Looking at the TAF’s around Ireland this morning and its getting fairly windy! I’m flying LTN-KIR this evening and the KIR TAF has BECMG 29028G48KT between 1300 and 1500. Anyone know the wind limits of the 737-800? I’m getting a smidge twitchy.

Isn't Kerry behind the mountains about the best protected of the runways on the western coast

leghorn wrote:

Isn't Kerry behind the mountains about the best protected of the runways on the western coast

Mountain waves are a big problem

Flybe flight to Belfast forced to divert due to suspected 'technical fault'

The flight had been due to arrive in Belfast this evening

A Flybe flight travelling to Belfast this evening has been forced to divert to Scotland following a suspected 'technical fault'.

The BE480 flight from Manchester to Belfast City Airport left at 4pm but had to divert to Glasgow Prestwick as a precautionary measure.

A spokesperson for Flybe confirmed the aircraft then landed safely in Scotland.

In a statement the airline said: "Flybe can confirm that the captain of the above flight took the recommended action following a suspected technical fault en route from Manchester to Belfast City Airport and, as an additional precautionary measure, elected to divert to Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belf ... t-14164841

KIRFlyer wrote:

Looking at the TAF’s around Ireland this morning and its getting fairly windy! I’m flying LTN-KIR this evening and the KIR TAF has BECMG 29028G48KT between 1300 and 1500. Anyone know the wind limits of the 737-800? I’m getting a smidge twitchy.

So tell us, how rough was the ride into Farranfore?

mast2407 wrote:

KIRFlyer wrote:

Looking at the TAF’s around Ireland this morning and its getting fairly windy! I’m flying LTN-KIR this evening and the KIR TAF has BECMG 29028G48KT between 1300 and 1500. Anyone know the wind limits of the 737-800? I’m getting a smidge twitchy.

So tell us, how rough was the ride into Farranfore?

Rough! The roughest landing I’ve ever experienced in a 737-800. There was lighting as we were coming into approach. We landed during a sleet shower, so there must have been a CB nearby the airfield! Once we landed, everyone clapped. The pilot deserved it. It was excellent flying.

Aside, because of Ryanair’s new carry on rules, the overhead bins were pretty light. Any bags that were up there, you could hear moving around!

KIRFlyer wrote:

Rough! The roughest landing I’ve ever experienced in a 737-800. There was lighting as we were coming into approach. We landed during a sleet shower, so there must have been a CB nearby the airfield! Once we landed, everyone clapped. The pilot deserved it. It was excellent flying.

Aside, because of Ryanair’s new carry on rules, the overhead bins were pretty light. Any bags that were up there, you could hear moving around!

That sounds sporty! The 738 tends towards "positive contact" at the best of times!

I have seen a lot of media coverage of the new baggage policy, Im not flying FR until April, so hopefully things will have settled down by then. As usual words like "cabin baggage banned" and "cough up a fiver" are being bandied about the UK media. (It seems to be their new favourite word, BA have also "banned" reclining seats). As far as I can tell this is just a formalisation of the earlier policy whereby 90 trolly bags were allowed in the cabin, after that the bags were tagged. Priority Boarding always guaranteed both bags in the cabin with you, but there was a chance that if you boarded early you would get to keep your kitchen sink with you. Since yesterday you are guaranteed to have the sink gate-checked, I think? My guess is that they will need less gate staff and boarding will be much quicker.

Clearly FR are working through a number of ways to keep OTP high and a sensible amount of baggage out of the cabin. The frequent rule changing is a bit of a pain, but at least they are actively trying, unlike BA, for example, who actively encourage inordinate amounts of hand luggage and make no effort to police allowances, boarding priority or any of the boarding process really. The result is, inevitably, chaos.

Flying FR on the palindrome flight DUB-BUD on Saturday night....curious to see how this will be handled by the gate agents. I'm non-priority, so I'm guess my cabin case will be tagged into the hold at the gate.

Did they have the outgoing passengers out in the elements in the cattle pen during the sleet as you entered the terminal in Kerry or did they show them some mercy.

You can't blame Ryanair for making their policies a bit stricter. On every Ryanair flight I have been on recently, a number of people have abused the 'one small bag and one smaller bag' rule, bringing two relatively large suitcases into the cabin and trying to stow them in the overhead bins. Therefore space is at a premium on the bins, PAX are walking up and down the cabin trying to find a space to stow their bags and turnaround is slower.

Skyblue39 wrote:

Flying FR on the palindrome flight DUB-BUD on Saturday night....curious to see how this will be handled by the gate agents. I'm non-priority, so I'm guess my cabin case will be tagged into the hold at the gate.

Nothung has changed, the only difference now is Ryanair have the power to deny you boarding if you refuse to put the bag in the hold if requested by the crew. Not all non priority boarding bags will get on the aircraft which happens now and the new measures are there to punish passengers who don't comply with a request i.e refuse or rip off the tag placed by staff.

