WishUWereHere wrote: » Thanks for sharing this. On opening the page, I saw the following on the scroll bar on the RH side:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4_t7a0gXRQ On 1m23, there is a TU 134 belonging to Aeroflot taking off. Did Aeroflot fly regularly then between Dublin & ( I guess ) Moscow?
I think the regular A330 started circa 2011/2012. (am guessing with that date)
I think there may have been the odd rotation to Nice? A330 have been used on an ad hoc basis for years. Personally I operated DUB-LHR-DUB on an A330 on Dec 23rd one year, (circa 2004-2006) It was after some bad weather the previous day and they used the A330 to gather up all the lost sheep from the day before. I can remember that the old T1 (the green mile) couldnt take the A330 on its jetbridges. But the happiness of those 300 stressed pax was nice to see.
On another occasion a colleague (who is still my mate) operated an A330 to Cardiff on 2 consecutive days for a rugby match. The 'empty' return sectors were sold online cheaply. Airliners.net used the CWL-DUB leg for their annual group trip. My mate was able to get in touch with the PR dept and organise gift bags and a group photo in Business class for the group.
I think A330s have been used on FCO and VRN on a scheduled basis, the latter during the skiing season.
I don't know if Covid era counts but they operated to Heathrow regularly for a while during it.
It’s also made appearances on the canaries too
In the dying days of the LGW base I'm pretty certain there were some ski season 330 flights from there also. Memory could be completely wrong.
Yeah Verona saw them earlier this year on a regular basis. You often have a 330 & 320 on the ground at the same time. Don’t ever remember seeing them operate FCO but the 321 was regularly on it when it was twice daily. They also operated 747’s to AGP back in the day on a fairly regular basis.
I was told this was cargo related.
But still counts!
I know that a family member flew FCO-DUB on Ei_DUZ - possibly an upgauging at Easter in the late 2010s.
It was for cargo absolutely but they carried pax so I'd say it counts too!
About 2010 the A330 did a few Euro cash transit flights to FCO. No passengers and tight security.
Is it true that 3 aircraft are leaving the fleet ei cvb and cvc and ei gey leaving was expecting the a320s to go not gey
all 23 years old would… EI DAA be next to go
DAA is owned outright and unlikely to go next, GEY is a lease - which was nearly returned anyway during Covid, officially long overdue to leave the fleet. I would be very surprised if DAA goes before GEY.
CVB and CVC all but confirmed to be leaving fleet soon
They'll be getting 2 new 320neos but does GEY leaving point to maybe they know they'll be getting an XLR before the end of the year/early first quarter next year?
Feels like they only just put the proper seats in GEY and now they're phasing it out.
I thought GEY retains the QR economy with replaced green seat covers to this day? I believe it’s an older cabin than what was on EIK and EIL but without the issues that the ‘terrible twins’ were plagued with.
You’re right, economy was simply reupholstered, similar seat to the older A330s already in the fleet but business was fully refitted to the current standard just before travel shut down for the pandemic.
True enough. The J Class cabin was refitted in early 2020 to EI standards but then the aircraft was grounded for over 2 years. It was the last of the EI fleet to be returned to service.
So, certainly could be seen as a wasted investment. But Covid wasnt really a predictable event (for aviation rather than global epidemiology)
They can surely reuse the J seats though?
God knows there's enough of them broken/unreliable/shoddy in the existing fleet that it'd be useful to have spares to swap in.
I’ve wondered this before, where did the seats go on EI-LAX when it was scrapped?!
I remember seeing a photo of one of the 757s being scrapped and its business cabin still intact as the roof was being cut off. Obviously the seat may have received a number of alterations for it to be certified for the 757 and therefore probably wasn’t suitable for any other aircraft but EI-LAX’s seats surely would have come in handy at some point for the other A330s.
I guess that if EI sell it to a scrapper, they get the whole aircraft and remarket the components and other usable parts. If it was a case of "we want to keep this bit and that bit", maybe that's not an attractive proposition to those companies that reprocess redundant aircraft. This recent Sam Chui video about Teruel includes some stuff about the reuse of parts.
I thought it was just leased. So I guess they just hand the keys back.
Rumors on Twitter than BNA might be the next route for EI out of DUB.
Would vibe with finally getting the XLRs that were allocated.
That route would actually make a decent amount of sense from an O&D perspective too, the Country music scene in Ireland is big.
Are there any more updates on the XLR?
I don’t recall EI 330’s being used for banknote movements. From memory it was a DHL A300.
Also Alitalia 777s and ITA A350s on occasion.
Not really. Just assumptions.
https://x.com/Tobias_Gudat/status/1827008805957148834
The 3rd production XLR has been rolled out of the hanger.
Iberia have painted their official first airframe over a month ago. The EI (now IAG) airframe was not painted as of 2 weeks ago.
Iberia cabin config is 14/168, the Aer Lingus config is 16/168. I'm now of the belief that Iberia will operate the first planned 2 Aer Lingus frames and EI will get their planned 4 deliveries in 2025, and take 2 from the later Iberia delivery slots.
For 2025 2 x A321s can replace the A330 on DUB-YYZ, another 2 can launch a new route. (original plan was all 6 delivery by the end of 2025)
Both Nashville and Raleigh-Durham have both expressed interest in Aer Lingus operating. Maybe EI will take both offers or play them off against each other.
For reference these are status of the the initial batch of XLRs as of 2 weeks ago;
*taken from A-net and the XFW spotters there. I put the original planned EI slots in bold.
11348- IAG In primer with EI tail and IB engines. D-AZXY. Test flights in progress.
11504- Iberia, fully painted. D-AVYR. 1st flight soon.
11520- American, In primer, no engines. D-AZAB.
11590- IAG, In primer, no engines. D-AYAH
11686- Iberia, in primer, no engines. D-AZWI
12248- IAG, rear fuselage only.
12323- Qantas, rear fuselage only.
12348- AA,
12412- IAG,
12463- IAG,
12531- Azores Airlines
12549- IAG,
12784- Iberia,
https://www.planespotters.net/aircraft/production/airbus-a321?p=63
Does require a sign-up/log-in to access the data.
Either Nashville, Raleigh Durham and Montreal would do well for them. There is also the possibility that MSP might come back next summer when the XLR arrives
What about DUB DEN. Thats not on sale for next summer
There is a rumour on another forum that D-AZXY 11348 is in getting painted. Not in IB colours. Also rumoured that EI will get 2 XLR by year end.
So your right. Lots of assumptions
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