Aer Lingus - 5

[EI-BUD]

I would say with the correct marketing in the likes of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Vilinus, and seasonally in Helsinki, Aer Lingus could get the load factors up on routes like New York, Chicago and else where state side.

Northern Counties, you are right on this one, though to be fair to EI they saw a 50% increase in transfer passengers going to US at Dublin over the summer months, maybe in some part due to Aer Lingus Regional and I note that in NewYork there was quite a bit of marketing of Dublin as a connection point. This increase in transfer passengers may be a reason why fortunes at the airline have been on the up and up this year!

EI-BUD

[Jamie2k9]

Ryanair have gone back 3 daily on the DUB - BRS route from end of March. It's bound to put pressure on Aer Lingus.

[heidelberg]

Aer Lingus to strike again - maybe!

RTE reports - Aer Lingus faces the possibility of industrial action next week after the airline threatens to remove cabin crew employees from the payroll if they fail to comply with new rosters being introduced on Monday.

[EI Premier]

There's no question, that the twice daily DUB-JFK-DUB route is profitable, and has always been that way for EI. I was thinking the A350 with it's low cost base & fuel saving winglets, SFO & LAX could re-configure on the destination map, also it may hopefully tie in with a live register figure around the 200,000 mark and annual GDP growth.

SFO & LAX? In my opinion, there's no way that both of these airports will be served simultaneously any time in the near future, unless there were VERY limited frequencies to both - which really defeats the purpose. However, from a cost base perspective, the volumes would have to be EXTREMELY buoyant for such a move.

RTE reports - Aer Lingus faces the possibility of industrial action next week after the airline threatens to remove cabin crew employees from the payroll if they fail to comply with new rosters being introduced on Monday.

Sadly, certain sections of Management appear absolutely intent on provoking disruption on this occasion. Their approach throughout these past several months could be described at times as bordering on contempt.

Yes, there are two sides to every situation but this is now going beyond all reasonable expectations. Cabin Crew are continually being singled out for further cost reduction demands. The current level of dispute all emanates quite simply from EI Management's selective interpretation of the LRC findings during 2010. In the normal course of employment, its not general practice to CONTINUALLY attempt to re-write employee contracts.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see disruption begin next week - there can be no positive outcome in the current situation, unless something changes rapidly.

It's a terrible situation and is wholly unnecessary - I'm at a loss to understand management logic - damage of the brand, potential disruption to services, loss of consumer confidence, alienation of a significant and very important frontline workforce grouping. Cabin Crew understand more than any group the need for cost consolidation. But they have given and further agreed HUGE cuts and efficiency improvements over the past 3 years - far greater than those demanded of their colleagues in other departments.

The unnecessary saga continues...

EI Premier

[sonyair]

Aer Arann and Aer Lingus launch new route from Edinburgh to Shannon

17 January 2011


Summer 2011 Schedule Also Announced

(Monday, 17th January 2011) Aer Arann and Aer Lingus today announced details of a new direct route to Shannon from Edinburgh in the latest phase of the franchise agreement between the two airlines. Also announced were details of the Shannon Summer 2011 schedule that will see the number of weekly Aer Lingus Regional departures from Shannon increase by 36% compared to last year.

From Sunday, 27th March, Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Aer Arann, will provide flights to Shannon from Edinburgh in addition to the current Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Glasgow services. Flights to Edinburgh will operate five days per week with fares starting at €29.99 one way including taxes. Flights go on sale today, Monday, 17th January and are available for booking on Aer Lingus- cheap flights, gift vouchers, hotels, car hire, & travel insurance.
Shannon’s Aer Lingus Regional Summer 2011 schedule, also beginning on 27th March, will include additional flights to Manchester on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The Birmingham service will operate daily on a business-friendly slot, while the Shannon to Glasgow route will operate three times per week.

Speaking at the launch in Shannon Airport today, Aer Arann Chief Executive, Paul Schütz said, “Combined with the recently launched Glasgow route, the addition of our new Shannon-Edinburgh service demonstrates the continued success of our franchise agreement with Aer Lingus. This new service further improves the direct links between Scotland and Ireland for both business and leisure passengers and working with Aer Lingus, we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with a quality service, ensuring excellent value and frequency.”
Also commenting on the announcement, Declan Kearney, Director of Communications, Aer Lingus said: “Aer Lingus are delighted to introduce this new service in conjunction with Aer Arann. This is the fifth Aer Lingus Regional route launched from Shannon since our partnership with Aer Arann began in April of last year. We look forward to welcoming customers onboard the Edinburgh service in March.”

