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

They seriously need a total rethinking of their business class offering, the seat keeps them ‘up there’ with the competition and no doubt the new seat will do the same but the soft product and whole offering is lacklustre at best. We hear repeated stories of mediocre meals despite a huge refresh in 2023 and to their credit a regularly changing menu. The amenity kit was always average, then they changed it to that flimsy green bag and more recently it sound like you’re lucky to even get that. The lounges remain poor and service standards, training etc. sound inconsistent.

Evening all - flying to Toronto business class on Sunday Jan 19th. Any idea what plane will be on the route? Cheers

A321, according to the Aer Linghs website

Well, knifes with some level of cutting power - don't think anyone has gone back to having knives with actual sharp tips yet. I've had better knifes in economy on other airlines to cut the rubber chicken with.

There was a good few years post 9/11 when it was all plastic, all classes from memory.

I was booking my first and only business class flight to Toronto a few years ago, it was for a wedding and I was ready to book the first day the flights were available. I was booking on Aer Lingus

I was watching all of the dates and their prices as it got closer to when I could book, then for some reason when my dates became available they were about €600 more expensive than the dates around it.

So I booked it on Air Canada instead, as soon as I looked at the business class on Air Canada I was happy I'd made the change, Aer Lingus seemed so poor in comparison, with every seat on Air Canada having the same kind of space as the throne seats on Aer Lingus.

Price went back down a few days later to what I was willing to pay but it was booked by then.

As an added bonus I got to use the super fancy business class tickets only lounge in Toronto.

I always wondered why EI didn't set up a base in Edinburgh with LRs as opposed to Manchester (which is pretty well served and has a lot of competition)... Scotland doesn't have it's own med/longhaul airline but is a destination on its own - certainly in the same way as SNN would be. It's far away from LHR, trains take an age and are expensive, it's on the TATL routing. A Scottish 'branded' airline operates by EI with IAG as it's core might work, looping into AA connections on the US side.

An Edinburgh base of sorts was in the plans at the time Manchester base was opened, but it never materialised. There was talk of W patterns with Edinburgh and Manchester. These days it seems that if a route is not incentivised or somehow guaranteed to be risk free, EI aren't interested. There is zero appetite from any of the decision makers to take a chance on something.

Strike action, a passenger cap, and increased competition on the North Atlantic routes were just some of the issues that Aer Lingus had to deal with in a challenging 2024.Having recently received two of the six narrow body Airbus A321XLR, which can carry up to 220 passengers, the airline is now looking to the future and hoping to expand its capacity in 2025.Some of the most important issues on the agenda include development of its transatlantic offering, aided by new XLR aircraft; improving its standing within International Airlines Group (IAG); and dealing with the Dublin Airport passenger cap.Aer Lingus operating profits of €139 million for the third quarter of 2024, reported in November, offered a neat encapsulation of the challenging year it’s looking to leave behind, down €57 million on the same period 12 months earlier.Those results though were affected by industrial action taken by pilots at the airline last year. With industrial strife behind it, the path is clear for Aer Lingus to make progress on its key priorities over the coming year.

New aircraft

Just before Christmas, Aer Lingus received the first of six Airbus A321XLR it’s due to take ownership.The arrival of the jet marked a key milestone for Aer Lingus given that delivery of the XLRs had been in doubt while its grappled with industrial action earlier in the year. IAG, its parent group, had warned that it needed to sort the issue before it would send the aircraft in the Irish airline’s direction.Another benefit of the XLRs is that they have 20 per cent lower fuel burn per seat than older aircraft, making them more economically efficient, which will be good news for Aer Lingus’ bottom line.The aircraft is also capable of operating with up to 50 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), according to the carrier.

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Aer Lingus receives first ‘crucial’ A321 XLR jetsThe longer range will enable Aer Lingus to travel deeper into its key market of North America.“It enables us to serve underserved markets and effectively grow the Dublin hub,” Dónal Moriarty, chief corporate affairs officer at Aer Lingus, told the Business Post.“We’ve launched two new routes based upon that aircraft, Nashville starting in April and Indianapolis starting in May, and those aircraft will also enable us to provide additional frequency on existing routes,” he added.

Increased competition

Aer Lingus has faced stiffer competition on its transatlantic routes, where competitors across the Atlantic increased their capacity into Ireland by 20 per cent in the summer of 2024, putting pressure on its long-haul revenues, particularly in the economy cabin, according to the airline.Nonetheless, the carrier expects to grow more on those routes next year.“Aer Lingus will be growing in 2025 compared to 2024, specifically on the North Atlantic where we will be using the XLRs as part of our strategy to open up two new destinations,” Moriarty said.“There will be growth, there will be some minor increases in capacity by Aer Lingus on short-haul, [where] we will be looking to optimise our schedule.”The carrier has also just announced additional frequency on its Dublin to Cleveland, Ohio, route, starting from April 2025.The increase in capacity on this route came in response to “significant demand” on both sides of the Atlantic for more services since the route commenced in May 2023, the airline said.Closer to home, short-haul travel for business, such as same day returns and one night stays, hasn’t recovered to pre-Covid levels, Moriarty said.“We’ve addressed that in terms of the UK market, by reducing some of our capacity. We no longer serve London – Gatwick, and we’ve made some reductions in our services to London – Heathrow,” he said.However, business class, as a product, on the carrier’s North Atlantic services is “performing well and is certainly back to pre-Covid levels.”“The mix has changed in that there are a higher number of premium leisure passengers compared to people actually travelling for business, but business class on the North Atlantic is performing well,” he added.

