Aer Lingus to Australia?
 

Taken from yesterday's Irish Independent.

"Aer Lingus has said its looking at providing a long haul service from Ireland to Australia, or South East Asia. The company has said the short term goal is to expand its operations into the United States. The national carrier is asking for changes in the bi-lateral agreement between Ireland and the US, which currently limits the destinations into which Aer Lingus can fly."

I live in Bangkok and would LOVE the option of a direct flight to Dublin. Assuming the Australia flight goes ahead (I know it's a big assumption as fellow One Worlders BA and Quantas won't want Aer Lingus elbowing in on 'their' route) they would have to stop for re-fuelling somewhere in SE Asia and Bangkok or Singapore must be the most likely candidates.

What I would really like from anyone who can help is advice on how the Irish community here in Bangkok can ensure the stopover is here. What are the likely criteria Aer Lingus would use for making the stopover decision and will political or economic lobbying significantly influence the that?

If this is the wrong forum for this then apologies, I assume the moderator will move it to the correct one.

BKK hasn't been mentioned as a possibility at all; it's between SIN and KUL. That said, it won't be a nonstop route to SIN, so it might well be that it stops at (for example) Helsinki, and you could fly AY to there and EI on to DUB. Personally, my favoured choice would be HKG, to tap into CX's hub there. The feed at SIN would be into QF's Aussie routes, but there'd be no (or very limited) connections to regional routes.

Whatever EI chooses, don't forget that EK is also looking at the possibility of a DUB route, so that will certainly - if it happens - permit a connection via DXB.

can some one explain how AL intends crewing flights to the far east considering AL are actively in the process of attempting to get rid of their ex 146 pilots?

Well obv Willie doesn't want to pay to type them to 320/330...

As I said on another thread, Willie was asked about Asia on the radio and he downplayed it. Seems much more focused on US market.

EI may well be more interested in the US, but it seems unlikely there'll be much change in US access rights this year. As well as that, Aer Lingus needs to decide if it's going to continue to put all of its long haul eggs in the US basket. Where will that leave it if there's another 9/11.

I'm all for EI lobbying for and getting new US (and hopefully, Canadian) routes, but if it leaves the Asian market open, the likes of EK will enter the route and EI might as well throw its hat at it, because EK will be very aggressive in its growth plans.

Surprised also that the Irish govt hasn't been more pro-active. Clearly, a route to Asia would be a very important boost to the Irish economy; perhaps some "encouragement" would be welcome . . .