Aer Lingus Fleet/Routes Discussion

Aviation2K16

Jack1985 wrote: »

No planned EIS in the system yet. 4 NEO's in operation not required until Monday 16th March.

Thanks-Seen SNN was meant to have 2 based from 04 March when they start to operate the morning LHR as well. It must have been pushed out.

Jack1985

Aviation2K16 wrote: »

Thanks-Seen SNN was meant to have 2 based from 04 March when they start to operate the morning LHR as well. It must have been pushed out.

Apologies you are correct, 4 NEO's required from 04/03. EI-LRD takes the honour of entering service on this date operating EI111 SNN-JFK.

Again this may change.

Tenger

I look forward to this info being posted without attribution over on Facebook........

Aviation2K16

Jack1985 wrote: »

Apologies you are correct, 4 NEO's required from 04/03. EI-LRD takes the honour of entering service on this date operating EI111 SNN-JFK.

Again this may change.

Do you know if LRD will operate SNN-LHR that morning as well?

LXFlyer

I see a little rejigging of the sequencing of the Aer Lingus flight numbers is going taking place when the summer timetables kick in from March 29, using free numbering that was previously used for domestic routes.

The North America west coast flights will change as below:

DUB/LAX/DUB - EI145/144 to EI069/068
DUB/SFO/DUB - EI146/147 to EI061/060
DUB/SEA/DUB - EI142/143 to EI053/052

Incidentally, the basic pattern of Aer Lingus flight numbering was established by former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald when he worked for Aer Lingus donkey's years ago.

MJohnston

LXFlyer wrote: »

DUB/LAX/DUB - EI145/144 to EI069/068

Nice.

pm.

LXFlyer wrote: »

I see a little rejigging of the sequencing of the Aer Lingus flight numbers is going taking place when the summer timetables kick in from March 29, using free numbering that was previously used for domestic routes.

The North America west coast flights will change as below:

DUB/LAX/DUB - EI145/144 to EI069/068
DUB/SFO/DUB - EI146/147 to EI061/060
DUB/SEA/DUB - EI142/143 to EI053/052

Incidentally, the basic pattern of Aer Lingus flight numbering was established by former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald when he worked for Aer Lingus donkey's years ago.

I'm on dub to lax on 31 march will I be on one of the newer 330s?

California Dreamer

pm. wrote: »

I'm on dub to lax on 31 march will I be on one of the newer 330s?

You could get probably predict the lotto numbers better!

pm.

California Dreamer wrote: »

You could get probably predict the lotto numbers better!

OK lol thanks

Shn99

Aviation2K16 wrote: »

Thanks-Seen SNN was meant to have 2 based from 04 March when they start to operate the morning LHR as well. It must have been pushed out.

SNN already has 2 based A321NEOs, JFK started back on the 13th of February. A321NEO is starting on the 4th of March

Jack1985

Aviation2K16 wrote: »

Do you know if LRD will operate SNN-LHR that morning as well?

It’s not planned to.

Aviation2K16

Shn99 wrote: »

SNN already has 2 based A321NEOs, JFK started back on the 13th of February. A321NEO is starting on the 4th of March

Its just part based. EI-LRC was split between DUB / SNN this week. The second one is permanently based from 04/03. The schedules had to be adjusted for 3 weeks due to LRDs delayed delivery. This week will also see one of the NEOs split between SNN / DUB.

Tenger

pm. wrote: »

I'm on dub to lax on 31 march will I be on one of the newer 330s?

I’m guessing that you have a good chance. SFO is mostly operated by the 2 newest -300s. (GCF & GAJ) LAX is being upguaged to a -300 for the Summer season. So I’m guessing that both SFO/LAX routes will be a mix of these 2 and the 2 imminent deliveries (EIM/EIN)

pm.

Tenger wrote: »

I’m guessing that you have a good chance. SFO is mostly operated by the 2 newest -300s. (GCF & GAJ) LAX is being upguaged to a -300 for the Summer season. So I’m guessing that both SFO/LAX routes will be a mix of these 2 and the 2 imminent deliveries (EIM/EIN)

With a bit of luck. Thanks for letting me know

kevinandrew

Jack1985 wrote: »

Final A321neo EI-LRD positions from XFW to DUB, Thurs 27/02 (subject to change).

EIN2395 XFW1130-1240DUB 32Q EI-LRD

Final? So the remaining four have been binned?

goingnowhere

Due production delays unlikely we will see the other 4 in 2020

Tenger

goingnowhere wrote: »

Due production delays unlikely we will see the other 4 in 2020

Another factor might be EI realising that maybe that 3rd fuel tank would have been a good idea in the first place. So I’m guessing the next 4 will have that as standard.

billy few mates

LXFlyer wrote: »

I see a little rejigging of the sequencing of the Aer Lingus flight numbers is going taking place when the summer timetables kick in from March 29, using free numbering that was previously used for domestic routes.

The North America west coast flights will change as below:

DUB/LAX/DUB - EI145/144 to EI069/068
DUB/SFO/DUB - EI146/147 to EI061/060
DUB/SEA/DUB - EI142/143 to EI053/052

Incidentally, the basic pattern of Aer Lingus flight numbering was established by former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald when he worked for Aer Lingus donkey's years ago.

What's the significance of the decision to change these flight numbers or why would they even bother...?

EchoIndia

billy few mates wrote: »

What's the significance of the decision to change these flight numbers or why would they even bother...?

They are running out of available numbers within the existing blocks. As mentioned above, the numbering system was designed in a completely different era and the variety of destinations now served couldn't really have been envisaged at that time.

