Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

WishUWereHere

goingnowhere wrote: »

SAS have there own problems, came very close to folding a few years back

Thanks, but are they now in a more stable financial situation?

Locker10a

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Thanks, but are they now in a more stable financial situation?

Yeah, I wouldn’t consider SAS unstable at all, Norwegian yes, but not SAS, last year they opened new bases in London and Spain and this apparently had a lot of teething issue and created operational disruption for them but hopefully this summer that’s ironed out for them

Locker10a

WishUWereHere wrote: »

As far as I know TAP are only starting tomorrow ( April 1). But they are going to fly twice per day. We went to Lisbon late last year for a break - flew out with Ryanair, & back with AL.

In our opinion, AL were poorer than Ryanair, so if there is one to drop out ( cannot see TAP stopping before they even start & they are - I guess - mainly targeting the South American travellers ) I guess it will be AL.

Whatever happens, Lisbon is a fabulous place for a break.

I can see tap perhaps reducing capacity, they have a sub fleet of smaller Embraer jets operated by Tap Express, who’d be ideal for shuttling connection passengers onto Taps long haul network.
EI operate from both DUB and ORK, and FR from Dublin. Guess we’ll wait and see. EI May reduce their DUB flights but it would depend on their connecting traffic

Elaine762

Locker10a wrote: »

I can see tap perhaps reducing capacity, they have a sub fleet of smaller Embraer jets operated by Tap Express, who’d be ideal for shuttling connection passengers onto Taps long haul network.
EI operate from both DUB and ORK, and FR from Dublin. Guess we’ll wait and see. EI May reduce their DUB flights but it would depend on their connecting traffic

I agree with you. I wouldnt see aer lingus pulling the route. They have been operating it for much longer than Ryanair and certainly tap.
And no, Tap started lis-dub exactly today.

WishUWereHere

Elaine762 wrote: »

I agree with you. I wouldnt see aer lingus pulling the route. They have been operating it for much longer than Ryanair and certainly tap.
And no, Tap started lis-dub exactly today.

Apologies, when we were there they were advertising on tv/in the airport they were starting in April. Sorry, not meaning to contradict You.

I will admit 6 flights a day is no mean feat to fill. Can only be of benefit to the public.

VG31

Locker10a wrote: »

I can see tap perhaps reducing capacity, they have a sub fleet of smaller Embraer jets operated by Tap Express, who’d be ideal for shuttling connection passengers onto Taps long haul network.

I was on the first TAP flight today from Dublin and I reckon the load was around 90%.

kevinandrew

Elaine762 wrote: »

Rumours that LIS has overcapacity at the moment and that one airline may pull out or frequencies may significantly reduced. At the min are up to 6 flights per day to LIS among Ryanair Aer Lingus and Tap.

Very early for rumours like this, seems they pop up the minute a new airline arrives on an already well served route. Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels to name a few... 

Aer Lingus often send the A321 to LIS and appear to have very little problem filling the 212 seats required! The arrival of TAP with its twice daily service (potentially over confident) will obviously put downward pressure on yields and 6 daily flights accross three airlines is clearly a bubble waiting to burst but I'd be very surprised to see an airline pull out. 

I think a lot of these rumours come from bored staff within a certain airline.

john boye

kevinandrew wrote: »

Very early for rumours like this, seems they pop up the minute a new airline arrives on an already well served route. Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels to name a few... 

First thing I thought too. The first TAP flight had barely left and already there's "rumours" that one airline might have to pull the route. And how could there be rumours that any one of the 3 airlines on the route will have to pull out? Would the rumours not relate to a specific airline if they existed?

GFrye

A319er wrote: »

EY off to BOD maintainance today, perhaps premier cabin reconfigure?

One can always hope...
I have a DUB-IAD flight later this year, and while it initially showed the regular EI cabin layout and I was able to book a throne seat, it recently changed to showing the QR cabin layout.
If EI-GEY does indeed get the new cabin, I'm guessing all A332 aircraft will have the regular EI C class layout. Unless EI leases another aircraft from QR, that is...

Locker10a

GFrye wrote: »

One can always hope...
I have a DUB-IAD flight later this year, and while it initially showed the regular EI cabin layout and I was able to book a throne seat, it recently changed to showing the QR cabin layout.
If EI-GEY does indeed get the new cabin, I'm guessing all A332 aircraft will have the regular EI C class layout. Unless EI leases another aircraft from QR, that is...

Another poster mentioned already that the reason for the continued delay refitting EI-GEY isn’t to do with time but a shotage of parts or cabin fittings needed to complete the update.

adam88

Mokuba wrote: »

I was on the Miami flight in November and it was perhaps 20% full. I have never seen any transatlantic flight so empty.


