This is an EI thread lets try and keep posts related to EI, whether its north or south of the border

Aer Lingus have finally set up an official Facebook page and interacting with people though social media. All they need now is t*witter, they must be one of the last airlines to develop social media pages. Its a good and easy way to deal with passengers.

the best way is to provide decent service at a reasonable price

diversions such as social meeja are just money wasted

EI goes Virgin
 

Right then, so Lingus have picked up the Virgin SH contract and will shortly be reconfiguring a few aircraft to marry up to the Virgin product.

This is a fairly major coup for the airline, or at least it seems so. As they have had over capacity for some time now.

Whats happening with recruitment? Will we see some movement on this front, or will it be filled with existing crews via night stopping etc....???

They will be crewed from Dublin as far as I know. They are currently taking.on crew in Dublin. The second notice for crew is up on the website.
FYI aer lingus are not over capacity there fleet will be increasing as a result pf VS deal.

I was under the impression that cabin crew would be based on fixed term contracts working for a third party a la Ryanair at Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Heathrow. No?

Cabin Crew - UK Bases with Storm McGinley Support Services | 463693

Do you want to hear a good rumor? I heard this one today as I failed to get a picture of a visiting Falcon 2000. EI are to send some folk out to Abu Dhabi in order to source a few more A330 aeroplanes! :eek:

That's one to set the pulse racing if you are from Dublin or snn!

Mabye but whwn I heard it was before the deal was announced so it could of changed. Aer Lingus will have to advertise the jobs on there website or VS one (havn't checked VS one) sooner or lather and all they have on there website is crew at DUB and this is the second time they have being advertising for crew at DUB.

Anyone know if the cabins will be much different to current Aer Lingus setup? I'm not expecting Virgin America but I'd imagine they'd Virginise it somehow.

EI can still make money by allowing their customers to book flights on BA’s LHR-BHD/DUB (if that’s still not enough, BA should have a revenue agreement with EI on LON-IRE) Also I am not calling on EI to simply “give/hand over” their LHR/LGW slots, but “sell” them to BA, that would give them enough money for them to buy back at least some of FR’s stake in the airline Also BA is not EI’s “competitor” they have been partners for several years (although it has declined in recent years) and I doubt London-Dublin/Belfast/Cork/Shannon are their most profitable routes, mainly due to the high amount of competition on those routes, their “biggest routes” are Dublin-USA I would imagine

Even though when the EU bailed them out, they were required to sell “state assets” like their stake in EI, also they also have to implement spending cuts at the same time, which would be partly eased though the proceeds from the sale of their stakeLHR is full; BA needs to launch additional medium/long-haul routes to help compete with LH/LX/OS/SN and AF/KL/AZ (along with several others) and EI is one of the biggest holders of slots at LHR (who operate on routes already served by BA)

Now that BD has been folded into BA, there are not many “major” owners of slots left, so they have to buy some from other (and smaller) slot holders

I don’t have much spare time in the first place, otherwise I would be responding to posts individually, rather than do it all at once

The reason I want BA to do well is that they (for better or worse) are the main medium-long haul carrier for the UK (despite what SRB thinks), now the UK is in a pretty poor economic state and what hampers it even more is that compared to our nations in Mainland Europe and the Middle East, the UK is lagging behind in terms of flights/connections to Asia, South America, Africa and other areas in the emerging world, in fact we even fall behind in terms of Domestic connections as well, KLM, LH, AF and even United serve more UK destinations that BA

This is important since we need those connections when it comes to trade, the problem is that there is a lack of space at LHR (which all the airlines want to use) to launch those flights, so we would have to rely on flying to those overseas hubs (thus sucking money out of the country)

This is why I want BA to expand at LHR, LGW and LCY (until R3 opens at LHR, after that they should leave as soon as possible), because since there is little chance of expansion for the time being, because we need to make the most of what we have got and to do that BA needs to increase the number slots it holds at those airports (towards the 70% limit or maybe push it even higher)

Remember Lufthansa owns 70% of the slots at FRA (which can deal with more flights than LHR), a similar number at MUC (which can deal with more flights than LGW) and and ZRH (which can deal with more flights than at MAN or MAD or LCY), and remember, they also have fairly large bases at DUS, VIE, BRU and TXL as well, not only that but they also have close partnerships with TK, which brings a large (and growing hub) at Istanbul and large bases at Ankara, Antalya and Izmir and LOT, which has a hub at Warsaw and a fairly large base out of Krakow

AF-KL also hold’s around 60% of the slots at both Paris airports (Orly and CDG) and Amsterdam as well, not only that but they have focus cities in Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rotterdam and London City (for now…), they are also close partners with AZ, who have a fairly large hub at Rome...

