Aer Lingus - 6

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by MCDU2

Having said that the EU may well revisit their decision on the slots to Scotland if it looks like Virgin Atlantic will be sold.

I'm not aware of any provision in the Commitments to withdraw the remedy slots if the carrier to whom they are awarded changes ownership. That wouldn't make any sense anyway. If VS doesn't use the slots for the designated routes it loses them; that's the appropriate criterion, not who owns the airline.

Do you have a source for your suggestion, or could it perhaps be wishful thinking?

[airbourne]

Virgin Atlantic Names Aer Lingus as Short-Route Partner - Bloomberg

Virgin Atlantic Names Aer Lingus as Short-Route Partner

Where are they going to get 4 VS branded aircraft from?

[mart901]

The article states the a/c will be sourced from EI. They have 2 more A319 planned and I would guess EIR having more of their routes in the new year with their new a/c, EDI-DUB is to be all EIR for instance.

[j636]

Accourding to the link VS are leasing the 4 aircraft from SAS and crew from EI.

[MCDU2]

VS are leasing the 4 aircraft from SAS

Don't think so....Airbus SAS is the full name of the aircraft manufacturer. Its not SAS as in the airline.

[ayroplain]

The article states the a/c will be sourced from EI. They have 2 more A319 planned and I would guess EIR having more of their routes in the new year with their new a/c, EDI-DUB is to be all EIR for instance.

Could the EI followers give us a picture of how this might affect EI's current routes, i.e., when the 4 x 320's depart to be fitted out/painted in Virgin colours that's quite a lump of workhorses out of their fleet. Are those 2 x 319's additional or replacement aircraft and when are they due?
Besides EDI-DUB what other routes could be envisaged for the new EIR a/c that could "free up" an existing A319/320 to replace at least one of "the departed"?
Maybe EI might wet-lease in a few of Mick's 738's to take up the slack

[Jamie2k9]

Could the EI followers give us a picture of how this might affect EI's current routes, i.e., when the 4 x 320's depart to be fitted out/painted in Virgin colours that's quite a lump of workhorses out of their fleet. Are those 2 x 319's additional or replacement aircraft and when are they due?
Besides EDI-DUB what other routes could be envisaged for the new EIR a/c that could "free up" an existing A319/320 to replace at least one of "the departed"?
Maybe EI might wet-lease in a few of Mick's 738's to take up the slack

2 A319 due very soon
1 A320 for sale and not sold (most recent results by EI)
2 A320 lease ending (intended to be replaced by A319) unlikely to happen so they will be renewed.
Plenty of A320 laying in DUB waiting lease from failed carriers accross Europe.

I don't see any changes to the Irish bases as there is little flexability in summer and EI are not going to close routes that have being on sale with a few months to make way for this. They would have planned for this as they intended to operate EDI and ABZ. The extra aircraft for MAN is the only problem so expect another leased aircraft.

EI took on extra crew last summer at DUB so would expect a higher number this summer and would say there is enough crew to cover in winter.

Overall a very possitive move by EI.

[Jack1985]

EDI-DUB what other routes could be envisaged for the new EIR a/c that could "free up"

That will have no effect. Aer Lingus mainline operated a daily afternoon service last year complemented by 3 other daily flights with Aer Lingus Regional. The route now will operate with 5 daily Aer Lingus Regional flights from 31 Mar 13, that's having no effect with freeing up an aircraft.

[Locker10a]

I heard that LGW is due to close and staff and aircraft are due to transfer to to LHR(rumor). Are there many crew left in LGW? i know EI transferred a few of them over to DUB a few weeks ago! As mentioned here it was suggested EI operate this route as a W routing from DUB with DUB crew! but EI hardly expect the crew to change the uniforms on the turn-around!?!
Also if LGW closes will that be the end of LGW-NOC ?

[mart901]

Not 100% sure but doesn't NOC operate on a W from DUB anyway? It has done at times I'm sure. Most of the BHD flights are BHD a/c so that wouldn't be affected, the DUB route does have quite a lot of LGW base rotations until end of next summer, thats not saying it couldn't change. Night stopping could always be brought into play, it depends really I guess if they feel its better to use UK based crew who are paid less and have 2 LON crew bases or eliminate the associated costs by removing one of them.

[Mlinnie]

Wouldn't think that LGW base would close what with EI recently launching BHD-LGW which Is going to four daily next summer, DUB-LGW capacity is also increasing.

So with EI leasing 4 A320s to Virgin is it likely that we could see a cut in some routes ? I don't think they're are any routes in Aer Lingus' network that don't make a profit...

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by Mlinnie

So with EI leasing 4 A320s to Virgin is it likely that we could see a cut in some routes ?

Jamie's post #931 above answers your question.

[akerosid]

Quote:
2 A319 due very soon
1 A320 for sale and not sold (most recent results by EI)
2 A320 lease ending (intended to be replaced by A319) unlikely to happen so they will be renewed.
Plenty of A320 laying in DUB waiting lease from failed carriers accross Europe.

Iberia is due to get rid of about 25 acft from its short haul fleet and I suspect that A319s will be among these (the current and imminently expected A319s are ex-IB), so acquiring some of these from IB may make sense from a commonality point of view.

I know there is a fair few acft from ground airlines at DUB, but many of these have the wrong engines and there can be little details here and there that can cause commonality issues.

I'd be surprised if EI didn't look at these.

[j636]

VS website showing MAN-LHR as an A319 so 3 A320 and 1 A319 for VS by the looks of it.

[Locker10a]

I see on the MAN-LHR timetable that the A319 due to operate this flight either over-nights in MAN or is going to be based there!

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by Locker10a

I see on the MAN-LHR timetable that the A319 due to operate this flight either over-nights in MAN or is going to be based there!

I would be surprised if at least 3 of the aircraft didn't overnight outside LHR, i.e. EDI/ABZ/MAN. The dominant point-to-point demand is to London in the morning, back in the evening, and also for morning connections you want to get the passengers to London as early as possible in the day.

[Cyrano]

Those admirably transparent folks in Dutch slot coordination have released their Summer 2013 slot allocations.

It's interesting to see that at Amsterdam Schiphol (slot allocations here), Aer Lingus applied for and received an 8th daily slot pair. Currently there are 7 daily EI services to AMS (5 DUB and 2 ORK), so where might that 8th AMS frequency go?

(Disclaimer, of course: just because an airline applies for and gets a slot doesn't mean that it will actually end up using it.)

[840]

Most likely is a 6th rotation to Dublin. There used to be six a few years ago and with BA now flying Dublin-Heathrow, it's in Aer Lingus interests to encourage connections through Amsterdam (where they still have a monopoly).

Cork might support extra rotations on Monday, Friday and Sunday, but 3 a day would be too much to have all week.

Similarly, I can't see a market in Shannon with its long haul services and plentiful Heathrow flights.

Knock could be the interesting one as it doesn't have a proper hub connection, but I'd feel even an A319 would be too big.

So, Dublin unless it's split along the lines of 3 days for one airport and four for another.

[Zag23]

What about Belfast City - Amsterdam?

[globetrotter79]

BHD - AMS?