LXFlyer

billy few mates wrote: »

What's the significance of the decision to change these flight numbers or why would they even bother...?

It’s about creating bigger blocks for regions and allowing for more North American expansion.

Aer Lingus flight numbering was designed by Garret Fitzgerald in the 1950s in sequenced blocks of numbers and has been virtually unchanged since that time (with some small exceptions).

The reason I posted it is that, while it’s a relatively insignificant change that most people wouldn’t even notice, for anyone interested in scheduling it’s a clear reflection of the growth that the airline is experiencing.

As the airline grows, the numbering sequence blocks need to change and expand and my post was a nod to the original (very clever) system that was developed back in the 1950s.

West North America is now sub-100 (which was originally kept for domestic flights & more recently recently Belfast flights)

East North America is 100-148

That allows for expansion next year as the fleet expands while keeping sequences in place.

Tenger

Similarly the European flights used to be numbered in sequence. (UK 2xx, Heathrow 1xx, France/Spain 5xx, Germany 3xx, Benelux 6xx, Italy 4xx etc,)
But growth over the last decade has caused spillover.

Aviation2K16

EI-LRD is currently up in the air around Hamburg completing its first flight ahead of delivery. Operating under the german reg D-AVZP.

Plane Mad

EI-EIM has just popped up on Fightradar24 as EI-2641.

MICKEYG

LXFlyer wrote: »

It’s about creating bigger blocks for regions and allowing for more North American expansion.

Aer Lingus flight numbering was designed by Garret Fitzgerald in the 1950s in sequenced blocks of numbers and has been virtually unchanged since that time (with some small exceptions).

The reason I posted it is that, while it’s a relatively insignificant change that most people wouldn’t even notice, for anyone interested in scheduling it’s a clear reflection of the growth that the airline is experiencing.

As the airline grows, the numbering sequence blocks need to change and expand and my post was a nod to the original (very clever) system that was developed back in the 1950s.

West North America is now sub-100 (which was originally kept for domestic flights & more recently recently Belfast flights)

East North America is 100-148

That allows for expansion next year as the fleet expands while keeping sequences in place.

Thanks for the info. Just wondering what operational benefit is it to have the flight numbers aligned like this.
Could they just not add new flight numbers ad-hoc?
Not trying to be difficult but I am interested in who benefits from aligned numbers and/or the downside of the current numbering.
It is the same number of numbers available either way.

Jack1985

Plane Mad wrote: »

EI-EIM has just popped up on Fightradar24 as EI-2641.

Regular EI637 BRU-DUB holding behind EIM for departure - rare sight!

FR206

MICKEYG wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Just wondering what operational benefit is it to have the flight numbers aligned like this.
Could they just not add new flight numbers ad-hoc?
Not trying to be difficult but I am interested in who benefits from aligned numbers and/or the downside of the current numbering.
It is the same number of numbers available either way.

The sequencing brings rhyme to the reasoning in flight numbers. Eastbound departures are comprised of even numbers and conversely westbound departures are oddly numbered. In addition to this, flights numbers pertaining to the same routing / point-to-point are generally numbered in sequential blocks which helps capture frequency of services. I.e. you will observe in high frequency routes that flight numbers ascend as the day progresses.

Taking your typical DUB-LHR daily schedule will kick off with the 152 early morning service ex DUB and as the day goes on each LHR flight will be numbered 154/156/158/162/164...178/184/186. Meanwhile the alternating services from LHR to DUB sequence from 149/151/153...175/177/179 etc.

You will see likewise across the network such as 602/4/8/610 for AMS. On thinner routes with just 2 services a day (morning and evening) you can observe that the morning departure is numbered at the lower end of the block whilst the late evening one is higher. I.e. morning Berlin rotation is 330/1 whereas the evening one is 338/9 - arguably having logical scope to add addition frequencies during the day within the block. Bucket and spade routes have similar convention applied such as FAO/AGP/PMI which may have seasonal frequency and capacity changes.

North American flights have a noteworthy exception to the ascending flight number practise as the corresponding return flight back to Ireland is the lower consecutive number I.e. 105 DUB JFK returns as 104 service the same day (local time). I would theory that this is to capture the local time offset for GMT as the inbound service (often landing next day GMT) has occurred prior to the departure of the daily outbound in UTC. The ascending flight number convention for departures isn’t compromised by this. I.e 137/139 for morning and afternoon BOS bound flights which conversely return to Dublin as 136/138 respectively.

kevinandrew

EI-EIM has arrived home in Dublin.

It features the same cabin as the other newer A333s, so all over green and not grey/beige and lime trim like the A321LR which is a shame as I thought that was going to be the new standard.

sherology

kevinandrew wrote: »

EI-EIM has arrived home in Dublin.

It features the same cabin as the other newer A333s, so all over green and not grey/beige and lime trim like the A321LR which is a shame as I thought that was going to be the new standard.

Weird... Shame (with all the cost/effort with brand/repaint/uniforms)... Hoped this was the final piece of the jigsaw... But thanks

Tenger

I guessing they want a standard cabin on their A330s. (standard ish)
Maybe the slimline seats are designed for the narrow body?

EI321

Most new widebodys of other airlines have slimline seats. I find the ones on Uniteds 787-10 to be quite uncomfortable.

To be honest I'm not a fan of the lime green piping, it reminds me of a cheap set of car seat covers from Halfords. The plain green seats will probably age better. I like the idea of an Irish tweed style pattern on the seats but I dont think the colour combo that was picked on the A321LRs works well.