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

Aer Lingus IT dept is shockingly bad . Blaming it on a cloud provider / network provider is one thing - any link can break , but its basic stuff to have a fallback , and for the fallback system to also go off is a sign of poor planning and execution . Did anyone see a CEO or COO on the ground yesterday ? Bet they werent' helping in the queues.

Worst, in my view was customer service deleting tweets last night

Lack of redundancy/back-up seems fairly par for the course in IAG. Remember the various BA meltdowns. The model is to sweat the assets. It's still cheaper for them to clean up a mess than prevent the mess from happening so they'll continue to do that until the opposite is cheaper.

The IT setup in EI predates IAG even the cloud element. There are some very good arguments in favour of what they did and it worked really well until last weekend. The service provider took out EI and a number of other businesses. But it didn't appear they even had a reboot on the actual core equipment, it was as simple fibre cut.

BA outsourced the whole deal and is running a very very complex PSS/DCS from Amedius Altéa (aka Fly) which is amazingly good on paper but can collapse and when it does getting it back up is very painful

This is difficult stuff to do and even with infinite $$$ stuff breaks. EI's core code has run for hundreds of thousands of hours so the risk is more hardware than software as this issue show

One of the things I've learned from a long career in IT is that the words "can't happen" represent optimism to the point of foolishness. My all time favourite was seeing a data centre go offline due to the failure of two redundant links at the same time despite them going from completely different areas of the building. It subsequently turned out that the contractor doing the installation had routed both into the same conduit further downstream, right where a digger could cut them both simultaneously :)

Anyway, dragging this slightly back on topic, I wonder whether anyone found a hotel room in Dublin that night given that Garth Brooks was on....

Sky Handling Partner do their handling currently, not EI.

Three DUB-LHR-DUB returns and one BHD-LHR-BHD cancelled due to congestion caused by That Funeral on Monday.

I'm flying out of BHX that day and would be delighted with a much earlier flight - as there'll be nothing at all to do!

Just an update on the flight I had recently on one of the ex-Qatar aircraft in Business. Avoid if possible, especially on eastbound. The seats are far too narrow when flat to sleep comfortably. Also there is zero storage space for anything. Lack of WiFi is an annoyance too.

And an FYI for anyone traveling out of Chicago, Aer Lingus have moved to the newly opened gates at the very end of T5. It's a long walk and boarding was halted after it began for over 20 minutes because you pass through a glass tunnel that is used for arriving flights without preclearance, going infront of all of the other gates, so they had to secure the doors and let everyone off a 777-300 that arrived, before they could resume.

It looks like they can get bodies but the lack of experienced staff with a mixture of new staff,Seems to be the issue.

The gates now go up to M40. They opened a new annex.

Well EI-CVC appeared to go tech at LHR on Sunday, which caused a cancelled LHR-DUB service right bang in the middle of the website problems.

It only returned to Dublin yesterday as EI991.

So hopefully that was it!

If IAD were to go back to a single daily A330 that would free up two LRs, then another 330 replacing the LR in MAN, or on DUB-EWR or DUB-YYZ accounts for the third potentially required. That still leaves DEN, unless one of the new routes other than CLE is only 3 x weekly.

Staff were talking about 2 second hand A333s being sought at the beginning of the summer in addition to the reactivated A332s.

I flew into Dublin from Toronto yesterday. Pissing rain, landed into the Ryanair gates. Had to use the steps!!! Many people connecting, what a joke of a first impression of this country. Are there not enough T2 stands with airbridges or what?

The airline gets the gate they pay for. Contactless stands down at Pier D are cheaper. No idea why AC in particular have gone so cheap.

It was air Canada. Over two hours and a half hours after the plane landed, the last bag came out onto the carousel. Mine and a few others bags didnt make it. 2.5 hours after the flight landed to find this out !

EI to pull BHD base from end of October for Winter 2022/23, Cabin Crew to be offered redeployment. BA to take over services.