Surely say, Las Vegas, would be a more popular route for them?

Last November we went to Vegas threw Gatwick with virgin. We flew ei from dub on a 321. At least 60 percent transferred over to the virgin flight. I know this cause they had buses laid on to take ya directly to the virgin gate

Locker10a

adam88 wrote: »

Last November we went to Vegas threw Gatwick with virgin. We flew ei from dub on a 321. At least 60 percent transferred over to the virgin flight. I know this cause they had buses laid on to take ya directly to the virgin gate

60% of an EI a321 is about 127 passengers.
Not exactly enough to fill a direct flight to Vegas and I doubt it’s that high every day.
The Virgin connection bus is standard for meeting the early EI flight from Dublin

alancostello

Locker10a wrote: »

60% of an EI a321 is about 127 passengers.
Not exactly enough to fill a direct flight to Vegas and I doubt it’s that high every day.
The Virgin connection bus is standard for meeting the early EI flight from Dublin

That’s also just a single flight though, you’ve got countless others connecting on BA, KLM, AF, LH, let alone the LHR Virgin flight too, and I would imagine a ton are using the numerous American carriers and connecting domestically as well. A decent portion of AA’s new DUB-DFW flight is probably Vegas goers. A direct flight would certainly be made use of, it’s not such an outlandish idea.

Tenger

adam88 wrote: »

Last November we went to Vegas threw Gatwick with virgin. We flew ei from dub on a 321. At least 60 percent transferred over to the virgin flight. I know this cause they had buses laid on to take ya directly to the virgin gate

Direct to the gate?

Ive connected from EI to Virgin at Gatwick. The bus takes you to a transfer area. All connecting pax are together regardless of final destination.(My experience was 2 buses, one for BA, one for VS)

salmocab

Is the issue with Vegas not that it couldn’t fill a couple of flights a week but that it would strand air crews there for 2/3 nights at a time? As in fly in Saturday afternoon but they obviously can’t do the return leg so would need to stay until the next flight which would probably be Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon? That’s my understanding of it.

California Dreamer

Imagine if -GEY was to operate a flight to LAS!!! That would truly mess with people’s heads!!!! 😛🧐🤨😋

BonnieSituation

California Dreamer wrote: »

Imagine if -GEY was to operate a flight to LAS!!! That would truly mess with people’s heads!!!! 😛🧐🤨😋

Not to be a dunce here, but can I ask why? :O

Noxegon

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Not to be a dunce here, but can I ask why? :O

I suspect the original poster is referring to the fact that both topics come up approximately once a week and have done for a while now

basill

Vegas is the US version of Tallacanti. Attracts a certain "type" of price sensitive passenger. Cargo? J class? Its a low yielding point to point flight that ties up an airframe (possibly 2) and would never go daily so will also be inefficient on crewing. Best leave it to the Brits and get some cash off the connections. Or go to LAX/SFO and grab a short connection and avail of CBP, however, most don't and are happy to fly back on themselves which reinforces the price sensitive point.

BonnieSituation

Noxegon wrote: »

I suspect the original poster is referring to the fact that both topics come up approximately once a week and have done for a while now

Thanks.

Vegas !...........again.........really ?! Looks at watch, yeah it’s been about a week alright.

GFrye

Noxegon wrote: »

I suspect the original poster is referring to the fact that both topics come up approximately once a week and have done for a while now

I'm new to the party here, so I apologize for not reading all 415 pages first.

It's just that the situation with -GEY is a bit frustrating when it comes to choosing seats. For example, 3K is a throne seat and one of the best seats for a single traveler, but in the QR configuration it's a window seat with no direct aisle access. If I knew for certain that my flight later this year will be operated with the old QR config, I'd switch to a seat in the middle section. But I'm reluctant to change it now since I'm still hoping that I won't be on a flight with the QR config.

BonnieSituation

Noxegon wrote: »

I suspect the original poster is referring to the fact that both topics come up approximately once a week and have done for a while now

Ah grand. Even with my lurking here I've seen GEY constantly come up. I obviously got lucky with the lack of notice of the LV conversation.

Locker10a

GFrye wrote: »

I'm new to the party here, so I apologize for not reading all 415 pages first.

It's just that the situation with -GEY is a bit frustrating when it comes to choosing seats. For example, 3K is a throne seat and one of the best seats for a single traveler, but in the QR configuration it's a window seat with no direct aisle access. If I knew for certain that my flight later this year will be operated with the old QR config, I'd switch to a seat in the middle section. But I'm reluctant to change it now since I'm still hoping that I won't be on a flight with the QR config.

