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

I had heard two second hand A333s were being sought for next year for expansion. Airbus cancelling outstanding A350s for QR might have thrown a spanner in the works there though.

I believe its internal knowledge the new CEO and the Aer Lingus management team have been studying a different market strategy since covid with further US markets being considered (Recommencing Hartford, starting DEN and a possible seasonal LAS) but also holiday destinations. Its rumoured a seasonal Cancun and Bangkok have been proposed to the bigger travel agency group in Ireland through a package tour and separately an interline agreement with Qatar on the Doha route from 2024 is on the cards, with Aer Lingus deploying one a321XLR on the late DOH and Qatar operating the early one. But again this is only rumours and I would believe it when official sources confirm it. Unfortunately YUL seems to be completely off the table for the foreseeable even though this had been previously announced.

I think the evaluation of long haul leisure routes is a natural progression for the airline. The launch of Barbados from Manchester wasn’t much of a surprise considering the local market demand but the emphasis on connections from DUB & BHD felt like a toe dipping exercise.

The current network is susceptible to its seasonal nature, as the fleet grows to accommodate the growing demand in summer, they’ll find themselves with increasingly spare capacity in winter.

Aer Lingus could now find themselves with enough capacity to justify sending it to lower yielding leisure markets. Getting the travel trade industry on side would be vital for this to work. In the long run Aer Lingus diversifies its network, broadens its appeal and keeps some very expensive assets working in the quieter months.

Nope. Aer Lingus arrive T5 with no airside connections to the rest of the terminals. There's supposed to be an airside bus that only goes from the other terminals TO T5 but, even that is suspended since Covid.

At least the landside train is running again.

Would 90 mins typically be adequate for a connection from EI to AA domestic; and 75 mins on the return?

The business is there alright to reinstate some of the previous business. However they seem to be more focused on transatlantic. Wonder is there any plans of expanding stateside from shannon. Possibly Shannon to Chicago? Unless they have their heads in the sands there is a lot that would love to see that route returns plus after this summer the airport has gotten a lot of free advertising

Sorry, one more thing. Would EI ever think of moving to the UA terminal in Chicago. Maybe no gate space but that may change with the upcoming expansion.

Apropos of nothing and slightly off topic, I flew DUB-KEF-SEA a few weeks ago as I needed to go on a day when the EI direct flight was operating. I was very pleasantly surprised by the way that I didn't have to clear security a second time in KEF – I'll be going that way again when a stopover is necessary.

The schedule seems to be back to normal from 15th August so it is back to 12 weekly flights to Lanzarote - 5 in the morning and daily in ytthe afternoon. Only the afternoon one operated with the hire in arrangement. It was also doing the Barcelona morning flight with the evening Barcelons service not operating. That route is back to 2 daily on 15th August also.

Hopefully they have the dtaffing/Covid issues resolved. A few other cutbacks through the schedule will probably help including the "airport crisis" cuts with Amsterdam and Gatwick both having an evening service cut. Last flight to Amsterdam now most days is 2pm. Heathrow is down to just 62 services a week from the 83 originally planned. The last flight leaves Dublin now at 7pm most nights with only 1 aircraft overnighting. There are some big time gaps in the schedule such as from the 0730 service to the 1115 flight. Cork and Shannon are also down a daily flights. These cuts might have been forced on the airline but iAfter being dropped for the Summer t probably worked out well given the staffing issuers.

The early Birmingham flight is now an Emerald ATR72 with Edinburugh getting the A320 instead. That was up to 7 flights a day pre pandemic but was down tp 4 for this year so the demand mist be strong there.

After being dropped for the Summer Budapest is back 3 weekly for the winter. Fuerteventura is also back at 2 per week.

The other routes that didn't come back for Summer 2022 were were Bologna, Catrania, Montpellier, Pula and Rhodes. I wonder if there is any chance of these coming back next Summer as I presume lack of aircraft will still be a factor.

If I remember right, Aer Lingus has a number of cabin crew trained to cover standby out of Shannon for situations like this. Think theres only about 20 of them, and they also cover BA operations (a320 only) if they are really stuck (and these crew would be flown first from Shannon or Dublin to LHR as a passenger). From what I remember they have a double flying license (EU and UK) and aren’t Dublin base only, but « standby disruption crew ». The crew member called in for that flight would have been on standby covering last minute crew illness for Shannon flights and LHR and all BA short haul flights (only a320 though). I think this started when Aer Lingus covered some flights for BA during a strike in 2018 and those 20 volunteer crew chose to go on a flexible contract covering Aer Lingus and BA (short haul only). I could be wrong and I’m open for correction on all of this and details. Also think the union didn’t find this a good thing at the time but not much was said.