Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

kevinandrew wrote: »

Average load factors have remained steady or even increased slightly during the past five years of growth across the Atlantic so any witnessed low loads obviously aren’t a regular enough occurrence to impact the overall numbers.


The A333 is also cheaper to operate these days, I think it even has a cost advantage over the A332 on similar route profiles and loads. Also with the A333 now able to reach the west coast in its HGW variant the need for the A332 is diminishing at Aer Lingus and indeed other airlines as we’ve seen with the order book.

Aircraft choice has always been a matter of interest to me. I have noticed the AF A332s do not go to the USA, it's entirely the boeings or the A380 (they used to have 340s do USA but they're being phased out overall). Demand aside even before the A380 air france didn't send the A332. It's mostly favoured for mid range African routes. I wonder if it's because the 777 gives better costs for similar loads to the US?

1123heavy wrote: »

Aircraft choice has always been a matter of interest to me. I have noticed the AF A332s do not go to the USA, it's entirely the boeings or the A380 (they used to have 340s do USA but they're being phased out overall). Demand aside even before the A380 air france didn't send the A332. It's mostly favoured for mid range African routes. I wonder if it's because the 777 gives better costs for similar loads to the US?

They may have also made a business decision not to use those aircraft for those routes, they need to be registered with the FAA and/or certified for ETOPS, which they wouldn't need to be for the African routes.

IE 222 wrote: »

Do IE get a good return using A330s on the sun routes. With the extra frames coming could we see another 1 or 2 of these coming on. Surely parking these up for a number of hours in Dublin is going to become more and more difficult.

Is there much capacity left on the A321 routes to the likes of Rome, Naples, Canary's (probably too far). Could some schedules be altered to see a "spare" A330 overnight in Dublin but service a sun route such as Split, Dubrovnick, Burgas or upgrade a later Malaga, Faro run to A330.

Typically the A330s are flying anything from 14-22 hours in a given day, the rest of the time on the ground at DUB is mostly for maintenance and checks, occasionally getting taken out of service for a few days for heavier checks or an unexpected major maintenance event.

There isn't much slack in the A330 fleet otherwise particularly during the summer (which is why for the last two years we've seen regular cancellations, hire-ins, etc), so additional daytime rotations are unlikely, even with another two frames (though I could be proved wrong). The A321LR can fit Euro rotations in because they're only doing shorter East Coast/Midwest routes and don't have to cycle through longer trips to the Floridas or the West Coast.

With an even larger fleet now and only set to grow they really do need a spare, I would assume there'll be some capacity set aside between the A321LRs and the new A330s, at least there should be if they're wise.

1123heavy wrote: »

Aircraft choice has always been a matter of interest to me. I have noticed the AF A332s do not go to the USA, it's entirely the boeings or the A380 (they used to have 340s do USA but they're being phased out overall). Demand aside even before the A380 air france didn't send the A332. It's mostly favoured for mid range African routes. I wonder if it's because the 777 gives better costs for similar loads to the US?

Today there's A332s operating AFR136 LFPG-KORD & AFR338 LFPG-KSEA. They are often on the AFR022/023 for JFK too.

Locker10a wrote: »

Isn’t it winter season only ?

1 flight a week every Saturday, and only from 21/12/2019 to 21/3/2020.

Summer schedule dropped in 2018 according to this..

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Aer-Lingus-to-drop-Cork-to-Munich-flight-7782683f-0510-4a64-8d48-a37323468d07-ds

To be fair -200 and -300 are the same, same crew needed, same training, same parts.

The real saving is flexibility only a single type with only 2 seat layouts (crew rest vs no crew rest) vs the current -200 where there are no two the same greatly simplifies planning and avoids leaving people behind when the 'wrong' aircraft appears.

I like to see aerlingus new livery on a330neo

Anyone know delivery date for a321lr

California Dreamer wrote: »

That said, there is a case to hold on to -LAX for said spare flights.

I really hope that when LAX is retired, she is put into a museum.
She has done worthy service for EI for over 2 decades, and is still a great aircraft!


LAX has been a fantastic asset to the EI fleet over the years!

ohigg84 wrote: »

Perhaps it is cost efficient for EI to operate A333s (242t version) on the West coast routes, but when the peak season ends, isn't it more effective to utilise a smaller aircraft ?(A332).

Surely it is practical for EI to utilise an A332/A333 fleet.

If LEVEL is going to get MAX8/MAX 10s, it's other long haul fleet of A332's (mostly new build) could be replaced by 787s, and these new A332s could go to EI, and EI could use the A332s to operate other potential West coast flights to San Jose, San Diego, or increase frequencies on the SFO and LAX routes to twice daily.

Just a speculation anyway

A332 vs A333 burn almost the exact same fuel, within 1%, require the exact same crew and have the exact same landing and airways fees as their MTOW is the same, it makes little sense anymore to operate A332s, certainly at the range Aer Lingus uses.

In the past the benefit of A332s over A333s was its range which was substantially longer, but that difference is now much reduced with the 242T A333 capable of flying any route on the Aer Lingus network comfortably, so you're effectively getting an extra 60 seats for no extra cost.

Its similar to the A319 and the A320, almost no difference in fuel burn but an extra 30 seats in that case.

California Dreamer wrote: »

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-21/flying-to-the-rescue-iag-boss-proves-value-to-boeing-once-more

Interesting article re the Max and the WW relationship with Ray Connor and Boeing as a whole. I thought it would be a shot across the bow of Airbus but IAG could be serious about this letter or intent turning to an order.

Airbus wouldn't even necessarily need to match the discount offered by boeing, IAG would save a fortune by sticking to airbus across its operations, so just something to make it cheaper to stick with airbus would be enough. Haven't IAG already been contacted by Airbus who plan to start negotiations with them?

kevinandrew wrote: »

Aer Lingus to operate the A321LR on SNN-JFK from 12 March 2020

Wonder if they'll squeeze in a LHR rotation here as well.

Depends on if they have a suitable slot spare at LHR.

It would substitute a 320 utilising existing slots.

The second rotation of the SNN based A320 to Heathrow isn’t until 12:25 in summer & it was 12:55 last winter so with perhaps a little bit of rejigging, having a first rotation before 06:00 could open up the opportunity to fly to a continental destination like Faro or Malaga.

That in turn could release the Cork based A320 that does the Shannon sun flights (in a W pattern) to operate to another destination.