Originally Posted by
brian_dromey
Those slots are clearly less attractive for long haul arrivals, the turns are too short for long haul too. IAG can reshuffle the decks between BA, IB, EI and VG to get optimal scheduling across long, short haul, over the Irish Sea and LCC operations. No-one else at LHR can do that.
DUB, ORK, SNN and BHD all have service around the time of the Croatia slots. I presume Croatia operate from T2, as EI do?
Looking at the slots Croatia are looking to sell a hypothetical NOC schedule could look something like:
NOC 0830 LHR 1000 -234-67
LHR 1050 NOC 1220 -234-67
NOC 1745 LHR 1915 1-3-56-
LHR 2000 NOC 2130 1-3-56-
The time of the slots necessitates a NOC based/overnighting aircraft, unless EI were to do some serious shuffling. They might be able to get flights from LHR on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Sundays around 2200, when the last ORK flight departs. LHR is relatively quiet at that time of the day.
The question is what EI would do with an aircraft in the middle of the day, either leave it sitting at NOC or try some new routes. Do they muscle in on flyBe to the UK, continue with LGW service or try the likes of Paris, etc. Clearly NOC-LGW works for EI, its about all thats left of the LGW experiment. The EI service to LGW is the only service from the west of Ireland to South London. Would the traffic follow EI around the M25? Against this, they have never tried twice daily, as far as I remember.
Those slots are clearly less attractive for long haul arrivals, the turns are too short for long haul too. IAG can reshuffle the decks between BA, IB, EI and VG to get optimal scheduling across long, short haul, over the Irish Sea and LCC operations. No-one else at LHR can do that.
DUB, ORK, SNN and BHD all have service around the time of the Croatia slots. I presume Croatia operate from T2, as EI do?
Looking at the slots Croatia are looking to sell a hypothetical NOC schedule could look something like:
NOC 0830 LHR 1000 -234-67
LHR 1050 NOC 1220 -234-67
NOC 1745 LHR 1915 1-3-56-
LHR 2000 NOC 2130 1-3-56-
The time of the slots necessitates a NOC based/overnighting aircraft, unless EI were to do some serious shuffling. They might be able to get flights from LHR on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Sundays around 2200, when the last ORK flight departs. LHR is relatively quiet at that time of the day.
The question is what EI would do with an aircraft in the middle of the day, either leave it sitting at NOC or try some new routes. Do they muscle in on flyBe to the UK, continue with LGW service or try the likes of Paris, etc. Clearly NOC-LGW works for EI, its about all thats left of the LGW experiment. The EI service to LGW is the only service from the west of Ireland to South London. Would the traffic follow EI around the M25? Against this, they have never tried twice daily, as far as I remember.
I can't imagine anyone in IAG eyeing up those slots, and then wasting them on a Knock service! They're far too valuable for that! What they can do is allow Aer Lingus to use them to fly some of the LHR Ireland routes for BA, thus freeing up the BA Slots for longhaul. That's where the big money is!
There are currently no tech handling services at Knock for the A320, so if EI mainline were to operate the route, they would have to set up a tech base! EI may dip their toe in the water, using Stobart at some time in the future but I suspect that would be very seasonal.
You suggest LHR is relatively quiet late at night! Trust me it's not! Access roads are bumper to bumper, with traffic dropping off pax. Also queues of A380's at the holding point, all Asia bound (SYD,MEL,PER,BNE,SIN,HGK,BKK, to name just a few).