We know !

adam88

Tenger wrote: »

Direct to the gate?

Ive connected from EI to Virgin at Gatwick. The bus takes you to a transfer area. All connecting pax are together regardless of final destination.(My experience was 2 buses, one for BA, one for VS)

We were walked down stairs and directed onto a bus. The attendant was holding a virgin sign and was looking for the Vegas passengers. We were brought to a building (terminal) got new boarding passes and walked to the gate. There was two if not three of those airport shuttle buses and they were full

Hotblack Desiato

GFrye wrote: »

It's just that the situation with -GEY is a bit frustrating when it comes to choosing seats. For example, 3K is a throne seat and one of the best seats for a single traveler, but in the QR configuration it's a window seat with no direct aisle access. If I knew for certain that my flight later this year will be operated with the old QR config, I'd switch to a seat in the middle section. But I'm reluctant to change it now since I'm still hoping that I won't be on a flight with the QR config.

You can avoid all this turmoil by booking in economy

billy few mates

Absolutely no chance of Aer Lingus operating flights to 'Lost Wages' now that Conor McGregor has retired, they'd never ever fill it now....

Also I don't understand what all the fuss is about the so called 'throne seat'. I've flown EI business class a number of times, old config, new config, throne seat, double seat and it really makes no difference it's just a "single seat" but by calling it a throne seat it seems to conjure up images of some super dooper throne where you can laud it over the peasants with no claim to the throne. It's just a seat...

Jamie2k9

billy few mates wrote: »

Absolutely no chance of Aer Lingus operating flights to 'Lost Wages' now that Conor McGregor has retired, they'd never ever fill it now....

Also I don't understand what all the fuss is about the so called 'throne seat'. I've flown EI business class a number of times, old config, new config, throne seat, double seat and it really makes no difference it's just a "single seat" but by calling it a throne seat it seems to conjure up images of some super dooper throne where you can laud it over the peasants with no claim to the throne. It's just a seat...

Not sure they would be looking for McGregor type clientele

Tenger

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Not sure they would be looking for McGregor type clientele

If the person has the money EI will accept their booking, nature of business.

goingnowhere

billy few mates wrote: »

As is about the so called 'throne seat'. I've flown EI business class a number of times, old config, new config, throne seat, double seat and it really makes no difference it's just a "single seat" but by calling it a throne seat it seems to conjure up images of some super dooper throne where you can laud it over the peasants with no claim to the throne. It's just a seat...

But its the best seat bar none, huge amount of space, no neighbour, window and isle, lots of storage around you.

Trust me sit in 3K and then try 6H on the 330-200 say SFO DUB, its big difference for the same ticket.

alancostello

goingnowhere wrote: »

But its the best seat bar none, huge amount of space, no neighbour, window and isle, lots of storage around you.

Trust me sit in 3K and then try 6H on the 330-200 say SFO DUB, its big difference for the same ticket.

For me the throne seats have such a tight footwell compared to other seats. The closer-to-window seats on the left are my top pick, plus you’ve a greater likelihood of actually getting them.

Stimpyone

billy few mates wrote: »

Absolutely no chance of Aer Lingus operating flights to 'Lost Wages' now that Conor McGregor has retired, they'd never ever fill it now....

Also I don't understand what all the fuss is about the so called 'throne seat'. I've flown EI business class a number of times, old config, new config, throne seat, double seat and it really makes no difference it's just a "single seat" but by calling it a throne seat it seems to conjure up images of some super dooper throne where you can laud it over the peasants with no claim to the throne. It's just a seat...

Always called it the Captain Kirk seat myself.

BonnieSituation

Which plane is this layout on? Super curious now for a gander.

MJohnston

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Which plane is this layout on? Super curious now for a gander.

It's on the SFO route, so whatever flies EI 146/7 - I think it's usually -GAJ and -GCF.

I'd definitely call it a throne seat too - on an overnight, transatlantic flight especially, there's nothing better than not having to (a) get up to let someone go to the loo or (b) have to get past someone to get up to go to the loo. Especially with all the free wine they give you!

California Dreamer

MJohnston wrote: »

It's on the SFO route, so whatever flies EI 146/7 - I think it's usually -GAJ and -GCF.

I'd definitely call it a throne seat too - on an overnight, transatlantic flight especially, there's nothing better than not having to (a) get up to let someone go to the loo or (b) have to get past someone to get up to go to the loo. Especially with all the free wine they give you!

