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

Correct, IIRC they were abandoned during the reign of a certain COO when the general shortage of staff and everything else meant that a lot of passengers weren't getting their order.

and the first run is probably 630am to 1030, not huge demand for lunch items.

Is the 321LR going to be running any European routes outside LHR this winter?

I wonder if we’ll ever see the XLR now, there doesn’t seem to be any investment, no sign of a new wide body investment, same boring service, pushing ground operations to breaking point with taking on BA/IB/VY and now also AA in the autum.

It looks like there will almost certainly be some cuts now as a result of the weakening demand (which the airline will of course conveniently blame on its incredibly greedy workforce of cabin crew, ground staff and pilots). Lynn saying that the review will include "a look at weaker parts of the airline" which I would imagine means the thinner NA routes and some of the new European destinations they've launched. She explicitly called out Cork and Shannon as well so likely to look there again for further cuts in flights etc. Wouldn't be surprised to see them give an ultimatum to Cork-based crews to move to Dublin "or else". A convenient way for them to downsize that base and make up for shortfall of crews in Dublin.

Aer Lingus faces bill of at least €55m over pilots’ industrial action – The Irish Times

In fairness the airline has already stated that they’re experiencing tougher competition across the Atlantic which is affecting revenues. Whether we like it or not, increasing staff costs aren’t going to make those battles easier and will be a genuine factor in any potential cuts.

As for Cork and Shannon, Aer Lingus has failed miserably at both airports but in particular Cork. They were the largest airline at Cork for many years but never managed to diversify the network and make it work, many attempts were made (Brussels, Lisbon etc.) but failed. The A320s were too big, the costs too high, the product too mediocre. Post pandemic Ryanair has leap frogged and filled the spaces Aer Lingus left behind while AF-KL go from strength to strength on their routes.

Cork is a small scale example of the much bigger problem at Aer Lingus short haul, its stagnant and too reliant on summer sun, they repeatedly admit when claiming how seasonal the business is. If you believed Aer Lingus management, you’d think we never leave the house from October to March!

This has all been overshadowed by the roaring success of the North Atlantic but now that’s facing pressure we’re going to see just how weak the current strategy really is outside of June, July and August.

A regional jet sub-fleet, operated by a wholly owned subsidiary or another franchise partner should have been explored a decade ago in my opinion.

It’s been clear for many years now that a one size fits all approach to short haul wasn’t working, especially as they tried to grow the DUBHUB project. Every other network carrier in Europe has a diversified fleet to support their hubs and smaller bases.

It would have been expensive for sure but the long term consequences have been a shrinking network, a collapse in market share at home bases and a transatlantic network that is nowhere near reaching its potential. The latter is obviously impacted by limited facilities at DUB and now the cap but that’s a convenient excuse now.

Willie Walsh was the CEO of IAG at the time of the purchase of EI, maybe that was more of a personal pet project of Willie's and now that he is gone IAG don't really know what to do with EI anymore? It also fits in to the timeline when he left IAG roughly aligns with the time EI started to lack direction.

EI made its biggest ever profits under Kavanagh and Doyle underpinned by IAG economies of scale.

The place has gone backwards rapidly under Embleton.