Aer Lingus Fleet/ Routes Discussion Pt 2 (ALL possible routes included)

I do like Paul’s trip reports and he seems like a very nice guy and not in your face like some of the people that do trip reposts. However he does walk around with a go pro on a stick kind of thing and you can see in other trip reports the crew/ passengers which is against EI policy. The policy does state images/videos personal to the passenger are permitted so if he chose to just video the seat, food, out the window and himself that would be perfectly fine.

Fair play to EI for enforcing their policy correctly,and sometimes sternly. People who choose not to listen to the instructions are often the ones who feel most aggrieved when talked to directly about their choices.

EI are not alone in that policy of no videoing. On recent internal Scandinavian flights with both SAS and Norwegian, the no videoing statement was part of the safety brief.

I was on a recent KLM AMS-DUB flight where the crew announced it is illegal (in the NL) to photo or film someone without their permission, not sure if they announce it on every flight but seems to be the way the industry is going.

The Polaris lounge would be night and day to what EI would offer and that's an important component of long haul J.

I can only see BDL back if the Connecticut State offer a competitive scheme to support the route to build up to the previous daily operation. In relation to the A332's anything can happen certainly with demand, SFO is generating huge demand this Summer, EI may increase from 7 to 10 weekly.

I don't see MSP returning until the XLR becomes available, the A330 is simply too big in Winter.

I can see a return to BDL at some point but it will need a few things to fall into place first. The airport and local government are desperate to reinstate a transatlantic service.

I believe BDL was a decent performer by the time the pandemic came around, it certainly wasn’t the weakest in terms of average fare, even with a relatively short stage length so along with the added incentives it must have been good earner.

Aer Lingus will likely want a completely new incentive deal and revenue guarantees, lasting a number of years before they consider relaunch. BDL have already pumped a lot of money into it, they’ll be reluctant to start from scratch so some tough negotiating is likely.

Aer Lingus also need more narrowbody aircraft, at the moment that doesn’t seem likely in decent numbers until 2024 and beyond. They could free up some with more A330s of course, up-gauging the IAD and YYZ routes for example. There’s also the future of Aer Lingus UK to consider, if it continues to grow it’ll require that second A321LR but if it’s scrapped, that’ll free up 3 aircraft.

As far as I’m aware, these are the aircraft that have left the fleet since 2019;

3 A320: EI-DEA, EI-DEB, EI-DEC

3 A321: EI-CPE, EI-CPG, EI-CPH

2 A332: EI-EWR, EI-LAX

Total: 8*

*Another 3 A332 remain in storage, EI-GEY, EI-DAA and EI-DUO, it’s unclear whether they will return to the fleet or not.

Speculative Total: 11

Since the end of the peak summer 2019 schedule they’ve added the following aircraft to the fleet;

7 A321LR: EI-LRB, EI-LRC, EI-LRD, EI-LRE, EI-LRF, EI-LRG, G-EIRH

(EI-LRA had already been delivered for the peak summer 2019 schedule)

4 A333: EI-EIN, EI-EIM, EI-EIK, EI-EIL

Total: 11

So overall the actual total fleet number is the same, if we include the speculative loss of all 5 A332s, or a gain of 3 over summer 2019 if they return.

Now since 2019 we’ve seen the creation of Aer Lingus UK which has taken on 3 aircraft but this remains within the group operations.

I assume the XLRs will start arriving from end of 2023 for 2024 use? Good time to buy some a330neos for future replacement too... AirAisaX (the airline that pretty much forced Airbus to build it) has cancelled 60+ as part of their reorganization. For the routes EI fly the neos seem comparably efficient to the a350s for the 7-9hr flights.

Update: Leeham News says Airbus may already have customers for the cancelled frames... IAG maybe? Time will tell.

What's the story with the fleet repaints taking so long? It has to be the slowest rebrand in airline history. Its over 3 years since the rebrand and I Count only 10 out of 41 aircraft in the fleet that wore the old livery that have been repainted to date, ignoring the rugby/retro livery aircraft. The remainder were delivered to the airline already wearing the new livery. Surely they could have used the time the A333s were in storage to repaint them.

Wasn't one of them retired late 2018/early 2019? LBT perhaps? (guessing as I have a bag tag made from her skin that I bought in early 2020).

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