Aer Lingus - 6
 

Wanted the joy.

New thread for Aer Lingus :)

akerosid,

Still possible........Where is there an airframe available to operate the DUB-SFO?

1 in use on the MAD-IAD

Then there is the

DUB-JFK x 2
DUB-BOS x 2
DUB-ORD
SNN-BOS/JFK

Will they drop the 2nd daily flight to BOS, or operate it on the alternate days to SFO??

Not much wiggle room there to be honest.

This season BOS is 10 weekly.

For 2012 its loaded as daily so there is 4 slots available for an A330. EI could squeeze in SFO in they wanted to.

This is almost an exact repeat of a series of posts last week about fewer Boston rotations next year freeing up capacity for the west coast - why repeat the points again so soon?

Some people might have missed it, want to repeat it, or generally go around in circles much like what aer lingus does at the best of times! :ugh:

proof of the pudding will be putting more pilots on the 330 as they will need a heavy crew for the west coast. Whats the story fellas?

EI will have the extra pilots to do it. All the pilots in IAD are Irish and they will come back at the end of March to Dublin as EI are dropping IAD - MAD.

Is that definate, there has been conflicting stories about that.

Aer Lingsu now offering package hoildays with Click & Go.
link to website at end of Aer Lingus.com

Cheap Holidays - Holiday Deals | Aer Lingus Packages

If anyone at Aer Lingus reads this thread can I please ask that, if you are planning to operate EI052/EI053 (BFS-LPA-BFS) in S12, can you please schedule it to operate on a day of the week when DUB-LPA-DUB also operates (preferably Saturday) so that if you do have to start combining the flights, as has happened this year, the disruption is kept to a minimum. Thanks.

Aer Lingus to operate some charter flights on behalf of Topflight and Direct Ski.

Saturdays - Dublin - Salzburg - Cork - Salzburg - Dublin
Sunday - Dublin - Toulouse - Dublin

It is not know if Aer Lingus will also sell seats on board. THey will have there own Dublin - Salzburg as well as the above. Toulouse is currently seasonal.

Sorry if this has been asked before (I seem to remember some discussion in the past, but can't find it with a search): which routes are the A330-200s deployed on? I'm guessing one on MAD-IAD, one on DUB-MCO/DUB-BOS, and then one somewhere else? Are -200s reasonably consistently on the same routes or do they chop and change based on loads?

Thanks!
C.

The -200's usually operate the SNN routes as well.

To answer your second question - yes, the scheduling of the A330-200's is reasonably consistent. They cover MAD-IAD, DUB-MCO, EI139 DUB-BOS and SNN. The -300's are reserved for DUB-JFK/ORD and the 137 to BOS. Aircraft can be changed around for operational reasons now and again of course.

I heard a story that 7 cabin crew based out of Shannon have been sacked, and there is nothing the union can do about it. Something to do with minimum crew rest period. Anybody know anything?

The aircraft used on the MAD-IAD flights. are they in EI colours?

Yes the IAD-MAD-IAD flight is an EI A330-200 in EI colours with an EI and UA flight number. Operated by EI pilots and EI cabin crew who are based in IAD. The flights are handled by Swissport in IAD and by Swissport Menzies in Madrid. Seats are sold on both EI and UA websites.

Many thanks!

Same thing happend in Cork last year a few staff were told to take holiday leave until March i think around 20+ or so, a few were re-deployed to Dublin too. Same is happening this Winter.

Aer Lingus July passenger up 3% at 1,105,000 passengers.
Long Haul down 3%
Short Haul up 1.1%

EI regional passengers increased by 47.2% compared to July 2010.

Short Haul LF dropped 0.3%
(Short Haul capacity increasing by 2.6%)
Long Haul LF dropped 3%
(Long Haul capacity dropping by 0.5%)

This is first increase in passenger numbers that has nothing to do with weather/ash.

Also an Omni Air B767 arrived this morning with the EI passengers from Fridays cancelled BOS flight. EI-LAX suffered damage to the nose wheel during push back.

Couple of things Ive been told in the last day or so. -LAX is still in BOS. They are waiting engineers from Airbus to go out and inspect the front landing gear. The Omni air will be operating for a while.

The routes story is changing all the time. As well as MAD-IAD going, and the DUB-SFO starting, there is to be a reduction in the DUB-MCO route, for a return to...............DUB-DXB in conjunction with Qantas to SYD!!!

That has to be one of the best stories Ive heard so far! Compete with the 14 times a week service to AUH.

Anybody want to weigh up the pros and cons of AUH v DXB?????

Its only 10 weekly.

That would be needed to make the route work. Don't know what to make of it.

HA! What a rumour.

Sounds like the sort of thing someone in work makes up and then counts the number of days until they hear their own rumour spread back to them!

Until I'm sitting in the Cockpit and starting my pushback to DXB, I'll take that with a pinch of salt.

QF flying DXB-SYD, in competition with EK's 3 flights a day (on some days), and at a time when it's going through massive restructuring? Just don't see it happening. V Australia flies to AUH now (as a codeshare with EY).

