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

Apologies if this is the wrong thread but…

I am looking to fly between Exeter and Dublin (direct) around the dates of January 23rd or 24th and returning around the 26th or 27th. I have a little flexibility with dates, as I know normally flights Exeter to Dublin are not every day of the week, but roughly around then. At the moment I don't see any flights after roughly Jan 5th, and they start up again in February. Am I doing something wrong, or are there 'almost' no flights planned in January for that route?

edit: To add, obviously Aer Lingus are the best* people to speak to, but I'm trying to avoid that if possible. I've called Exeter airport and spoken to two different people who may as well have been bots, as well as speaking to an actual Aer Lingus bot

*laughable

Bristol is your only option.

I don't really want to go down the politics road and the new president elect etc etc but with potential for volatility in the economy, fuel prices, and general things, does this not leave EI really exposed with all their atlantic routes? They seem to be betting the house on this one!

If the incoming administration decide to cut off the favourable tax breaks and introduce trade tariffs, it might mean US companies here may reduce presence in Ireland which in turn would negatively affect business travel requirements.

Leisure travel could also be dampened as some casual holidaymakers might just be put off visiting what they are see as a Trump controlled toxic environment and opt for countries they feel better about wanting to experience for their holidays. Personally I always LOVED America and have visited it 20+ times for holidays and to visit relatives over the past 3 decades but I regrettably just do not feel the same about the country anymore after the recent toxic turn of events and could easily skip ever going back if the proposed new landscape/Project 2025 is the way things will be. Most leisure travellers are probably indifferent but I wonder if there will be some degree of a negative travel effect?

Transit traffic won't be affected and I think that may be the bread and butter revenue for all these new routes so they're probably safe.

I suppose in a lot of ways, thats what I wanted to say and much like yourself have been going back and forth across the pond over the decades and I have no real desire to go there in the short to medium term. At this stage you would have to wonder would EI planners look towards CPT (Did they fly there around 2003) or over east now?

Don’t need to rely on the Irish consumer for Caribbean/Mexico. If the price is right (and it normally is) then large numbers of pax will be transfers to/from UK and Europe.

That’s all very true, but EI and the other IAG carriers do all seem to be becoming increasingly siloed and over-dependent on the Americas. Maybe this is the maturity and highly-invested quality of the ME3 networks taking effect? If EI were independent, they would really have to be looking at some risk management strategies and trying to find options for profitable routes outside of their almost exclusively NA/TA current focus. If I were looking at strategies, I’d be contemplating more long haul leisure routes (esp Caribbean / Cancun) which I think from my own experiences could garner a lot of transfer traffic from EU feeds; maybe CPT as a leisure route (only because it seems to command high fares), and as an outside possibility also some ULH routes to Aus, overflying the competition. That said, I’d probably also cosy up to QR and try to approach their service standards as a Dub/Doh partner. The Atlantic traffic won’t dry up of course, but it might well suffer a demand reduction and a more aggressive competitive environment.

EI-XLR had a taxi test and RTO today. That’s its first movement in over seven weeks and almost month for any of the production XLR’s were seen.

Been talk of a delay to delivery, was originally expect today.

Correct but when did leave shannon lol

D-AZXY is off on another test flight from XFW at the moment. Hopefully delivery will be soon.

Its a fortress hub for an airline they no longer work with. If there was demand, United would be on it; and if Aer Lingus go in, United may do what Delta are doing on MSP and go in too - destroying yield.

The issues with South African routes are manyfold and are discussed in recent posts.

Where are you reading these rumours? They already cover SFO & LAX on the west coast. I'd say there is ZERO chance they'll be covering that route