Future EI Routes
Any predictions on new routes for next year? The current fleet plan has 4x A321-LR arriving and 4x 757s staying so there is room for 3-4 extra daily transatlantic rotations....
The A321s will give EI huge flexibility to "right-size" routes. 2x A321s will give a small capacity increase v 1x A330 and the extra frequency gives much more connecting options in Dublin. Routes like JFK, BOS, ORD would all be candidates for this IMO, freeing up an A330 for a new route further west (Denver, Dallas, etc). Montreal is probably the biggest gap in their East Coast network but Detroit/Charlotte/Baltimore/Cleveland could all be options.
My prediction would be:
2x A321 to JFK
1x A321 to Montreal
Increase Philadelphia to daily
4-5 weekly Denver with the spare A330
It'll be interesting to see what they do on SH as well with the A321s doing a morning short-haul rotation in between translatlantic services. In particular EI currently operate to some big cities which lack US flights (eg, Lyon, Nice, Prague, Budapest). These routes are aimed at O/D travel and connections aren't sold ATM but maybe frequency could be increased to allow it. I'm sure there's demand.