Bottom of the class

Since it was bought for €1.3 billion in 2015, Aer Lingus has gone from a star performer in IAG to bottom of the class.In 2023 the Lynne Embleton-headed carrier had both the lowest operating profit, at €225 million, and the lowest operating profit margin (9.9 per cent) of the four carriers in IAG, that include British Airways, Vueling, and Iberia.“Since the pandemic, it’s the laggard not the leader of all the [IAG] airlines,” Stephen Furlong, analyst at Davy, told the Business Post.“It is kind of like the runt of the litter, Aer Lingus. It is getting investment, but the returns and the results have certainly lagged all the other group companies, so they better get a move on and improve,” he added.According to Moriarty, the airline is “very focused” on making the improvements that will make it more efficient and cost effective.

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Aer Lingus owner IAG bucks tough year for airline stocksIAG agrees 10 year Sustainable Aviation Fuel deal with InfiniumAnalysts: IAG pulls off ‘miraculous’ recovery even as Aer Lingus endures €88m profit drop“We’re trying to improve the financial strength of the business so that it’s fit for future investment and growth. The second thing is we are trying to improve the customer experience for our customers, remove the pinch points that are problematic from a customer experience perspective,” he said.“The focus will be on being more efficient and more cost effective in all areas. We have said previously that there is no broad-based redundancy programme planned... there is unlikely to be any significant change in terms of reduction in our route network.”If the carrier does not restructure, IAG could decide to invest elsewhere, Furling warned.“You look forward, the CEO and chairman of IAG group are Spanish, there is plans for investment further in Madrid, if Aer Lingus don’t restructure and stuff like that, it will be just left as they [IAG] allocate capacity elsewhere, as happened with the [pilots] strike... they [Aer Lingus] are not doing too bad, but definitely not favourite child amongst IAG right now,” Furlong said.Meanwhile, for parent company IAG, it almost doubled in value this year, with its share price climbing 93 per cent, making it the second-best performer on the Bloomberg World Airlines Index, and the only European airline among the top ten gainers, according to Bloomberg.

Dublin Airport Cap

Dublin Airport is capped at 32 million passengers a year due to a 2007 planning condition related to the opening of Terminal 2. DAA applied for planning permission to remove the cap last December.

The Dublin Airport Passenger Cap

January
2.1MFebruary
2.11MMarch
2.63MApril
2.76MMay
3.13MJune
3.19MJuly
3.36MAugust
3.46MSeptember
3.08MOctober
2.9MNovember
2.28M11RemainingSource: daa•Created with DatawrapperIn 2023, some 31.9 million passengers passed through the terminals of Dublin Airport, according to figures from DAA. Kenny Jacobs, the head of the commercial semi-state, has warned that this number will have been breached in 2024.The most recent update on the cap issue came on Friday, December 20, when DAA said it would submit an application to Fingal County Council to increase capacity to 36 million passengers.As the application to increase to 36 million does not look for permission to build any infrastructure, DAA hopes the application can move “swiftly” through the planning system and provide a “short-term solution” passenger cap.

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New survey finds vast majority of Dublin businesses support removal of airport passenger capAer Lingus chief: Passenger cap court ruling will mean no 5% capacity reduction this summerGovernment cannot intervene in Dublin Airport passenger cap row, despite election claims“There is widespread agreement that a pragmatic and constructive approach is needed to resolve this critical national issue impacting Ireland’s main transport hub. Dublin Airport already has the capacity to comfortably manage 36 million passengers a year,” Jacobs said.“Our no-build operational application provides a sensible short-term solution while we wait for approval for DAA’s bigger infrastructure application submitted a year ago this week.”The issue of the cap itself continued to rumble on throughout the year.In October the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) set a capacity limit of 25.2 million seats for summer 2025 at Dublin Airport. This was the second time a limit has been imposed by the IAA, the first being this winter where it imposed a seat cap of 14.4 million.However, in November Aer Lingus, Ryanair, and lobby group Airlines for America were granted a stay on parts of the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) ability to limit slots under the 32 million Dublin Airport passenger cap next summer.Then, in mid-December key questions about the cap were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by judge Mr Justice O’Donnell.Jacobs has said he anticipates over 35 million passengers will pass through Dublin Airport next year, which could provide growth opportunities for new airlines and those such as Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

Was looking at flights to ACE to see if the Neo was operating would have booked the biz class seats again. But its just showing the 320.

they are now €70 each even with an advantage fare following a recent change, unfortunately

DAA pitches Cork to New York flights to Aer Lingus

Cork to New York would just canabalise SNN-JFK. EWR might not tho?!? Even so, I’m still not sure the LR can get off the runway in Cork fueled for the east coast of the US, they struggle as it is of the old runway in Dublin and the longer flights (IAD/YYZ/PHL) even struggle off the new runway.

Are they technically able to do 16/34 at Dublin? Cork is ~70m/200ft longer than 16/34 so it may possibly be feasible

Norwegian did Providence out of there for a while didn't they?

Yes, they started out with 738's and then as the Max came online they used that.