This just doesn't ring true; the only way I could see EI flying back to DXB would be if they codeshared with EK; last time, EK wouldn't play ball, largely because EI didn't know its a*se from its elbow - inconsistent product, poor marketing, bad scheduling, but I don't see this happening either; I have always believed, rightly or wrongly, that EI's decision to fly to DXB last time was done solely to keep EK out of DUB,

This rumour just doesn't ring true.

MCO/ or DXB
 

Australia is pretty well served via LON/FRA/CDG/AMS/ the US, and never mind EY's operation via AUH. MCO is slimmed down for the winter. But given the turmoil in the likes of Egypt and how it's perceived by the public, sun spots for winter such as MCO may stay busier than expected.

If EI were to offer a 1 stop alternative with QF I would have suspected West Coast US and connect from there. Also keeps the contingent of US Companies operating in Ireland happy.

But then you never know!

Regards
Shamrogue

Out of all the rumours coming out of EI, that has to be one of the doozys!!

What is the loads on the MCO route like, and is there much of a drop in winter? I was always told that MCO was a great route for EI.

There is no drop for winter. Its 3 weekly year round with connections for the other 4 days.

As Jamie said its 3 weekly year round with connections for the 4 days it dosent operate a bit lazy for those of you who cant bother to check aerlingus.com which takes about 10 seconds...

I highly doubt Aer Lingus would reduce a great ancillary driven flight if anything you would expect increases in the MCO route as most flights are full and their partnership with American Holidays has proved seriously successful.

With their undervalued shares I'm really glad to hear of their three 'seriously successful' flights a week to MCO. That together with their recent ahem 'booked passenger' stats has me ecstatic.

Follow up to the EI Regional customer issue a few weeks ago.

Response from Aer Lingus and Aer Arann to the complaint I made about my treatment on their flight. | Leo the Geek's Blog

Reading the Aer Arann reply i seriously dont understand how they feel no further action is needed? unless of course a private settlement between the passenger and crew member involved has been made or if his claims are pure bull**it which i highly doubt, if anything the Aer Lingus reply seems acctually better even though it has nothing to do with them but their brand! Dreadfull for Aer Arann especially though no passenger should be treated in such a manner and i hope this complaint goes a lot further.

Assuming that Leo the Geek is being truthful, then Aer Arann have a lot to answer for...

New ATW story on EI and the A350s:

Aer Lingus CEO: A350 not ideal for carrier's transatlantic routes | ATWOnline

Bottom line: EI will take the aircraft, although they are overspecified for the airline's needs. Won't say how many will be operated and more than likely, will be operated side by side with A330.

I think we can take it from this that any prospect of switching to the 787 is out the window.

Looks like Airbus need to go back to the drawing board on the fuel efficiency issues as Emirates is probably one of its biggest Long Haul carriers (with orders) and with more airlines likely to join Emirates and Aer Lingus on their problems with its fuel efficiency their going to have to change it.

Emirates and Aer Lingus have slightly different issues with the A350, Mueller says the aircraft is over specified for their needs but it will be more fuel efficient, it's just simply too much aircraft for their current routes so one way of offsetting that is making it even more fuel efficient and lighter but that's a very EI specific problem, most other airlines, including Emirates say the A359 is a fine aircraft for their needs. EK has a problem with A350-1000 as it's currently overweight according to Tim Clarke, he wants it lighter and with more range so it becomes much closer to a 77W replacement which it will never be anyway.

So although both airline want a more fuel efficient aircraft (who wouldn't) their complaints are very specific to their own needs and Airbus can't build an aircraft to each and every airlines demands.

EI should of kept the 3 A330 that they had on order and not convert them to A350.

watch this space.....someone will grab the EIN 350 orders and in turn EIN will pick up more A330s at bargain base prices in lieu. 330 suits EIN down to a tee re perf/economy/range/reliabilty/GE engs.....changing aircraft types for a small airline when they have had the continuity of a previous type they were happy and continue to be happy takes its toll. My money is on they off load the 350 orders on favourable terms and snap up more 330s

"EI should of kept the 3 A330 that they had on order and not convert them to A350. "

These three aircraft were converted to 350 orders, for delivery in 2017+; I think the reason they were converted to 350s was that EI didn't want them for the time they were originally supposed to be delivered (2012/13), so the best way to put them on the long finger without losing their deposits was to convert them to 350s and move them out.

Yes, the prospect of selling the A350 delivery slots is attractive, particularly as the aircraft is doing so well. However, in saying what he has said, hasn't CM effectively committed EI to taking them. Maybe they might take 3 or 4 and sell the rest on.

Is there any indication of how long it will take to convert from 330s to 350s? The cockpit photos I've seen of the 350 show some significant differences from the current types, but I guess the Airbus philosophy will be pretty much the same, so if you're 330 qualified, you're 80-90% there, as far as converting is concerned?

Can the runway in Dublin handle the A350?

A350 should be ok and hopefully by then DUB will have its new runway.

By 2015?

No way will there be a new runway by then; the new runway plan has been deferred and we probably won't see it - if we ever do - this decade.

However, the current 10/28 should be fine for A350 use.