Shannon Airport Director Mary Considine said that the establishment of the Shannon-Edinburgh route is a major boost for the Airport and region. “We are delighted with today’s announcement by Aer Lingus Regional. Edinburgh is an extremely attractive route and we are extremely confident that, with the full support of marketing agencies both here and in Scotland, it will be a major addition to our services at Shannon and another success for the Aer Lingus/Aer Arann franchise.”

Under the franchise agreement between the two airlines Aer Lingus Regional flights are operated by Aer Arann using its own ATR 72-500 aircraft and crew. All franchise flights are sold and distributed through Aer Lingus- cheap flights, gift vouchers, hotels, car hire, & travel insurance.

[airbourne]

From RTE.ie 18/01/2011

Aer Lingus was forced to cancel a number of flights today as the dispute over cabin crew rosters escalated.

Around 50 cabin crew were instructed to attend individual meetings with management after refusing to work new rosters introduced yesterday by management without union agreement.

Staff say the rosters exceeded existing agreements and an arbitration, and would impose undue hardship.

The airline has confirmed that 32 cabin crew members have been removed from the payroll and that 86 cabin crew members have refused to operate the new schedules so far.

Staff union IMPACT says they were prepared to work their conditions of employment as were in place on the old rosters.

As a result of the dispute, the EI 125 to Chicago and EI 104 from New York to Dublin were cancelled, while two other routes - EI 105 to New York and EI 594 and EI 595 to and from Madrid - operated with planes hired in from other companies.

The airline has announced that the following flights will be cancelled tomorrow:

EI 650 and EI 651 to and from Frankfurt
EI582 and EI 583 to and from Malaga
EI 594 and EI595 to and from Madrid
EI 606 and EI 607 to and from Amsterdam
EI 176 and EI 177 to and from London Heathrow

Further cancellations cannot be ruled out and passengers are advised to check the Aer Lingus website for further updates.


Aer Lingus insists it is entitled to introduce the new rosters under the terms of the Greenfield cost reduction plan, which 93% of cabin crew accepted in a ballot.


In a statement Aer Lingus said: 'The sole responsibility for these cancellations, and the corresponding disruption to customers travel plans, lies with IMPACT trade union members who continue to take industrial action despite 15 months of negotiation, agreement, clarification, conciliation and binding arbitration.'


They say every other grade has fully implemented Greenfield reforms.

[DannyKelly22]

a hard few days ahead for all those that i know at EI, good luck guys. Am wishing you all the best.

[Jamie2k9]

Don't know a huge amount about the crew problems at EI but there is plenty of people who have no jobs who would jump at the chance to work under the Aer Lingus crew agreement and the cabin crew should be glad to have a job not and get back to work.

[green baron 2011]

What an incredibly naive view of the world Jamie. So your immediate reaction to high unemployment in Ireland would be to throw your contracted terms aside and blindly capitulate to whatever your employer asked of you?? The agreements that cabin crew entered into were not signed in balmy celtic tiger years, they were signed in the full force of the recessionary storm, and as such, both parties were well aware of what the prevailing market conditions were. The cabin crew are working to their contracts. No more, no less. And I wouldn't expect to go to work on a regular basis for over eight hours and not get time for a sandwich, honestly,would you?

[EISNN]

So Jaime you must work for up to 12 hours and 30 mins a day without stopping for a sit down of 30 mins and you must be just getting a bite to eat on the go standing up in between moments of whatever you do. Not to mention the dark circles you don't have under your eyes as you go from late to early to late to longhaul.

You're such a human dynamo you should really consider going for Taoiseach.

I've a good few friends who are working there in EI and they work bl**dy hard. All they are trying to do is have some down time to recharge their batteries. Is that too much to ask? Working as either a pilot or cabin crew member is not like most jobs. They're working with the public, not just to ensure that their tea is nice and hot but also to ensure the safety and well being of every individual on board an aircraft and the safety and security of the aircraft itself.

[heidelberg]

The flight deck personnel are surely working similar hours with the cabin crew on any particular flight?
Surely the same working conditions apply to the flight deck crew and the cabin crew?
If I am correct, what is the 'real cause' of the present dispute between the cabin crew and the management?
I'm not taking sides here, I just want to ascertain the real facts because in most disputes truth is the first to suffer.
Incidentally I'm booked to fly with EI from AGP next week!
Ah well, if the flight is cancelled - to-days flight has been cancelled - I and Mrs H will book ourselves into a hotel near the Airport as EI will have to pay including meals and taxis.

[vkid]

You probably wont get much support on this thread Jamie but in many ways i agree with you.

