News on Aer Lingus?

[Winkiepinkie]

Reading in this weeks 'Flight' there is an article on Aer Lingus reviewing their wide and narrow body fleet.

I know they had a bit of financial trouble a few years ago and their sponsorship suffered as a consequence, but I was wondering if there was talk of them opening up a new pilot sponsorship. Aer Lingus and BA were the only ones to offer full sponsorship.

Anyone with their ear to the ground know anything?

Thanks, w.

[My names Turkish]

I wouldnt claim to hve an ear to the ground, but I have been speaking to my Uncle who is a recently retired A330 Captin with Aer Lingus and I would say that the answer to your question is a very firm No.

As you have said they are reviewing there Narrow body fleet. The long and short of it as I understand is that the Bae 146 aircraft will get the chop and they are going all Airbus. Among the benefits of this are ease of conversion of pilots from one type to another and maintaining aircraft from one Manufacturer.

The Problem with this for us Wannabees is that this will result in a surplus of pilots. From what I understand there are 49 to be chopped. Some of these have been offered jobs as Cabin crew or contract work. I also understand that most of the Aer Lingus Cadets that were let go from the ast cadet scheme got jobs elsewhere, but there were some that went back to college or the careers that they were in before they joined Aer Lingus. I think they would have preference, before any cdet scheme was started.

Aer Lingus is aso a very different animal from what it was even two or three years ago. They are a Ryanair wannabee and has become a much more streamlined business than it was. It can no longer be propped up by the Government when it makes a loss, due to the EU.

So when you add all these things up its looking highly to say the least! I think if you read WWW opinions on BAs' Cadet program I think you will find many similarities(I Cant find the thread, maybe he could comment here?). If the Aer Lingus scheme ever returns it will be very different from what it once was. In my opinion more like a CTC cadet scheme. I stand to be corrected on any of the above.

[fintan]

I would agree with MNT Aer Lingus a deffinite no for the time being anyway.

The 146's have already being chopped late october last year, with i think 46 odd pilots no flown since or have neither been retrained on the replacement airbus due to some union dispute.

Also their due to phase out a few boeings which could leave a further few pilots to be retrained or redeployed.