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

Don’t really follow if that’s pilot error or not - if it is, would the pilot face disciplinary action?

The BA event was close, but no tail-strike occurred.

Chicago flight ei 123 cancelled for the second day running

Heading to the states in a few weeks, just seeing how many of the ex Qatar planes are still in use transatlantic? Praying I won't be on them!

Sunday's EI134 BOS-SNN cancelled, wonder if this is related to the tailstrike incident. Wonder if they wet-lease something for few months over winter / spring as they must have sold out those US flights with the super cheap fares recently.

Barbados starts over the winter so assume this absorbs the aircraft.

Not great if they are reducing ex Manchester. Loads are very hit and miss !

I wonder how JFK will do in the winter now that it is on the A330, it’s a big aircraft to operate in winter when loads are light on New York after Christmas

The biggest problem for Manchester is fleet flexibility, with no growth there’s no economies of scale and no ability to adjust depending on the season or varying demand.

Ideally JFK would go back to an A321LR this winter but they don’t have enough narrow-body capacity and there’s also the added complication of separate operating licenses for the UK subsidiary ie. each aircraft needs to be re-registered.

Average loads are respectable, 60-70% with school holidays close to full but this lags behind Dublin and there’s a lack of consistent demand. They really are just keeping the pressure on Virgin Atlantic most weeks who themselves see some poor to average loads outside the peak.

Aer Lingus’ long term fleet plan pre-IAG expected to operate 12 A321LR by now, then the take over happened and 7 were ordered, this was topped up to 8 shortly afterwards. Another 6 XLR were ordered with deliveries from ‘24-25 onwards. That’s still only 14 narrow bodies as we head towards the 2030s, way behind the original plan. Even when you take the pandemic into account, the scaling back of their original growth plan is disheartening.

The overall fleet is still lingering around 50 or so aircraft, 8 years after IAG takeover.

All this might seem irrelevant in the short term when you consider the maintenance shortages and industrial issues but in the long term it means Aer Lingus isn’t growing as quickly as it should and is potentially missing out on new opportunities, particularly across the Atlantic.

Pilots are refusing to operate outside normal working hours - HOW DARE THEY!?!?!?

I think Mr Dunne's 16 years in Ryanair has given him brain freeze. He is not used to crew having actual terms and conditions and trying to use a thinly veiled threat against crew.

The bigger issue is that he basically admitted that they can't crew their operation unless pilots work outside their normal days off. They would normally deny that they are under crewed.

Also, so much for the official company policy of disconnecting outside of normal working hours.

Not working on your off days is your right. What planet is the COO living on? He's refusing to take responsibility for a failure that he is partly responsible for. Failing to have enough staff for the amount of flights they are operating. Perhaps he should reconsider his position for failing to achieve such a basic requirement of the airline.

It's grim to see that old culture from Aer Lingus management rearing its ugly head again. They've always been worryingly quick to blame staff for their own shortcomings.

I'm sure most people will be able to see straight through those excuses from the COO but the lack of solutions or meaningful engagement from management means this will drag on into the winter where the schedule quietens down and they can ignore it again for a few months.

If the operation is struggling because people aren’t willing to do voluntary overtime/additional duties then you don’t have enough people and/or you’re not paying them enough to make it worth their while.

Viewing employees as a resource to be exploited/milked only works in the short term, long term the pain and problems outweigh the financial benefits and ultimately hinder financial performance. We only need to look at Boeing in recent years, once the gold-plated, greatest name and employer in the business. Then the MBAs and penny pinchers took over, and the brain drain commenced.

Even Ryanair quietly realised this pre COVID in many areas.