I also know loads that would jump at the chance of just having a job at this stage but i also know from experience what its like to have new terms and conditions imposed.. Its not nice. However in my position it was either take it or we'll easily find someone else who will do it. I dont work in a unionised environment though so i had to take it. And glad i am to have the job.

Can someone explain what the full issue here is. I was under the impression that this was all agreed under the Greenfield agreement and that this agreement was accepted.

What has happened to that or what is the current issue?

[victoria73]

victoria73

I read on the aerlingus thread that aerlingus/aer arann starting a new route from Shannon to Edinburgh wonder do they have many ATR aircraft possibly base one or to in Bfs and pick up the MAN'BHX.left redundant by Bmi baby would be good we earner's for aerligus and a further foot over the door with domestic flights from Bfs,plus the market is definantly there for them.

[green baron 2011]

The difference, Heidelberg, is that pilots can take their meal break in flight, out of sight of pax! Cabin crew get no such downtime in the cruise. So therefore they don't eat under the new arrangements. Is that a good way to work? In no other job would you be expected to work for 10 hours without food or a break. That's without considering that the majority of that ten hours is spent in a cabin at 8000 feet. The crew have already taken a large dose of medicine, and failed to stick up for themselves. The company will keep coming back for more until the crews take a stand. Thats the culture the lovely Michael has propagated(450 million profit and a ten per cent pay cut- where's the logic there? No other industry would accept this nonsense)

[Airbus321-200]

Monarch operated EI 105 to JFK on the A300 yesterday and also the MAD service but the other monarch planes were in DUB for an ad hoc for pfizer bringing staff in for a conference.

[Jamie2k9]

17 flights already cancelled tomorrow form Dublin.

[airbourne]

Jamie, So you can spit about EI workers being lucky to have a job etc etc but the only reply you make is to tell us about the flights cancelled tomorrow. Have you lost the balls to ram your opinion down our throats?

[eick320]

Ryanair has confirmed that Aer Lingus is hiring four planes from it in order to maintain its schedule during the cabin crew dispute.

It is understood that the leases will be at prices below market rates.

Ryanair has said it was prepared to make more planes available if required

[S-crew'd]

Some posters were asking about the changes to the rostering policies..

I've listed some (not all of them) to give you an idea.. for anyone who does not fly for a living it can be hard to understand (or appreciate) how difficult (and exhausting) this type of shift work can be.. bear in mind these changes are above and beyond what was agreed by cabin crew in the Greenfield plan and many of the changes have no impact on increasing productivity (such as the ability to request a weekend off).

And of course every crew member (and I'm sure every employee in Ireland) appreciates having a job.. we all know and have someone belonging to us who has been affected by economic mess we live.. this does not mean any of us should roll over and accept sub standard working conditions..


* All meal breaks removed from European flights. This means cabin crew can work shifts of up to 11 hours with no meal break. There was formerly an entitlement to a half-hour break after six hours duties.


* Double’: shifts where staff must work on flights out and back from a destination twice in a day. (eg: Dublin-Geneva-Cork-Geneva-Dublin. These ‘doubles’ can also include other destinations of similar distance, eg, Paris; Amsterdam; Hamburg. The doubles mean a working day of up to 11 hours – and more if there are delays for any reason.


* Duties can be changed by 3 hours on the day of duty. Eg, you could come in to do a 7am flight to be told you are on a different flight departing up to three hours later (not including delays) – and can finish work three hours later than rostered. A nightmare if you have kids or other caring responsibilities.


* Similarly, duties can be changed by up to four hours the day before the rostered shift.


* The existing right to request one weekend off duty every eight weeks is abolished under the new rosters. (bear in mind even though you could request a weekend you were not guaranteed a weekend off)

* The minimum of 8 rostered days off per month is reduced to 7.


* Cabin crew can be sent (with very short notice) to work away from base for 26 days at a stretch. No such duty has yet been rostered, but there are big fears about how this would work in practice, particularly for those with childcare and other caring responsibilities.


* The rest period on transatlantic flights has been halved from 24/20/17 (depending on route) hours to 12 hours. This means that staff can do the outward flight to, say, New York and then work the flight back to Ireland that evening.

[heidelberg]

Has Lingus joined Easy & Ryanair in 'race to the bottom'

Must admit S-crew'd account of the new T&C's make interesting reading.

How do these new T&C's compare with other airlines, including Easy and Ryanair?

Perhaps cabin crew from other airlines would like to enlighten us for comparison purposes.

I do admit, based on the account by S-crewe'd, life as cabin crew with AL is not very attractive. I wonder if this will lead to a big turnover of staff from here on?

There is one caveat - has the Mandate union been honest with its public statements?