Its one of the most sensible policies by Ryanair in years.

I bought a second bag to comply with the former Ryanair policy. Now that bag can only be used as a second cabin bag on Aer Lingus.
I bought a second differently shaped bag as carry-on for Lufthansa(different dimensions specified which are similar to a laptop bag shape) and used that on my last flight.
The Lufthansa 2nd bag gives about 12 additional litres of capacity.
The Ryanair/Aer Lingus one gives about 14 litres.
With this change I'll just need to pack light for Ryanair.
The first bag is about 44 litres in size and complies with their regulations.

DalRiada wrote:

You can't blame Ryanair for making their policies a bit stricter. On every Ryanair flight I have been on recently, a number of people have abused the 'one small bag and one smaller bag' rule, bringing two relatively large suitcases into the cabin and trying to stow them in the overhead bins. Therefore space is at a premium on the bins, PAX are walking up and down the cabin trying to find a space to stow their bags and turnaround is slower.

Not just on FR on my last few EI flights the crew have been tearing their hair out and passengers getting annoyed up and down the cabin to the point of nearly delaying the flight. Hopefully EI will follow suit and of course also reduce the horrendous baggage charges especially to Far Europe.

Major overnight delays at Dublin Airport as snow halts flights

There were major delays overnight to flights in and out of Dublin Airport due to snow.
A huge number of Dublin bound flights were diverted to Liverpool as runways were closed at the North Dublin Airport.
A number of flights were also diverted to Shannon Airport as work on the runway in Dublin was carried out.
Many flights circled around Dublin for a number of hours after 12am until around 5am.
At least seven flights were forced to land at Liverpool airport and ended up landing considerably late.
One flight, Ryanair FR031 was due in at 2:05am but did not land in the airport until 6:35am.

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-ne ... t-14165420

OA260 wrote:

Not just on FR on my last few EI flights the crew have been tearing their hair out and passengers getting annoyed up and down the cabin to the point of nearly delaying the flight. Hopefully EI will follow suit and of course also reduce the horrendous baggage charges especially to Far Europe.

What I would like to see is that passengers are allowed to check-in their cabin baggage allowance. BA have been allowing this for a while on busy flights, on a random basis. What happened to the Ryanair trial of this? Was to £/€5? I can't see any mention of it online now?

How much would FR be paying for gate-check bags, in comparison to a bag checked-in at the desk? I assume it must be more, otherwise they would allow 10KG to be check-in "free", surely?

BrianDromey wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Not just on FR on my last few EI flights the crew have been tearing their hair out and passengers getting annoyed up and down the cabin to the point of nearly delaying the flight. Hopefully EI will follow suit and of course also reduce the horrendous baggage charges especially to Far Europe.

What I would like to see is that passengers are allowed to check-in their cabin baggage allowance. BA have been allowing this for a while on busy flights, on a random basis. What happened to the Ryanair trial of this? Was to £/€5? I can't see any mention of it online now?

How much would FR be paying for gate-check bags, in comparison to a bag checked-in at the desk? I assume it must be more, otherwise they would allow 10KG to be check-in "free", surely?

EI did do this over the Summer not sure if they have extended it as I have only used it once. Normally I check a bag and travel on Plus or Advantage fares. Currently in Peak season there is a difference of EUR40* per person return for a 20KG bag comparing EI to FR. For a family of 4 thats quite a bit. This does not effect me personally but I keep hearing it from friends,colleagues etc.. who it does effect.

* Excluding any promotions

Skyblue39 wrote:

Flying FR on the palindrome flight DUB-BUD on Saturday night....curious to see how this will be handled by the gate agents. I'm non-priority, so I'm guess my cabin case will be tagged into the hold at the gate.

From what I saw in Luton, anyone in the non-priority queue got their bags tagged and put in the hold. No matter where in the queue you were. One guy who was 2nd from the front threw an absolute wobbler when his bag was being tagged. He kept referring to the old set of rules, which the Swissport lady told him were gone.

No excuse for that. All passengers booked on flights are receiving the mail advising of the change to carry-on. I know that I received the mail.
A solicitor could argue it is a change to T&Cs but the material loss to the Customer is negligible as in most cases the 2nd carry-on bag will be on the conveyor as they arrive in the hall at their destination.

leghorn wrote:

Did they have the outgoing passengers out in the elements in the cattle pen during the sleet as you entered the terminal in Kerry or did they show them some mercy.

No they didn’t. I think it was too bad for that.

I've seen the poor passengers out in the rain during the summer but I think that is partly just to give the holidaymakers the authentic Irish experience.

OA260 wrote:

BrianDromey wrote:

OA260 wrote:

Not just on FR on my last few EI flights the crew have been tearing their hair out and passengers getting annoyed up and down the cabin to the point of nearly delaying the flight. Hopefully EI will follow suit and of course also reduce the horrendous baggage charges especially to Far Europe.

