Probably both, unless its at Belfast. My money would be on either Birmingham or Manchester. The brand is already well known at these airports, and both have a lot of potential since Flybe cut a lot of BaCon routes.

EIDUO
 

EIDUO arrived in dub this evening at 1833 ex tls ... can anyone advise if she is fitted with the new premier seats that ei were advertising in the indo durning the week ?

EI-DUO
 

Yeah EI-DUO is fitted with new Premier and Econony seats.....

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me, whats the longest any CEO has served EI? I beliebe, that there were something like 9 CEOs between 1990 and 2001, and obvious sign of an airline that wasn't doing the best it could. vAny information appreciated.

Thanks

David Kennedy was CEO until the early 1990s, from about 1974. Prior to him, there were quite a few long standing CEOs, such as Jeremiah Dempsey and Michael Dargan.

Since David Kennedy, there have been Garry Cullen, Peter Owen (who was a contract CEO anyway), Willie Walsh and Dermot Mannion. I am sure I am missing someone there, but I don't think that's too bad record.

Michael Foley was another. And I think Bernie Cahill served as a interim CEO/executive chairman for a while when they were looking for a replacement to Foley.

Yes, I forgot Michael Foley! He was the victim of a very unpleasant smear campaign, orchestrated by another executive. I think he got a very significant payoff.

He was succeeded by WW.

All we know is that Aer lingus want a non-Irish base somewhere in Europe. That could be in the UK but my money is still on Eastern Europe. They will operate European flights from this non-Irish base.

For you what are the candidate city?

Aer Lingus have made enormous efforts so that in their new base they will not have to pay the the same salary as Irish staff, but that they will only have to pay the local market rates. In this respect, the prospect of a UK base doesn't add up.

I do believe that Ryanair will pick a base in Eastern Europe from where they can fly to:

• Dublin, Cork, Shannon
• Manchester, Birmingham, London
• Amsterdam, Paris

Therefore I consider the following to be strong candidates:

• Riga
• Vilnius
• Warsaw
• Krakow

Egbb Touted

MAN would be a great base for the airline. If they were to concentrate on Eastern Europe, which MAN seems to suffer from, they could really give EZY and FR competition on routes to Poland etc. With MAN behind the airline, it would give them a real push.

Birmingham seems to be a weird scenario. They do have alot of loco airlines that seem to fly across most of Europe, unlike MAN, where Eastern Europe seems to be full service airline dominant.

Why would EI open it's first base in Eastern Europe? They would be taking huge risks at entering an untapped and unproven market as their first overseas base. Personally, I don't think it would be a good idea.

My guess is going with MAN in the UK. There is a bigger market there that has been tried and tested and has future potential for Long Haul if the airline wished.

Just my views!

Charlie Roy->I think the local rates thing was just about precedent. If EI had established a UK base with Dublin rates, it could set a precedent for every future base. Best to confront the issue now, than have a strike about it later.

Irish wages rates are now amongst the highest in Europe and are generally higher than those in the UK so they might not have to pay UK staff as much as Irish staff
Whatever about Dublin and Cork, I'd say its fair to say that EI have abandoned shorthaul at Shannon to Ryanair so I'd say any new routes there are highly unlikely
Warsaw already has LOT, Wizzair, Centralwings and Norwegian based there, as well as numerous others flying there, I don't think theres really much potential there. As for Krakow, every second airline already flies there so there are few unserved routes. Riga or Vilnius are more probable, but Aer Lingus is stiill a fairly unknown brand there so I'd say they might struggle a bit in either of those cities.
Flying to their new base from Paris or Amsterdam would be a very risky strategy since KLM could decide to withdraw the Codeshare arrangement for AMS-Dublin/Cork, and both of these routes would struggle at current frequencies without it.

Not much hope for EI given this carry-on....

Airline to suspend staff in dispute

By Laura Noonan, Irish Independent
Monday May 28 2007

AER Lingus has threatened to immediately suspend the 350 baggage loaders who are refusing to work at the airline's new check-in area in the basement at Dublin Airport.

The national carrier should have started using the new €15m check-in area last Tuesday, but almost a week later Area 14 still lies empty as baggage handlers refuse to move downstairs.

Last week, Aer Lingus management refused the baggage handlers' requests for payoffs of €1,000 and promotions in return for the move.

Now the airline's chief executive Dermot Mannion has told the workers to begin using the new check-in area this morning or face immediate suspension without pay.

In a letter delivered to baggage workers' homes on Saturday night, Mr Mannion said that he wanted to "remind all relevant employees that co-operating with an assignment to a location appropriate to an employee's work is an integral part of all Aer Lingus contracts of employment.

"It is important that all employees understand that if they fail to carry out their full range of duties in the location that they have been assigned to, for whatever reason, they will be suspended from the payroll with immediate effect."

SIPTU's Noel Maguire, who represents the workers involved, said his members would not take up their posts this morning.

"We have written to the company and we hope to meet them, but no, we won't be working there in the morning," he said last night.

The dispute initially centred on workers' health and safety concerns. However, the basement area has been re-examined by the Health and Safety Authority and Mr Maguire agreed that there were no outstanding health and safety issues.

"What we're talking about now is a diminution of our conditions of work," he said.

Aer Lingus commercial director Enda Corneille said that the workers had lodged a pay claim for €1,000 plus promotions in return for moving to the basement.

"This is typical of what happened in the past and the company gave in," he said. "But there's no way we can entertain a pay claim like that now when we're trying to cut costs."

Mr Maguire denied that the pay claim had been formally lodged. "That was just something that was tossed about at a meeting," he said.

- Laura Noonan

Unbelievable!
 

Given the competitive state of the Dublin market right now, this is an ominous development for Aer Lingus and one that needs to be addressed immediately.

With DUO arrived and DUZ due shortly, are existing 332/333 slated for cabin refit soon?

I saw on another forum that some of the current A330 leases are supposed to expire soon:

EI-EWR is an ILFC aircraft (scheduled lease expiry some time in 2007)
EI-CRK is an ILFC aircraft (scheduled lease expiry in July 2007)
EI-DUB is also an ILFC aircraft (scheduled lease expiry some time in 2008)
EI-JFK is apparently managed by Airbus Asset Management (scheduled lease expiry in August 2008)

I don't see the A332s (of which EI-EWR is one) going anywhere and it will probably receive a refit, but the 333s will probably be leaving. I'm not sure what the position with EI-ORD is. I understand that this acft is leased, but I'm not sure when its lease expires. Apart from 'DUZ, which will be delivered next month with the new configuration, I don't believe there are any plans to upgrade any of the older -300 aircraft (not sure about the -200s). I gather that the plan is to ditch (I'm presuming not literally!) the older 330s; DM has spoken has spoken of the possibility of two more A330s and with new routes to be added next year (plus no doubt inc. frequencies on current routes), there should be quite a lot of action on the 330 fleet over the next 2 years or so.

Deo Gratis the fore mentioned aircraft are owned by someone else....apart from EWR the rest are a little tired.

I think MAN could work for EI's new base. FlyBE is axing the old BaCon flight to MAD, so thats one route they could jump on! Add in some Eastern european routes and they could make money. They already have DUB and ORK flights, so they would have a/c / crew flexibility. I think they could also operate IAD (ex BD route), BOS, MIA, and SFO or LAX. BKK was supposed to be launched by TG, but hasnt materialised, so EI could jump on that too! EI talked about CPT ex DUB, but could also operate CPT ex MAN!