Aer Lingus LGW

[BOAC]

I may have missed it, but I see no thread on the announcement by Aer Lingus of a large expansion of LGW routes (apart from on the c/.c forum). Anyone any more info other than the press release?

[840]

There's some discussion in the general Aer Lingus thread (http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/290291-aer-lingus-5-a.html). It starts in mid December 2008 and continues from there.

[BOAC]

Thanks 840 - the puzzlement comes from the 'hot' news I saw YESTERDAY on BBC Teletext of the AL plans. Are the Beeb THAT far behind?:)

[IB4138]

Frequently!

Quite often the BBC are days behind Sky with news items.

They are in danger of being named "The Historical News Channel". :rolleyes:

[paully]

Thats the price they pay for being so PC......they have their head stuck so far up their :mad::mad: they cant see whats going on in the world....:=

[robbieh]

There's Daily Mail/Express readers getting everywhere these days woth their misinfortmation.

Sometimes the BBC gets news first, sometimes Sky. End of. Meanwhile the Daily Mail/Express make up their own news and BBC rants to depress their sheep readers. Baaa

[davidjohnson6]

Just booked a return trip from London to Nice for twenty pounds on a spring weekend (perhaps not the most profitable of fares for EI !)

Most disappointed to find out that EI don't award air miles on these fares - who says you can't have it all ?

[Alan Tracey]

Totally agree...great fares.

Just booked 2 weeks in August to Nice for £48 !!!

[840]

There's a strange set up for air miles on Aer Lingus short-haul

Nothing for W or Z class, but everything above that gets the same level.

I understand they are considering introducing double miles for their short-haul flexible fares (B-class).

[frnikolai]

I noticed the cheap flights to Faro myself, very tempting! Might go for 2 weeks in the summer - children would love it! I think this must be why they refused to merge with Ryanair; they were planning to compete head-on.

Nikolai.

P.S

Hopefully Ryanair will lower prices to get even more competitive!

[daz211]

I can see Ryanair announcing a LGW base in the near future
they have been announcing new routes from LGW, it will only
be a matter of time, like it or not it will happen.

[frnikolai]

I'll be very pleased if they open up a base at LGW - closer than Stansted for me! But it will only be to the really expensive desitinations :(

Or just really cheap flights from Stansted?

Nikolai

[Shamrock350]

Aer Lingus have become more and more competitive in recent times, in 2007 they added DUB-LGW and were seen as the underdog on the route but they stuck with it and next month to take advantage of BA's withdrawal, they'll increase frequency to match Ryanair's.

Aer Lingus still compete with easyjet on 4 routes from BFS and the arrival of Aer Lingus meant Jet2 had to pull off the BFS-BCN route. All you have to do to see how competitive they plan to be at LGW is look on the front page of their website and check out the fares!

At DUB, Aer Lingus returned to NCL and made it a year round service at a time when Ryanair is reducing flights to NCL. Aer Lingus also keep their twice daily BCN service while Ryanair reduces frequency to GRO and in ORK, BmiBaby pull BHX and Ryanair pull EMA while Aer Lingus reaffirm their commitment to BHX from ORK.

While not all of their ventures have been huge successes, it does prove that Aer Lingus is willing to try new things and compete directly with the likes of Ryanair and easyjet!