I think Aer Lingus at ORK have their hands slightly tied by just having the ATRs and the A320
I would agree their missing the fleet flexibility which likes of Air France/KLM can offer. I think Aer Arann had begun to examine the Embraer in 2007 they were even discussing flotation at that time
and its something I believe Aer Arann need to examine again they have huge potential on their hands at the moment.
Jack, the reason I question the nature of the Aerlingus base at Cork is that for several years they continued to base the pilots in Dublin and were most reluctant to move them to Cork. I'm told that the situation has changed in recent times.
Ryan2000 the answer is staring you in the face. I'll go back to 2006, they were desperate to keep the fleet going during the Winter it proved loss making even during the boom - the likes of Alicante, Faro and Nice simply don't work during the winter, management at Aer Lingus decided they needed to be flexible with staff at Cork. The four Aer Lingus flights tomorrow morning from Cork to Amsterdam, Faro, London/Heathrow and Malaga one of them is operated by a Dublin based crew. This proved to be successful for them, they had the option to reduce the fleet during the Winter months to maintain a profitable base its what they have elected to do and during our current economic situation its proved to be a lifesaver for them and no one could say their wrong for reducing the stationed fleet at Cork from 4 to 3 units in this era of uncertainty.
they have always been much more adventurous with new routes out of Dublin.
Again they can take the risk, they can offer connections through Dublin to the US. They can take the risk because you can commute from Dublin to every corner of Ireland relatively quickly and cheaply. They can take the risk because any Irish person see's Dublin as the Irish hub, that's a catchment area of nearly 6.4m (North and South). When you think of flying the majority of people don't decide on convenience anymore its the cost, Dublin's so large for them they can offset a loss against a profit you cant do that at Cork.
monopoly on routes such as Frankfurt and Dusseldorf.
That's true, but the most they could operate is say 4 weekly Frankfurt and 3 weekly Düsseldorf that doesn't justify a 5th based unit and that's taking unnecessary risk for the company. They will be able to take the risk when the economy picks up and people can afford the weekend break in Barcelona/Rome.