Aer Lingus - 6

[Jack1985]

Absolutely appalled by the publics treatment of Aer Lingus staff in recent days. It may sound hilarious I've written such an initial statement, but to see fellow colleagues, recorded in public by passengers and to see a fellow colleague called ''an old bat'' because just two people in Dublin where on duty to deal with over 700 passengers, is just absolutely unacceptable. Staff where a uniform, its management who dictate how many staff are on duty to deal with crisis events, its a clear fact, the weather influenced the recent delays and cancellations and there lies the fault, I can't believe people take to the tweet machine (sorry its Pprune) to then say, ''I'm sorry if you believe you can't call women bats on here you are at fault'' its;

• Immature
• Highly disrespectful
• And utterly disgraceful

We are all humans, I challenge you to where the uniform on that day.

Fair play to all on duty on the 27th and the 28th.

[bannercounty]

@Jack.

It's appalling alright and Mueller is ultimately responsible and not those who are not in control of the company. The frustration is probably vented even more so by passengers due to the number of cancellations over the past few days when Ryanair cancelled damn all flights in comparison to Aer Lingus. Questions need to be answered insofar as why so many flights were cancelled in comparison to Ryanair. Both companies had positioning issues due to diversions but Aer Lingus seem to be the ones operating to the bare bone in terms of personnel.

[j636]

Ryanair have crew and aircraft on tap unlike other airlines. When EI divert usually crew are out of hours and they overnight passengers in hotels, Ryanair don't, Ryanair did cancel some flights. Many regional flights were affected which explains a lot while mainline flights were combined as much as possible. From what I saw they were trying to get all T/A passengers out of DUB on 27 Dec and when you lose the first 90 minutes of schedules getting replacement slots at main airports isn't not easy while in F24 one flight to PRG taxed and then found out there route plan had being cancelled and had to do a trip around DUB before they got another. Also what would of being the setup at DUB on the 27 as when flights resumed Ryanair had most of the departure slots first so I expect those were kept before EI were given some. It was close to 9 before many EI flights got out.

However I did see some pics on FB and more staff ahold of being drafted in to deal with backlog

[Jack1985]

It's appalling alright and Mueller is ultimately responsible and not those who are not in control of the company. The frustration is probably vented even more so by passengers due to the number of cancellations over the past few days when Ryanair cancelled damn all flights in comparison to Aer Lingus. Questions need to be answered insofar as why so many flights were cancelled in comparison to Ryanair. Both companies had positioning issues due to diversions but Aer Lingus seem to be the ones operating to the bare bone in terms of personnel.

I know he is CEO but he does not dictate everything, my own point was where were the duty managers. j636 gives a very good point with regards positioning issues above.

[Epsomdog]

RyanAir have a distinct advantage in that they have, more aircraft and crews in non affected airports, to draw on. Also the pax do not have the same level of service expectation that the Aer Lingus customers have.

I can't speak for events in Ireland recently, only those in the UK on the 23rd.

"Where were the duty managers"?

Well in London they were busy phoning around trying to find transport and accommodation for 300+ passengers, at 2am that's no mean task!

I can see both sides of the story and understand that pax need positive information! There's not a great deal to be gained by offering yourself as a sacrificial lamb to irate pax. When your energy will be much better used actually resolving the problem!

It never fails to amaze me how abusive pax can be with the airline staff!

[racedo]

Absolutely appalled by the publics treatment of Aer Lingus staff in recent days. It may sound hilarious I've written such an initial statement, but to see fellow colleagues, recorded in public by passengers and to see a fellow colleague called ''an old bat'' because just two people in Dublin where on duty to deal with over 700 passengers, is just absolutely unacceptable. Staff where a uniform, its management who dictate how many staff are on duty to deal with crisis events, its a clear fact, the weather influenced the recent delays and cancellations and there lies the fault, I can't believe people take to the tweet machine (sorry its PPRuNe) to then say, ''I'm sorry if you believe you can't call women bats on here you are at fault'' its;

Irrespective of the incident there is no excuse for abuse of frontline staff.................in many cases they left knowing even less than passengers.

[racedo]

RyanAir have a distinct advantage in that they have, more aircraft and crews in non affected airports, to draw on. Also the pax do not have the same level of service expectation that the Aer Lingus customers have.

You really want to go with that ?

Level of expectation of service is you get from Airport A to Airport B in reasonable time ................for overwhelming majority of passengers it doesn't get any more complicated than that.

