise..

Turkish are a brilliant airline, 2 suitcases and a free hotel layover on 12+hrs connections. I used them this year going to Brazil due to their competitive price and I didn't trust any EU carrier not to cancel. Istanbul's new Airport is monstrous and puts Dubai in the shade. Turkish airlines are an airline run the way it used to be in the old days when things were better. They changed my flight times by 1hour and I was able to get a refund also.

Don't have actual figures from 2019 but looking at the current schedule it seems to me that they must almost me back at 2019 winter levels, Obviously they have announced serious expansion in Shannon and have also new routes to come in Cork on the reopening.

In Dublin (based on week commencing 8th November - the first "normal" week of the Winterseason they have 689 weekly frequencies (approx) - 14 to Ireland, 293 to UK, 378 to Europe (incl Kiev) and 4 toNorth Africa. That seems impressive given the situation over the last 2 years. Back in September they were operating about 750 weekly departures from Dublin at the peak and given the closure of some routes for Winter and reduction in frequency on other sunshine routes this seems a very strong schedule.

There have been significant growth on the UK routes since September which presumably indicates anticipated stong demand for VFR traffic. I counted 56 frequencies to LGW, 48 to STN and 18 to LTN which is 122 frequencies in total compared to EI with 54 between LHR and LGW and BA with 73 between LHR and LCY. Interesting that LGW is now busier than STN for FR. Makes sense to me as it is much cheaper to connect to central London abnd has good links with the rest of the South Coast. Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Bristol also seem to be back to close to pre Covid service levels with 39,32, 23 and 19 weekly frequencies respectively. Interestingly and maybe not surprisingly the 2 routes where Aer Lingus have stopped flying where they competed directly seem to be lower than before with Leeds having 9 a week and Newcastle 7.

Their mainland Europe services seem to be very strong too with double dailies or more on a number of routes. Portugal really stood out for me too - Lisbon, as you say has an incredible frequency given competition nfrom TAP and Aer Lingus just having 2 weekly. Faro too Ryanair have 9 weekly frequencies compared to 2 from Aer Lingus. Other routes that stood out for me whwew Milan - 7 per week to Malpensa and 14 into Bergamo (Aer Lingus have just 5) and Brussels with 15 per week plus Charleroi - Aer Lingus again just have 5. With so much business on that route frequency and prices must be beating tradition. The only routes where Aer Lingus seem to be close to Ryanair in terms of requency are Malaga and the Canaries with FR still being ahead with Paris the only one where we Lingus is wellahead is Paris where Aer Lingus has 17 compared to 10 FR (albeit going to Beauvais), AH have 20 on this route. EI and FR have pretty similar schedules on Hamburg and Vienna too.

One route where there seems a real dogfight is Frankfurt where EI are back from November with 10 flights a week, FR have 12 and LH have 20. I did a quick check on prices yesterday for Monday November 8th and the prices are very low, LH jhas the lowest basic fare of €17, Aer Lingus €30 and FR €32 on the outbound flights. Seems like an interesting dynamic on that route.

lgw is

Upgrade underway for food and beverage offering.

I was at the Marquette in T1 twice for breakfast in last month and both times dreadful. Cooked breakfast piled as slop into Styrofoam containers with cold toast plonked on top of it. No plates. Really awful. I remember breakfasts being a lot better there pre Covid so was very disappointed. Hopefully this announcement improves the quality!

I will be going through on Sunday!

I am flying Friday at 13:40 from T1. Should I get fast pass? Are the queues back to normal?

It should be noted that Fridays are far busier than Wednesdays. Last Friday at 4pm the queues were snaking around the main terminal in T1. Big delays. It might be slightly better before 1pm but not sure.

On a separate note Ryanair have announced Suceava and Madeira for next summer from Dublin. I'd be very interested in the latter.