IAG bids for Aer Lingus

With only two airframes on order

One will need to cover Shannon for the summer to release a 757 to run the early JFK, unless they want to continue the 767 wet lease which didn't go down that well with some passengers

That leaves you with a single A330, that gets you LAX 6 or 7 days a week allowing for checks

Can't see how you get 3 new destinations with 2 airframes based on maintaining the 2015 schedule and adding routes

Carnacalla wrote: »

Can a single A330 do DUB-LAX 6 times a week? Is it possible?

Most likely an A332 will do it, rather than an A333 to start off with.

By the looks of it they will have 3/4 long haul day gaps which would make it possible to have an aircraft available for a daily service, it would never be operated by a single A333 anyway. The extra free day would be required though.

A new A330 could operate SNN-BOS, freeing a B757 to operate early DUB-JFK.

Can't see that happening unless if the LF for June which was around 80% is repeated when the network average is 90-95%.

DUB-IAD was only 4 times a week this summer, that allows that aircraft to partially operate DUB-LAX. Scalling back SFO to 5 weekly allows up to 4/5 weekly DUB-LAX. (Essentially have 3x A332 dedicated to IAD,SFO and LAX)

They have 3 A332 to chose between LAX/SFO, the other EWR will stay put on East because of no rest area. The A332 which did the odd hops to BOS/JFK/ORD/MCO services will not be missed as the A333 will be filled.

SFO will not be reduced as it has LF of around 95% during the summer peak.

Carnacalla wrote: »

Suppose the question is whether an Early DUB-JFK or a SNN-BOS flight would carry more pax.

Yeah outbound was always full, 12.00 return was up and down.

I really think A333 would be to big for SNN and dilute yield to to much for them and the A332 which would be suitable will most likely not be available.

aviator7 wrote: »

I remember last year there were talks of another euro route being operated by the A330 along with faro and malaga, but they didn't have the capacity in the end.

Will we see it this year?

Rome and unlikely to happen.

Pat Dunne wrote: »

How come this topic has turned into a "destinations" discussion and veered completely away from the sale of EI?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057486552

Congratulations on joining the modding team!

Nothing really new in that plans for a more 'earn and burn' style program have been around long before IAG made a bid

There has been some subtle rebranding going on in the lounges, the Gold Circle name has vanished off the wall in Dublin and JFK, its now the Aer Lingus Lounge

ImDave wrote: »

Link to the article here:

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/aer-lingus-is-set-to-call-time-on-its-business-flyer-gold-circle-club-34118164.html

If they make it harder to reach Elite, I will kill someone. Been slogging that one out for a few months and am nearly there

Surprising with the announcement today to see that Gold Circle profiles have been migrated across to the new EI website (since the launch of the new website, you've had to login to the old website to view points balance etc.). All references and assets on the site reference Gold Circle as opposed to Aer Club etc.

I'd imagine they aren't planning on implementing the new FFP before the end of the year, rather they will announce details next month and maybe launch it at the start of next year. You'd think if they were moving quickly to scrap Gold Circle they won't bother launching a GC section on the new site.

I certainly hope that's the case anyway as I'm 350 points off status and not flying again until mid-November

Likely to be three routes announced on Wednesday.

My guess would be LAX, BDL, MIA.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/aer-lingus-to-fly-three-new-routes-to-us-34120488.html

Tenger wrote: »

Well LAX and BDL were leaked 10 days ago due to a glitch on the website. And MIA has been rumoured for over a year.

EI are having a PR event in town tomorrow.

Pprune seems to believe the other route will be EWR not MIA.

MIA makes more sense for me in that it connects to an AA hub and is less likely to annoy United (but that may be the strategy - to pull away from them but i would expect they would want more connectivity from AA before doing that)

Newark is what we are hearing. MIA seems to be a red herring circulating for a while that has just grown legs.

basill wrote: »

Newark is what we are hearing. MIA seems to be a red herring circulating for a while that has just grown legs.

Indeed.

EWR makes sense looking back at the United codeshare.
However I cannot see IAG approving EWR, it is a United hub. When the UA codeshare ends then EI will be feeding into an airport with not a lot of seamless connections. (the plank of their CBP in DUB/SNN strategy) IAG will want EI to feed into OneWorld. And IAG already stated that they would join the Transtlantic joint venture which includes AA and AY.

I would guess we will see the early DUB-JFK return for 16-18 weeks summer 2016.


Speculation will be put to rest tomorrow.

While I agree they will not want to approve it however if the set up works then why not approve it. UA bring some transit via DUB on EI so they may want to keep it while aa is not exactly a popular brand in Ireland so forcing passengers to use them may not be popular.

Opening EWR as Europe-DUB-EWR only could free up some capacity on JFK for transit to AA network.

Personally I would look at alternatives than flying anywhere with AA.

BA, IB and EI are pals with JetBlue who are not part of OW. The fact AA is not owned by IAG makes it a little different IMO.

adam88 wrote: »

Has the sale to iag been finalized or was I living under a stone for the past few weeks. Read on rte that the new routes were the first under iag ownership but I don't think I ever heard the sale had gone through

Yes it has.