We may kid ourselves that its Boeing or Airbus, Flag carrier v Other but passengers have simple idea..........get them where they want to go with as little hassle as possibe.

[Una Due Tfc]

As racedo said, there is NEVER an excuse to abuse frontline staff. The efforts made by the airlines to get people home, especially those in EI ops who I talked to over the Christmas period, were phenomenal. Even in the event you are being treated poorly by frontline staff at any airline, it is likely due to the company rules and regulations that staff member has to follow. Don't play the man (or woman), play the ball

[Jack1985]

Irrespective of the incident there is no excuse for abuse of frontline staff.................in many cases they left knowing even less than passengers.

Exactly! And it's actually ridiculous that this is the case in most events. You would think in today's world where information flows so fast, that staff would not be the current scapegoats until background operational staff come up with new information, in any event it should be directly relayed to the consumer with no delay this in my opinion would actually most probably see the number of refunds reduced as consumers would be directly aware of the latest information, I actually applaud the use by easyJet operations staff via their Flight Tracker of up to date information. It's not something seen quite sector wide yet.

As racedo said, there is NEVER an excuse to abuse frontline staff. The efforts made by the airlines to get people home, especially those in EI ops who I talked to over the Christmas period, were phenomenal. Even in the event you are being treated poorly by frontline staff at any airline, it is likely due to the company rules and regulations that staff member has to follow. Don't play the man (or woman), play the ball

Wholeheartedly agree, it's so rare that frontline staff would abuse passengers however as in any job it can happen there is always the 1% who give a bad reputation to the 99%. Your last two sentences, they really say it all its company regulations these days that fully dictate the outcome of operational events, unfortunately I might add as well some staff sought to ignore it and find immediate resolutions only to be confronted with non-appearing!! (on those nights) frontline duty managers with repercussions. You might hear more of that in the following weeks.


Regardless, Happy New Year to all of you, may 2014 be a great year for all!

[mart901]

Hi does anyone know have the A319's had the seating reconfigured yet, I believe they were due to be?

[EISNN]

Reconfigured? Higher capacity?

[Shamrock350]

Judging by the complaints to Aer Lingus on social media the legroom is still as tight as ever on the A319 fleet.

[EI-BUD]

In some rows on EI 319's leg room awful. Rows at front are more spacious, much to the detriment of passengers further down the aircraft . Vast difference between EI 320 and 319, IMHO.

[Cian]

The 319s have Iberia interiors still - first few rows configured for business with legroom, later rows configured to immobilise anyone over 6 foot for the entire flight.

Two of the 320s were ex-IB and were reconfigured over the winter after their introduction; however there's much less slack in what the 319s are assigned to do (not that they couldn't swap a 320 in anyway) to get them out for a refit. However, still time before the summer schedule starts.

What's particularly annoying is that on lighter loaded 319 flights the 'good' seats aren't ever open at online checkin.

[Una Due Tfc]

When are EI due to take delivery of their first 757?

[Shamrock350]

At least two 757s are already in Shannon getting their new cabins and hopefully a coat of green paint. The third is still flying with Finnair I think.

Air Contractors stated on 6 December that the first had gone into the hangers for a month so it would be nice to see the first one rolled out next week.

[Una Due Tfc]

Thanks Shamrock

[akerosid]

One of the A320s operating for VS has a hard landing at LHR last Thursday, 16 Jan ...

Incident: Aer Lingus A320 at London on Jan 16th 2014, hard landing

Couldn't help noticing that the load factor was pretty poor - 47 on board means c.41 pax and 6 crew, or less than 1/4 full. They have been having low LFs since this project commenced; can't help wondering how long it will last.

Photo: EI-EZV (CN: 2001) Virgin Atlantic Airways (Aer Lingus) Airbus A320-214 by John Fitzpatrick - JetPhotos.Net

[Jack1985]

Doesn't concern Aer Lingus about LF's or how long the partnership lasts they get there money. Plenty of opportunities for those 4 320's.

[Yorkshire_Pudding]

Re: B757 cc numbers

Concerning numerous previous posts, the absolute legal dispatch minimum for 757 ops with pax on board can be just 3 cc, depending on the door config. Some 757-200 have no door 3, just the over wing exits... Condor and Delta to name just two operators of this config. Of course with 3 cc max 150 pax and no redundancy for loosing a crew member.

The EI 757s are also PW powered which on average burn around 1t less fuel per T/A crossing when compared to the heavier RR. It can take a while on full clb to reach cruise alt mind