Three more east European destinations for Aer Lingus

[newscaster]

Poland (Warsaw) and Croatia (Dubrovnik) are the two eastern routes that they will be flying to as well as Berlin SXF in Germany which was also eastern for some time. EI's first market in this region was Czech Republic (Prague) launched in 2002.

[akerosid]

Six more routes are expected to follow for 2005 and these may include more eastern European destinations. Krakow has been mentioned as a possibility. All but one of the nine new routes will be operated by 737s (Dubrovnik gets a -400, the others, -500s). EI's return to ZRH will be operated by 320s.

There have also been rumours of a possible long haul service to Singapore.

[newscaster]

I heard South Africa <Cape Town> is also on the cards, any chances of them starting service to North Africa and the Middle East?

[akerosid]

The big problem with regard to more long haul flights is that EI has been unable to reach agreement with its crews about various issues relating to ultra long haul flights: crew bunks/rest areas, breaks between flights and number of pilots per flight (EI wants 3, IALPA wants 4).

I feel EI's attention will, by necessity, be diverted to the east as the EU/US negotiations drag on. There is little chance (despite what had been hoped) that new US flights can be added this winter, which was one of the reasons cited by EI for dropping plans to serve CPT this Winter. Word also has it that SAA has its eye on Dublin, so if EI doesn't get its act together . . .

EI has, this month, begun the process of reviewing its long haul fleet and given that the s/h fleet went Airbus - hardly surprising - the smart money would be on more A330s for l/h. However, if EI wants more US access before an EU/US agreement is reached, maybe the US would be prepared to offer this, subject to a Boeing contract? It's all up in the air at the moment, as the Irish government seems to have returned to its normal paralysis on air transport issues.