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

Aer Lingus is very largely a Dublin-focused airline and, unless there is more money to be made somewhere else, Dublin is going to be its priority. Ryanair has a completely different model of operation, with a complex and diverse web of routes all over Europe, served from multiple bases. I would suggest that Cork is just another small/medium-sized city that it serves, rather than somewhere that Ryanair is particularly devoted to.

Suprised Ryanair are still commercially running the kerry-dublin route, surely they aren't making any money from it?

It seems the entire reason for the cold spell we have experienced was due to the pattern of the jet streams in the upper atmosphere.

Usually they are blowing eastwards from US to here, over the last few weeks they have been much further south and therefore of no benefit to planes heading eastwards and especially to make up time.

They are back on their usual trajectory now so it will be interesting to see will their timing improve.

If 2 weekly services are something to celebrate we really are at the bottom of the barrel. EI's schedule is something to be ignored in comparison to FR's expansion.

My J seat from IAD yesterday was missing a shoulder strap (not sure how it got to DC without it), but basically until engineering came and installed a new one I'd have had to get off (full flight), any idea why that's a hard rule for J seats when otherwise it's the same as a Y seat with the lap belt (that worked)? Captain seemed like a reasonable guy but obviously he has to follow policy (my Plan B was to ask for the jump seat! 😁)

FA said its going back to a 330 from May too, interested to see if they keep the double daily. The FAs really really hate the 321LR.

Video posted from someone living in the area.

It's over a month since the aircraft returned from maintenance in Bordeaux and it has made more than 60 transatlantic crossings since then.

I happened to spot that EI45 MAN-JFK operated westbound today (December 25).

I wonder if EI will ever operate flights out of Ireland on Christmas Day...

Shannon is open as its needed for diversions and as an ETOPS alternate or else things get interesting.

Ryanair doesn't operate the first wave off Dublin on the 26th either, EI do

Yes our position western europe means the main Irish airports are in a lot of diversion plans so having them dark means a lot of preplanned things cant happen if an emergency occurs. As goingnowhere points out.

Ryanair actually had some departures in the first wave this morning, albeit a much reduced operation

With BHD-LHR expected to end in March, EI have placed the followng additional DUB service on sals.

08.45-10.15 and the return 15.10-16.35.

They have also drpped the W rotation from LGW schedule and the above gap is the prefect block time for a NOC rotation and the current NOC-LGW times just happen to fit in nicely!

LGW-NOC 10:55-12.:30

NOC-LGW 13:00-14:35

That would leave them with just an evening slot to use or lease.

All just speculation at this stage.

She’s all good now yeah.

They didn’t even shut the engine down at the time. I presume a borescope was done to make sure there was no damage before flying her home.

It’s nothing to do with pride, it’s down to cost. Repainting spare parts is waaaaay down the list of priorities. What would you think if your flight was cancelled because the airline didn’t have a spare cowling in a matching colour so couldn’t get the frame back into service? You’d rightly be p*ssed!

There are multiple United aircraft flying around today with the new livery and mismatching cowlings/radoms/winglets, when AA were repainting the fleet again, countless aircraft in the new livery with winglets in the old livery and Delta even had 3 different liveries flying at once.

The pic below is a Lufthansa 320 with a mismatched cowling. It’s something every airline has to do at some point and something 99.99% of traveler's don’t notice one bit!

That must be a very recent development. It was photographed at LHR on 29 December with everything matching.

https://flic.kr/p/2o8Ar4f