Thinking more 2018 - 2020

The DAA due to submit a new planning application this year.

Since the above:
Aer Arann will now look into it further. They met with the affected passenger on Friday and agreed to look into the incident further and get back to him within a week.

Looks like blatant homophobia to me. That cabin crew won't last long in the airline industry if that is the case.

RTE now reporting that Aer Lingus has had talks with SFO, SJC, OAK and LAX about opening a route there from DUB possibly as soon as March 2012.

Aer Lingus may resume flights to California - RT News

I think RTE has just picked up this Irish Times story.

Does that mean subsidise? If yes, I'm very happy to see this. I always though airline subsidies should have been paid on important international routes as opposed to a route that has negligible benefit to the economy i.e LDY - DUB. (Especially when government officials used private jets when they'd travel anyway!?)

Hopefully, if DUBs runway does go ahead by the end of this decade as Jamie suggests, perhaps well see this "fund" being used to subsidise a route to one of the eastern powerhouses, Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong, after all the Irish Government cant depend on America solely for its future!

Think a San Francisco-Dublin-Bangalore flight would be the IT industry's dream route, both in the US and Ireland.
Routes to Asia have got be on the agenda in the coming years.

I think that DXB rumour is laughable, talk about wishful thinking.

SFO sounds more plausible, it has a good demand, has the option of connection out of SFO to Pacific destinations. And if EI schedule it right the DUB-SFO will depart in the afternoon and be up to 50% full of transfers from the European arrives. Latest stats from EI says 34% of their total long-haul pax are transfers.



In relation to the earlier question I have also heard that EI has sacked 6-8 cabin crew. (Not sure if it is a dull crew) Apparently they were on a badly delayed (>7 hours) flight SNN-BOS which resulted in them getting to the hotel in NYC at 0300 local. (SNN crew work SNN-BOS, then fly to New York in order to operate the following days JFK-SNN. The SNN-JFK crew do the opposite) They insisted they were entitled to 18 hours rest, EI said 12 hours was all they could get. EI crews usually get 20-24 hours in US, with a reduction to 18 in delays. The crew were suspended on their return to SNN.

Turns out the recent LRC ruling doesn't make reference to USA rest periods in disruptions, so EI have sacked them as an example to their other cabin crew. Nice.

Then after all that, its not happening!

Aer Lingus will not resume flights to US west coast · TheJournal

What american carriers hubs are LAX and SFO?

I suppose the bean counters in Lingus-Towers are offsetting any revenue gained on a direct US west coast flight against the transfer/loss of revenue on services to primairly LHR, JFK or ORD that the new service would cause due to the transfer/loss of interlining pax on those routes.

Pitty, as a former semi-regular on the LAX service from its inception up to around 2006, the load factors always seemed quite healthy.


JAS

West Coast hubs
 

United Continental has a hub at SFO. LAX is much more mixed, or was the last time I was there. In a 2 hour period today, Skywest had 15 arrivals, United Continental 16, Southwest 11, American(+Eagel) 17 and Delta 11

So in the papers this morning a person from EI said decision would be made soon after they see if the service would be profitable.

A few hours lather they say they will not fly West coast.

Something doesn't add up. You don't just say a decision will be made soon and then come out and say you will not fly the route a few hours lather.

I think this is Aer Lingus trying to get the media off there back. They knew they had to make a statement on the matter and they couldn't say they are going to fly the route when they don't know yet so they just said they would not fly the route.

Just a spotter; this idea is all fine and well assuming no other carrier will look at this link, ie if an american company came in with a direct daily flight it would be overall a lost opportunity.

Aer Lingus need as a strategic way get after developing connectivity between Dublin and the USA to enable tranfer connections via to Dublin to/from UK and EU airports especially the airports with no direct service.

KLMs have achieved something great in terms of connectivity at AMS, no reason why EI cannot achieve this via DUB T2...

EI-BUD

Aerlingus deny reports that it's going to resume West Coast operations into Dublin according to today's Irish Examiner. Dublin Chamber of Commerce very disappointed. Maybe the DAA should talk to a US operator.

Well all the execs at the USA carriers all ave grass roots to Ireland most probably so will cater for Aer Lingus and supporting their heritage.

(if you'll pardon the joke embedded in to that sentence).

Well said EI-BUD. Aer Lingus will have a profitable SFO service if they continue to develop DUB as a transatlantic hub offering connecting flights between their European and US destinations.

You know I remember clearly this was the plan when the Fokker 50 was introduced to support the SF340s and we're twenty years down the line and the long haul network isn't a whole lot bigger.
OK more aircraft but it's still a core Chicago, Boston and New York point to point with Florida holidays having come into the picture.
I think they manage to get come degree of connectivity on price to fill the aircraft that the local market supports but I think it's fair to say, the guys up front paying top dollar haven't been enticed in sufficient numbers.

You can't build a hub beyond your local market without that sort of cross subsidy alas.

There is an important variable here not considered. Top Dollar? Significantly more than Y fares, yes - but no longer the yields Aer Lingus sustained on the West Coast routes during the now, almost long forgotten, years of plenty.

Roundtrip fares to the US West Coast with EI approached EUR 5,500 return in the then Premier cabin. At the time of closing the route in 2009, EI were down to offering pro-active upgrades to fill the forward cabin, at values some 25% of more off their peak.

Premium revenues on a US West Coast route, would average at least 30% less per passenger, than when the route was previously operated. EI are not in a position to command anything higher than that - given the intense price competition ex DUB with regard to the forward cabin, current market conditions, current price/demand equilibrium etc.

Strong volumes are important - revenues proportional to volume are critical, yield is king.

EI Premier

Does anybody know what is the story at BFS with EI tonight?

Lanzarote and Heathrow running late with 2 planes on stand up to 7. LHR took off at 1845 leaving Lanzarote to go. However, next aircraft due in is 2035 from LHR (obvioulsy will be late) but another 320 EI was on approach at 705, did LHR come back or is there a diversion????

I see Lanzarote is showing at cancelled (the return) perhaps the crew would be out of hours, perhaps the plane coming in is one to be in in time for the morning from Dublin to ensure whole schedule goes to schedule?


EI-BUD

flight EI 0045 is cancelled due to operational reasons. That will leave only 2 planes overnighting at BFS tonight so something will have to be cancelled in the morning unless another aircraft positions up from DUB but i dnt think they have a spare aircraft to cover delays as i think all aircraft are utilised from DUB.