DUBLIN - 2

[clareview]

Winter cut backs

Why is there so much hype about a winter reduction in capacity on routes to the US? Air Transat and Air Canada drop their routes to Dublin for the winter. US airlines reduce capacity every other year so why the fuss now?
No one is fussing about reductions to destinations in the Med in the winter?

All US routes are sustained by business travellers, those visiting friends and relatives and those on holiday. Stands to sense that the holiday traffic plus some of the friends and relatives business is less when the weather in the North East of the US is not so good and that is a time when US airlines move capacity from Europe (as our weather is also not the best) to Florida, the Caribean and Mexico where many Americans holiday in the winter

[justanotherloser]

Exactly!

Additionally, airlines frequently, on this couple of weeks in November especially, cancel the odd flight where loads are particularly low. Nothing abnormal in this whatsoever, especially in the current economic climate where costs needs to be cut however possible.

Mid November, and Mid January to mid February are perhaps the lowest weeks of the year demand wise.

[Mlinnie]

CLT

Never realised US Airways CLT is struggling according to a post earlier in this tread.
I always thought it was a popular route ? Can imagine it being dropped, maybe just reduced to 5 weekly ?

[Jamie2k9]

Aer Lingus starting a weekly Corfu flight from 31 March. Its about time we have scheduled services to Greek Islands.

[EI-A330-300]

Latest News > DAA Welcomes Aer Lingus

Contains details of the capacity on other European routes.

[DublinPole]

What have they cut for Summer 2013?

I know that Krakow isn't coming back and Warsaw is going down from daily to 5x weekly and Budapest from daily to 4x weekly but what about the other routes?

[Mlinnie]

EI

... Maybe Vilnius ?

Good to see EI expanding into the Greek market but can't understand why they chose Corfu. Sure it will hopefully do well but can't understand why they didn't launch Heraklion or Rhodes instead as they're more popular holiday destinations

[Jamie2k9]

What have they cut for Summer 2013?

I know that Krakow isn't coming back and Warsaw is going down from daily to 5x weekly and Budapest from daily to 4x weekly but what about the other routes?

Working on that but KRK, VNO and BUD are main changes. FR are dropping BUD from 5 to 3 weekly from 10 Jan with cuts at BUD so I would expect a reduction from the current summer 13 schedule so EI may add capacity.

[DublinPole]

Checked the timetable section on their site and Vilnius seems to be totally finished for next summer. FR don't have it loaded either for the summer though, but I'm not sure if their schedule is fully loaded yet.

I agree with Mlinnie that I'm surprised they went for Corfu, I would have thought Rhodes would have been a better choice as well.

As I've stated before I'm not surprised they removed KRK because really that was one war which FR were winning by a pretty good margin and they're better off using the aircraft elsewhere. BUD is an interesting one, I didn't know if Dublin was one of the routes that was being cut, but perhaps you could see EI upping a bit after today's news.

Warsaw again now has competition from FR. When FR started on that route it was 3 times a week, that increased to 7 times a week and now is back to 5x a week, with EI back to 5x a week as well I think that is more realistic. Also it seems that it's forced EI's Warsaw fares down which can only be a good thing.

[stab3.5up]

Most likely operating as a semi charter flight. prob sold most seats to a tour operater and then sell wots left to joe public

[Jamie2k9]

Aer Lingus 2013 changes

Info from timetable updated today, () indicate 2012 flights:

Alicante 4 (5)
Berlin 11 (9)
Bilbao 4 (3)-Fourth flight from 3 July-28 August
Bordeaux 5 (5)-Fifth flight all season and not just 8 week as in 2012
Boston 14 (11)-13 weekly 12 Jun - 12 August
Budapest 4 (7)
Chicago 11 (7)
Copenhagen 6 (New)
Corfu 1 (New)
Dubrovnik 5 (4)
Edinburgh 0 (7)-EI regional increase from 2 to 5 daily
Geneva 7 (9)-Transfered to ZUR
Helsinki 2 (3)*
Krakow 0 (3)-not confired
Lanzarote 5 (4)
Lisbon 9 (8)
Lyon 5 (6)
Marseille 3 (2)
Munich 12 (11)
Nice 8 (7)-extra flights May-September
Orlando 3 (2)-extra flights 12 Jun - 12 Aug
Palma 4 (5)-Fifth flight was not added until Feb 2012
Paris 25 (21)
Perpingan 3 (2)
Santiago 4 (3)-Fourth flights starts 7 July
Vilnius 0 (2)-not confired
Warsaw 5 (7)*
Zurich 9 (7)-Transfered from GVA

16 flights per week cut
21 flights per week added

*-Warsaw was reduced to allow Helsinki operate next summer at a reduced level.

Expect further changes as the current schedule requires another aircraft certain days for morning flights. The 2 new 319's are due to replace 2 A320 weather that will happen is another question.

Most likely operating as a semi charter flight. prob sold most seats to a tour operater and then sell wots left to joe public

No charter compnays requested it but Sunway may take some seats.

[Jamie2k9]

Samartwings starting a weekly DUB-PRG flight. Flights will operate inbound on Firday and outbound on Monday. The airline have said it will be two weekly. Operated by a B738.

PRG-DUB 11.15-12.50 - Fri
DUB-PRG 07.00-10/25 - Mon

Between the flights charter flights to Agadir, Palma, Lanzarote, Faro and Heraklon

[cooldude111]

Any news of expansion at Dublin Airport now that passenger numbers are increasing back to normal? any news of Qatar airways?

