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

What is the reasoning for having DEN x6, why not make it daily? Do they have the aircraft to expand LAS to year round, could maybe do better in the summer if loads weren't great.

I would imagine it relates to maintenance, 3 A330-200 are used every other day except for the 1 day that DEN doesn’t operate so I would imagine it allows for maintenance schedule.

I've definitely seen a picture of an EI 737 accompanying a 'news' article within the last few years

Are there any rumors of a widebody order or more ex Qatar 330s coming anytime soon?

One of the 330 was been parked for winter but that was stopped after the XLR delays. Forward bookings are strong for Q2 25.

Someone mentioned about LAS not doing too well. From my information its operating within projections. What that means, I have no idea but it seems to be ok!

ex Qatar 330s

would they go down that route again?

EI-GEY wasn’t upgraded immediately though, it operated for quite a while with an old business class cabin, it was angled seating in a 2-2-2 configuration. Economy simply received some green seat covers and was good to go. I seem to remember EI-GEY was upgraded and was back in service just before the pandemic grounded it for months on end.

There’s still significant delays in the supply chain, I believe the next two XLR’s are a little behind because of this too, unrelated to Airbus itself.

As for wide body fleet expansion, I think it makes sense they’re not looking for more in the short to medium term, every North American city that can be considered viable on the A330 right now is probably already served by them or others. I think we’ll see one or two more added over the next couple of years before they take another look at overall replacement nearer the end of the decade but even that seems like a massive ask considering the song and dance they went through to secure the XLR in the end.

How exactly did the two EI UK 333s fit into the fleet when they were based in Dublin as well? They still operate all 330 routes the same if not with higher capacity. Will they bring back the 330s from Manchester to expand at Dublin (if the cap allows) or do they plan on keeping that base for the longer term?

I’m corrected, yes GEY did operate for a short period of time prior to being refit. Interestingly enough I just remembered that it still has old QR stylings on the bulkheads etc. or atleast it did last time I flew it, around October.

Either Manchester would need to be losing a significant amount of money (it’s not) or an opportunity in Dublin would arise at very short notice that’s too good to turn down for those A330s to come back. I think it’s unlikely anything like that is going to happen.

In terms of loads, EIUK has been trending significantly higher this winter than the previous year. While that’s only one indication, it’s a positive one.

Anyway, at present there really isn’t anywhere else for Aer Lingus to go with the A330 that screams big profits, they’ve got most cities that need A330 range well covered. A few capacity increases on existing routes may be tempting but increased frequency might be the preferred option here with narrow bodies.

This would likely mean a sub-fleet of A320NEOs with a different seating layout for longer distance flights…I highly doubt it!

I believe same config as the existing 320 neos, I saw recently westjet announced st.johns in light of ei thinking about it

It’s about the same flight time if not about 10-15mins more than dalaman route