Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
They could still lease spare LHR slots out to anyone on the long list of those wanting in and still hold onto them and still fly from LGW. Air Mauritius did this and still hold LHR slots yet fly daily from LGW instead.
I have used DUB-LGW and I am sorry it's dropped. Dublin-London is still a huge market and I am surprised they've walked away from LGW once again. (3rd time now at least). They have also flown STN-DUB and more recently LCY-DUB was a grand offering with CityJet in Aer Lingus colours. I wonder if BA moving to DUB T2 was a factor in making sure IAG's LHR flights still gets on pier parking and so LGW was chopped? Probably not....
I think I another reason for Aer Lingus to pull out of Gatwick is stiff competition with Ryanair.
It's one thing to compete with a low-frequency Ryanair service that goes to an airport at the other end of the route only the Ryanair marketing people believe actually serves the city they say it does - like "Frankfurt" Hahn which is actually closer to Luxembourg than Frankfurt or "Copenhagen West" a.k.a. Malmo, a completely different airport in a neighbouring country, for example - but quite another to compete head-to-head with a high-frequency Ryanair service operating at commonly timed, fairly evenly spread popular times throughout the day operating into the main airport at the other end of the route, especially if Ryanair's frequency is much higher. On Gatwick-Dublin Aer Lingus' four to five times daily service competes with an up to eight times daily Ryanair service. As well, given the vast direct - i.e., non-stop - transatlantic air travel opens from and to London plus the fact that Aer Lingus competes with Icelandair, which tends to have better timed connections (at least as far as Gatwick is concerned), in the one-stop transatlantic air travel market, it doesn't take rocket science to work out why Aer Lingus has thrown in the towel on Gatwick-Dublin.