Originally Posted by
apaddyinuk
Well in absolute fairness I have worked for an airline which uses its A330's on shorthaul flights inbetween its longhaul schedules. Also Emirates, Sri Lankan, KLM, Qantas, Cathay, Singapore and a million other airlines all use their longhaul equipment (and indeed A330's) to the same effect as Aer Lingus on shorthaul flights if not moreso.
I have no doubt they do but do those sectors include 25min juicy power hops from DUB-SNN and back? i believe the most cycle hungry rotation is the ORD-DUB-SNN-DUB-ORD run. 3 cycles in 24hrs for a heavy jet over several years can't be too good for the ole airframe.
As a side note i jumseated on EI-SHN from BOS-DUB (back when it was actually a non-stop service) and from what i remember she was holding up pretty well back then. in fairness though 6 years wasn't that old....