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

Apparently an engine issue on EI-FNG, looks like it was its first flight since 07 April so had a few days downtime.

Nobody in Iceland to service the engine so maintenance team being sent on the A320. Doubt it’ll continue to BOS, more likely to carry passenger back to Dublin unfortunately.

EI moving to T7 in JFK, will probably kill a lot of B6 connections as airside isn't possible now, you'd need to traverse the absolute cluster that is JFK security & possibly recheck your bags.

Replacement EI lounge for T7 is the old BA Concorde Lounge.

Suspect B6 will use the existing EI lounge for their transatlantic Mint product.

Not sure what the relationship is like, but I do suspect that B6 haven't launched service to DUB yet because of the tie up, if they've kicked EI out of T5 then I'd say you'll see that route before long.

I’m not sure it would to be honest, at least not in the immediate term or to any great effect. While B6 has a fantastic product, it’s currently very niche and anyone expecting the likes of Aer Lingus to suddenly spring into action and dramatically alter their inflight product in response will be left disappointed.

Firstly, Aer Lingus is lazy, there’d need to be a seismic shift internally for them to consider a total product overhaul. The transatlantic product, in both classes, is pretty much in line with everyone else in the market, give or take a few details. We’ve seen before that the crowd moves together and it would take a lot for Aer Lingus to deviate from that path.

Secondly, at present B6 doesn’t have the capacity or the network breadth to force fundamental changes at any of the incumbent transatlantic carriers. It’ll be easier for them to make an impact at DUB due to its smaller market but with just 138 seats on their A321LR they’ll need at least double daily straight out of the blocks on both BOS and JFK for Aer Lingus to feel their arrival, wingtip to wingtip speaking. Even then, we’re more likely to see Aer Lingus and others compete on price before considering matching aspects of their product.

Lastly, the long term aspirations for B6 across the Atlantic will likely see them drawn into one of the alliances, there would be anti-trust hurdles to overcome of course but they’ve already got extensive partnerships with a number of carriers including Aer Lingus and American Airlines.

B6 would be a very welcome development for passengers but I think their potential impact on the market and rival airlines might be slightly overstated, at least for their short to medium term prospects.

EI123 returning to DUB with a birdstrike. EI-EIK is the frame involved, all traffic currently holding!

I’m fairly certain I saw FNG at the south gates just 10 mins ago! Think it arrived back from KEF this morning?!? (Could have been FNH mind)

FNG did file to return as EI996 but didn't fly

DAA is still in Toronto

EIK should be fixed quickly as its home base a spare engine should be on hand ready to do if the inspection shows damage

G-EIRH is on the ground in MAN, wonder if that could used as a 330 is now on MAN-JFK

FNG filed for KEF-DUB tonight

G-EIDY possibly gone tech in Manchester as well, the Orlando service was cancelled today.

It was done in February with an EI frame when the G one was on a check. So much simpler before Brexit though!

If it it was safe to fly back from KEF then it should be safe to get back into traffic. The engineers were flown up to resolve the issue with it. Probably on the Faro as it can be checked when’s back into DUB after two relatively short sectors.

The EI 330s take a pounding in peak summer season, so it’s inevitable that they will go tech from time to time.

Jesus talk about bad luck.

What happened to EDY ? It was doing crew training in SNN this week for UK ops.

The next A320neo for Aer Lingus appears to be in the early stages of assembly in Toulouse, the tail was reported at the Beluga delivery shed last weekend.

Yes, appears to be one of the four direct orders currently outstanding on the Airbus books.

Yes it did.

A few points about this.

Thomas Cook went bust due to legacy debts from the holiday company side of things, and before going bust publicly stated the MAN long haul was profitable, and right to the end was still expanding. They also had interline agreements with JetBlue and Alaskan, as well as SAS and Lufthansa going the other way which was also building a decent following. The long haul arm was one small piece of a bigger puzzle, so assuming the company going bust was directly linked to the long haul flying isn’t quite the full, nor correct story.

monarch was essentially a charter outfit on long haul, which also happened to sell seat only, so not sure any assertion can be made based on that.

As for the US carriers, United pulled out due to a spat over reduced fees around covid. A stupid decision by MAN but one they now live to regret, but if you search Google, you can see quotes on Feb 2020 stating how strong MAN-EWR was for UA and there was public talk of a second route being added. American were due to come back last June, but like SNN and EDI, B787 delivery delays put paid to that. And Delta, that’s essentially Virgin in disguise so one could argue they do serve MAN

as for MAN ‘not being the bonanza we expected’, as already mentioned, the Aer Lingus fleet is severely constrained, so I don’t think the lack of MAN new routes can be blamed on the market conditions of MAN specifically. The fact they have shipped an A330 from DUB to MAN and sent the smaller A321 the other way speaks enough volume as to the bases performance, after all they could have left the UK A321 where it was and upgauged a DUB route instead. But they didn’t, they sent it to MAN.

I think we need to be patient with MAN and avoid jumping to conclusions about its longevity. The Aer Lingus fleet needs to expand to enable growth. They are clearly happy with the performance given it’s still operating, many on the Irish forums thought it would be a one season wonder, so it’s already outlasted many naysayers as it is.