[thebig C]

Dissappointed that EI seem to have dropped Krakow. Of all the Polish routes, this one had significant tourist numbers in addition to Poles traveling back and forth. Having made the journey several times, I was always delighted that EI served it as timewise its a little beyond whats comfortable on FR.

Having said that, I know a large number of Polish people and given that they travel home 3-5 times anually, they always seem to go for the cheapest option which rather favours FR. Although, I am sure Dublinpole can given us more info on that topic

C

[thebig C]

I would be shocked if Qatar Airways comemced a route to Dublin given the daily flights of both Ethiad and Emirates.

Although......you are the third person I've encountered who has mentioned them in relation to Dublin in the past week!

C

[EI-BUD]

Jamie2k9,

The 2 new 319's are due to replace 2 A320 weather that will happen is another
question.

It is not the case that LGW will need one of these if there are 319s on LGW NOC and an additional evening LGW BHD flight, that will need a 319 over and above the 2 dedicated to BHD?

I was surprised that EI would in fact base a 320 at BHD next summer, expected to see one of the 319s that is being delivered to appear there, putting a 319 in must indicate that the Malaga and Faro routes were very successful in recent years especially this summer. However, I note the seasonality of Belfast routes to Europe as they will end a month earlier than this year, however, as one other poster highlighted will start a few days earlier than was previously planned!

EI-BUD

[Jamie2k9]

2 A319 based at BHD (operate 3 LHR, 3 LGW, 1 PMI weekly)
1 A319 based at DUB (operate 4 LGW daily)
1 A319 based at LGW (operate 2 DUB, 1 NOC, 1 BHD daily)

I was also suprised about the A320 at BHD I expected all A319. what do you mean about the Europe routes from BHD ending a month earlier. They are bookable until end of Oct.

Qatar Airways will happen one day, if Manchester can support 2 EY daily, 3 EK daily and 2 Qatar daily then I can't see why DUB would be any different. There is still rumour of EK increasing DXB once aircraft are available.

[EI-BUD]

Jamie, I was sure that I checked the timetable online at aerlingus.ie and saw it said until end Sept. now it says October17, still 10 days earlier than this year.

I would have also expected EI to put 319 on DUB - MAN/BHX before LGW!!

[Jamie2k9]

Aer Lingus only allow bookings 330 days in advance. Booking system showing up to 21 October at the minute so by next sunday it wil be until the end of summer season. Timetable only gets updated once a week on a Thursday so thats why 17 Oct is there as last Thursday 22 Nov was 330 days to 17 Oct.

[DublinPole]

Dissappointed that EI seem to have dropped Krakow. Of all the Polish routes, this one had significant tourist numbers in addition to Poles traveling back and forth.

The problem is that Krakow Airport is in a location where it is very suspect to have poor visibility, which results more than average number of morning closures due to fog, there's been a few days where that has happened in the past fortnight. Aer Lingus' poor diversion practices for airports in Poland really are not passenger friendly.

In such circumstance EI almost always choose to divert to SXF, which is over 500km away and refuse to land at Katowice due to the fact that is not an EI served airport. Their official line for this is because they have their own handling agent at Berlin, so landing at a place where such handling agent is present is a 'better outcome' for passengers which simply is not the case. It also doesn't help when the crew make some very disparaging comments about regional airports in Poland not being able to accommodate an Airbus A320 despite the fact they regularly took A321's from other carriers.

Passengers then face a journey up to 12 hours by road, as was once the case with a friend of mine, just to reach Krakow. Alternatively they could have landed in Katowice just 81km away and just an hour by road and arranged a bus to pick the passengers up. Yes that would have involved a bit more work for someone in Dublin, but a much better outcome for passengers as it wouldn't have took 10 hours to arrange a bus, bearing in mind it's not that far from Krakow.

I also experienced something similar on a flight to WAW in November 2010. Flight to WAW diverted to SXF as WAW closed due to snow cabin crew told us that all airports in Poland were closed and had to divert to Berlin. Friend of mine waiting in Warsaw for me saw that the flag carriers were diverting to Lodz, Krakow, Katowice, Poznan. AL was the only carrier to divert outside Poland and the only airport closed was WAW. Cabin crew vanished from SXF very quickly after dropping us off and we arrived in Warsaw about 20 hours late.

This week we have seen that Warsaw Modlin has been closed for many flights because of fog, Ryanair have diverted every flight to WAW despite it is the only airport in Poland they don't serve, whilst W6 have also diverted all their flights to WAW despite the fact they no longer serve this. We've also saw all Krakow flights which have been effected from multiple airlines, which have pretty much all diverted to Katowice despite the fact that the vast majority of the airlines at Krakow apart from Ryanair, don't serve Katowice.

After the experience with the diversion to Berlin on more than one occasion, a few of my friends have declared they would never use Aer Lingus again. And they haven't. Neither have I for routes to Poland and would never do so again in the winter no matter how cheap the price. Sadly this is something that Aer Lingus have to deal with, and if HQ don't want the hassle of arranging transport from Katowice to Krakow because they don't have their own handling agent there to do it for them, then quite frankly they don't deserve customers.

I'm a frequent Aer Lingus user for short hop flights to the UK and also to France and Germany, but obviously I most often fly to Poland and wouldn't dream of using them again. Unfortunately their diversion policy seems to only consider EI served airports, FR fare much better in that they seem to always go for the closest open airport and then try and run the return flight from the airport they diverted to. Really I'd expect more considering EI do pride themselves on offering a better standard of service.