There is direct aisle access on all EI TA flights except -GEY

goingnowhere

Not quite the 2/4/6K seats are window without direct aisle access

SFO alternates between -200 and -300, but if its a -300 which it is on busier days of the week it MUST be GAJ or GCF as they have the crew rest fitted and hence have 4 fewer seats than the other -300

The entire A330 fleet bar Ei-GEY has the throne seats at 3k and 5k

As has been pointed out the foot well in 3k/5k is a bit tight, so if you are tall its probably not for you on an overnight flight but for a daytime its awesome.

The infinite booze supply is nice at the start but once you have done multiple flights you quickly cap it at single glass, its easy spot the newbies in business class.

MJohnston

California Dreamer wrote: »

There is direct aisle access on all EI TA flights except -GEY

No, there is no direct aisle access on the even-numbered K seats.

Edit: whoops, goingnowhere got there before me.

MJohnston

goingnowhere wrote: »

The infinite booze supply is nice at the start but once you have done multiple flights you quickly cap it at single glass, its easy spot the newbies in business class.

I avoid it completely at this stage, but I also try to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated on these flights, and that's usually just as bad for the loo trips.

I know it seems first-world problems esque, but I'm so bad at sleeping on red-eye flights that I try to make sure that every possible little obstacle to sleep is eliminated, and having to fuss over disturbing other people to use the loo is one of those little problems! When you've been traveling for work and you're coming back on EI 146, it's a disaster to not get some sleep.

cson

Y'all know the price of the 'free' booze is baked into the ticket? So you're technically paying for it?

blackwhite

cson wrote: »

Y'all know the price of the 'free' booze is baked into the ticket? So you're your employer is technically paying for it?

FYP

A319er

I believe it's more accurate to say inflight free drink is paid for by your employers customers, !

Anyway

EY is in BOD and ER is in AUH both maintainance, with ASL 737 in daily use EI are a bit tight for frames, is first A321lr still due in July? EIS on MSP?

A long summer ahead !

goingnowhere

EI-LBR is also on the ground somewhere

A319er

BR is AOG in BDL , ah well thank god for spare frames !!
The grounding of the MAX will make it very difficult to sub in the usual frames e.g. Titan HiFly etc .

cson

LBR is falling apart interior wise, flew to IAD at Xmas on it. Those A321LRs can't come quick enough.

alancostello

cson wrote: »

LBR is falling apart interior wise, flew to IAD at Xmas on it. Those A321LRs can't come quick enough.

As far as I'm aware EI-CJX will be the first to go next year, as it is the oddball of the family with RR engines. IIRC from the fleet plan LBR/S/T should be gone by 2021.

kevinandrew

A319er wrote: »

I believe it's more accurate to say inflight free drink is paid for by your employers customers, !

Anyway

EY is in BOD and ER is in AUH both maintainance, with ASL 737 in daily use EI are a bit tight for frames, is first A321lr still due in July? EIS on MSP?

A long summer ahead !

The ASL 737 (EI-STA) did two returns for Aer Lingus last weekend, one to Frankfurt and one to Munich which was followed by Titan G-POWV (A321) doing a single Munich. Titan has done similar runs in previous weeks, G-ZAPX (757) did a Frankfurt rotation on St Patrick's Day followed by G-POWN (A321) doing another Munich rotation a few days later. It's working out at about 2-3 rotations a week, so not massive but that was before the summer schedule kicked in, with that being said I haven't seen any so far this week.

As for the A321LR delays, more airlines are reporting small delays such as Air Transat and even standard A321neo aircraft are coming off the line quite slowly with TAP, easyJet and Wizz all experiencing some sluggish deliveries. Not sure how much I'd trust Airbus revised schedules but that would just be my own opinion. I think Aer Lingus and Airbus are confident on the first one arriving in time for a start date in August (Hartford) but the second not so much. The remaining two for this year are still due in the Autumn/Winter but who knows what delays they might face, hopefully none. 

MSP was always third or fourth down the list for A321LR service anyway, it was Hartford, Montreal and Philly first.

Tenger

A319er wrote: »

................. EI are a bit tight for frames, is first A321lr still due in July? EIS on MSP?

Original plan was A321LR on BDL from 1st July. Delay means it wont be in service until Aug 1st. MSP is launching before this on the B757.

Jamie2k9

4 of 9 A359s transferred to Iberia. Didn't see that coming.....

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/iberia-takes-over-orders-for-four-aer-lingus-a350s-457264/

L1011

Most of us probably assumed all 9 would be!

Bussywussy

Surely rest converted to A330 options with 2 new ones coming