BA on the other hand has 52% of the slots at LHR (which can handle fewer flights than at AMS, CDG, MUC and FRA) and 20% of the slots at LGW (BA also holds around 40% of the slots at LCY, which is a small Premium O&D airport), sure they have Iberia/Vueling which has a large hubs at Madrid and Barcelona, but the problem is that the financial performance of those operations is awful and Spain is going though substantial and numerous political/economic problems

Unlike LH and AF-KL, BA don’t have much in the way of partners in Europe, only Air Berlin and they are on the way out (either BK or moving to ST)
You can see what BA has to face and what it needs to do to meet those challenges…

You, then state “does BA need to operate as many flights as it does to JFK every day”, well they do, firstly the premium/business customers need it and want it and BA can provide it (hence TATL is very profitable for them), that is why they pushed for a ATI with AA as soon as Open Skies came into force

However you are missing the point, why you should be asking is why should BA choose between serving TATL (which is highly profitable) or the emerging markets (which are profitable, but less so that TATL, but there is potential for growth)? Why not both markets, I mean LH/LX/TK/OS/SN/LO and AF/KL/AZ do not have to choose, they can (and do) serve both markets rather well

What BA really needs in the long run is 2 additional runways at LHR, only then will LHR (and BA) will be able of fix the problem of capacity, enough to match FRA and MUC combined (once it gets a 3rd runway)

And frankly, I haven’t even got to Qatar Airways, Eithad and Emirates in all of this

Now I don't want to get into the whole debate over NI...

When I mean "Ireland" when dealing with aviation, I refer to the Island of Ireland, which consists of Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Irish Republic (which is independent)

I did this for pratical reasons and the fact the Northern Ireland maket is closer to the Irish market than the rest of the UK (EI have a base in Belfast for a start)

They have been rather quiet on the matter, but I am hoping they do a decent job at it...

You raise a good point, I totally agree with you when you say that BA should just stop flying to and from Ireland so that they can use the slots else where to do their long haul routes.

This would help EI increase their yields on the DUB - LHR market which would be good for BA because they're so close to EI, and if EI make more money this must be good for BA.

That was your point right? :rolleyes:

My ultimate point is that either BA pulls out of LHR-DUB/BHD and enters into a close relationship with EI over these routes (codeshare/FF/Interlining etc) or EI sells the LHR slots to BA

Either one will be good for both airlines, even if FR fails to takeover EI...

FR have already failed to take over EI - the state will not sell its stake which means it cannot get to the compulsory level required. They're also barred from another bid for a significant enough period now under (Irish) Takeover Panel rules.

They will be back once the period ends, they could improve their offer towards the Irish Government, who couls use the money for a start (less austrity for the people of Ireland), if not then they can buy up all the other stock and then EI (75% owned by FR) can agree to "sell" all their assets to FR and wind itself up, then FR can set up a "new" EI (100% owned by FR) and do whatever it wants with it

Also did the EU state the Irish Government had to sell state assets as part of the bailout?

BALHR

The Irish government do not have to sell EI under direction from EU, it is at their discretion.

FR may or may not go back, only MOL and board of FR will know what their intentions are. MOL may decide to cut his losses, as most parties are not in his favour, yes the Irish government could raise funds to aid the state but the proceeds from the sale of EI would be a drop in the ocean towards the overall scale of the debt etc.

Furthermore, getting approval from the EU is only one hurdle crossed. Irish government have said clearly a big no not for selling their holding and I would anticipate the that staff share holding will be a similar response, as the staff would in the main not prefer FR to control the company. Further down the pecking order is Etihad, who may also not wish to sell but if FR did takeover their shareholding my be of less interest to them depending on which direction FR would take the company.