Aer Lingus 747s - did they consider an alternative?
Aer Lingus only had two 747s to begin with and had three at the most, with the addition of an ex-Lufthansa aircraft. I'm not sure the company ever had all three in service at any one time and they were leased out from time to time, e.g. British Airways and British Caledonian. As a loyal Boeing customer for some years, it was perhaps a logical step for Aer Lingus to introduce the 747 for its transatlantic routes; BOAC, Pan Am and TWA inter alia did likewise. Yet they didn't upgrade to the -200 or even the -400 and opted for the Airbus 330 to replace the 747. I just wonder if the TriStar or DC10 might have been a better fit, bearing in mind Aer Lingus would have needed to wait a while longer for these aircraft to enter service. The early TriStar wasn't strictly a transatlantic machine (neither was the Boeing 720 hitherto used) but I imagine Dublin/Shannon to New York and Boston would have been within range.