North America flights

WishUWereHere

Hi all

I just wonder something: Just checked on Flightradar & noticed there are 36 flights landing in DUB from North America today. Averaging at 250 per plane means there are 9,000 incoming passengers, which imho is great - more the merrier I say.

I saw a comment a few days ago where someone mentioned passengers per flight. This got me wondering how are North American routes doing? Anyone have any idea on the load factors?

Locker10a

They’d all be basically full this time of year

EchoIndia

Some of these passengers (especailly on EI) will be transiting to the UK and Europe rather than staying in Ireland.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122478663#Comment_122478663

I was astonished at the amount of American passengers on our flight to Naples back in June, it must be a real moneyspinner for Aer Lingus.

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122478109#Comment_122478109

Oh but they’re not. I flew ATL-DUB last Monday on Delta. They operate an A350-900 and it had about 100 empty seats according to a member of cabin crew. I was centre aisle and had the three seats to myself. Same for the lady behind me.

Locker10a

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489431#Comment_122489431

Very Lucky!!

For you that is, not the airline.

Outside of Xmas week, this should be airlines busiest travel period.
So many empty seats would be very unusual

cson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122486800#Comment_122486800

The like of MSP, CLE, BDL etc aren't for O&D traffic at all, they're to shuttle Americans back & forth to continental Europe. Essentially a marginally more civilized version of what PLAY/Icelandair do.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122496301#Comment_122496301

Sorry, too many acronyms🤔

goingnowhere

MSP Minneapolis–Saint Paul Airport

CLE Hopkins International Airport

BDL Bradley/Hartford Connecticut Airport

O&D Origin and Destination, people who fly direct from A to B

The point is Aer Lingus has leveraged a few things

1. Geographical position you have to fly through Irish airspace to get to the US, so no flying the wrong way to get to your destination
2. Avoid the stress of changing planes at LHR/CDG/FRA/AMS etc, Dublin is extremely simple
3. Pre-clearance
4. Low fares as Aer Lingus is mainly a leisure focused carrier it has a high seat/plane ratio compared to legacy carriers like BA who are over indexed on business travel

lintdrummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497282#Comment_122497282

First three are airport codes: Minneapolis St. Paul, Cleveland and Bradley (Hartford Connecticut). O&D is origin and destination. Basically cson is saying that these particular routes are primarily operating to facilitate passengers who are not travelling to Dublin as a destination, rather they are transiting to other European destinations. I believe the Aer Lingus flight to Cleveland is the only non North American route operating from that airport.

I met some Cleveland locals who were delighted that their "international" airport was finally living up to it's name. They had booked a trip to Ireland for a very competitive price. But most of the passengers on this route are probably transiting to Rome, London, Amsterdam etc. It saves them from travelling to Chicago for a direct flight or connecting through JFK etc.

NSAman

This time of the year is very very busy. How Aer Lingus can remain competitive with the fare charges in the States I do not know. Economy is averaging 2500$ from Chicago. A simple VPN hack drops that back to a very affordable price. The average person booking wouldn't know this though.

I have to say, the service Aer Lingus Provides currently is pretty bad compared to before the take-over. While the Staff themselves are ok and good for the main part, the hard product is very poor.

My flight back to Ireland from the States was full. One of two on a daily basis from AL.

Unfortunately, the one thing that is not keeping Americans in Ireland right now is lack of accommodation and also the prices.

flyer_query

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122486800#Comment_122486800

And as per other posts a lot of these are transit passengers so don't spend any time outside the airport.

Which raises a question for me that I know lots on this corner of the web don't like to hear. Should we be expanding our airport and increasing our carbon footprint to facilitate transfer passengers,

• Pretty much all of these transit passengers are doing so via EI, IAG is no longer a state asset / has interests of state in mind. What happens if IAG change their strategy and decide to have EI / BA filter their UK passengers through a UK airport onwards to the states?
• Reality is Dub is getting a lot of UK passengers transit due to their tax on long haul flights which is avoided by transiting through Dub, what happens if UK government change this / Ireland match it and then all of a sudden its no longer cheaper for UK passengers to transit via Dub.
• Dublin airport at the edge of our bursting capital is not in an ideal location to keep expanding <controversial, round up the forks!>.
• Yes it provides jobs but we are at full employment and the airline industry is one which trends the economy so there is no guarantee that this will continue.
• US exchange rates and positive state of US economy for middle class is big driver of their European trips. Both of these can change quickly and materially.
• Whats the future of aviation, oil is running out, businesses are finding new ways of doing business that doesn't require travelling.
• Contrary to the above, planes continue to become more efficient and longer range etc, so in time what happens when Naples has the direct flight to where you were coming from and a dublin stopover is just a nuisance to be avoided for passengers?

I just feel these arguments need to be discussed and risks highlighted. Its tax payers money after all that is being spent and plenty of north dublin people inconvenienced by flights.

Acknowledge that transit passengers is not a huge number, but its still a very material number and a driver of exceeding the cap and a driver of material investment in dublin airport.

I await being told i am an idiot. Posting this on here is like telling a farmer that you have a vegan point of view.

dublin12367

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498769#Comment_122498769

Nobody is or should call you an idiot for having a question or an opinion.

Transit passengers may not seem important or of much benefit to the Irish economy on first glance.

On a closer look, they are vital for a number of reasons.

One of the reasons , Irelands population is around the 5m mark. We are an over achiever in our route network available to the US for such a small island, albeit not so much for long haul eastwards. Many of these transatlantic routes would not be possible without the transit passengers and therefore wouldn’t operate at all from Dublin without them. They open many connections to the Irish.

To comment on a few of your other points.

Dublin airport has plenty of room to expand, just look at it on the map. They could almost double its current size with the land available between the two parallel runways.

The airport is not expanding and building infrastructure just for transfer passengers. There’s plans to extend T1/2 amongst a number of other areas. It is expanding for all airlines needs. Not just for Aerlingus and not just for Ryanair.

Transfer passengers aren’t necessarily causing the airport to breach their cap. The cap is outdated and unique to Ireland, in fact it’s unique to Dublin and it will probably be removed in the coming year or so.

A few, and I emphasise the word few, residents inconvenienced by flight paths is not a reason to not expand a capital city airport with huge demand. They knew exactly where the airport was for the last 80 odd years.

In summary, the airport has plenty of room to expand, it’s not expanding just for transfer passengers but for all of the airlines needs using Dublin.

3d4life

"And as per other posts a lot of these are transit passengers so don't spend any time outside the airport…."

Indeed !

Perhaps another aspect of the same carryon :

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5141234-warning-for-anyone-connecting-out-of-dublin-to-fly-to-usa-dont-be-me