What I would like to see is that passengers are allowed to check-in their cabin baggage allowance. BA have been allowing this for a while on busy flights, on a random basis. What happened to the Ryanair trial of this? Was to £/€5? I can't see any mention of it online now?

How much would FR be paying for gate-check bags, in comparison to a bag checked-in at the desk? I assume it must be more, otherwise they would allow 10KG to be check-in "free", surely?

EI did do this over the Summer not sure if they have extended it as I have only used it once. Normally I check a bag and travel on Plus or Advantage fares. Currently in Peak season there is a difference of EUR40* per person return for a 20KG bag comparing EI to FR. For a family of 4 thats quite a bit. This does not effect me personally but I keep hearing it from friends,colleagues etc.. who it does effect.

* Excluding any promotions

Can confrim EI have extended check in of cabin baggage. Only used it this morning.

Any news on the passenger numbers for 2017 at DUB? I hear they didn't quite make the 30 million mark, did they come close?

Record numbers of passengers from Republic use Belfast airport

Strength of the euro encouraged 600,000 residents of the South to fly from Belfast last year

The number of passengers from the South who chose to fly from Belfast International Airport (BIA) soared last year to a record high of 600,000, latest figures show.
BIA said the strength of the euro against the pound was the key factor behind the increase in the number of residents from the South travelling north to fly to one of the 76 destinations on offer.
Graham Keddie, BIA’s managing director, said: “We have always attracted a lot of passengers from the Donegal and Sligo regions, but there is no doubt that the performance of the euro against the pound has given us a competitive edge and we are attracting passengers from much further afield now.
“We know from our research there has been a significant increase in the number of people resident throughout the South who booked flights to travel to and from BIA, and we also know from our car park systems that there was a large increase in the number of southern-registered cars using the facilities.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/com ... -1.3356333

Dublin up one place on last year to 14th Busiest Airport in Europe in 2017

Total Pax: 29,582,321

http://www.anna.aero/databases/

Top 15 as follows:-
1. London Heathrow
2. Paris CDG
3. Amsterdam
4. Frankfurt
5. Istanbul IST
6. Madrid
7. Barcelona
8. London Gatwick
9. Munich
10. Rome FCO
11. Moscow SVO
12. Paris Orly
13. Moscow DME
14. Dublin
15. Zurich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... _in_Europe

Good to see ET doing well at Dublin:

Ethiopian Airlines says Irish passenger uplift figures are up 37pc and load factors have increased by 26pc as it named its one millionth passenger out of Dublin.

Meseret Tekalign said: “Ethiopian’s steady growth since entering into the Irish market in June 2015 can be attributed to offering more choice of routes to Irish travellers with fares that are consistently competitive.”
Ms Tekalign, who succeeded Michael Yohannes as Ireland Country Manager in September 2017, added: “We knew coming into a market that had little awareness of Ethiopian would have its challenges however, we’ve worked hard at overcoming them and we’re now seeing positive results.
“With passenger numbers increasing month on month we added a fourth service in June 2017 to our Dublin to Los Angeles and Dublin to Addis Ababa routes and that increase in schedule means we are now attracting both leisure and business traffic.”
Ethiopian operates a 4w direct service from Dublin to Los Angeles and Dublin to Addis Ababa, with onward connection to 55 African and 26 international destinations.

www.travelextra.ie

Skyblue39 wrote:

Good to see ET doing well at Dublin:

Ethiopian Airlines says Irish passenger uplift figures are up 37pc and load factors have increased by 26pc as it named its one millionth passenger out of Dublin.

It's good to see such growth for ET at DUB. But I think there's a spin to the 1 million passengers number out of Dublin. I think that this number is reached by totaling all flights through Dublin including those to Washington Dulles and Toronto who never set foot on Dublin soil.

If we were to only look at the Addis Ababa - Dublin - Los Angeles flight, with 4x per week on a Dreamliner having 271 seats, it's 56368 seats per year one way, totaling 169104 seats over three years. Round trip, it's double that, at 338208 seats for three years. We know that they don't have 100% load factor, so the number of passengers on ADD-DUB-LAX-DUB-ADD is less than this last figure. This number could reach the one million mark however if all humans that are transported through DUB are counted, including the planeloads of 77Ws and 77Ls that go to IAD and YYZ.

I see, on another thread, that they're looking at flights to ORD or IAH. Wonder if they'll apply for more fifth freedom rights. Not so much for ORD, but IAH would be good to see.

kaitak wrote:

I see, on another thread, that they're looking at flights to ORD or IAH. Wonder if they'll apply for more fifth freedom rights. Not so much for ORD, but IAH would be good to see.

Indeed, particularly with the Star Alliance hub at IAH - great connections to Latin America, as well as AKL and SYD.

Cheers,

C.

The crane for the new control tower at DUB should be fully up by now?

Interesting comments by FR on possible substantial future expansion in France, since they have recognized unions.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0 ... nch-plans/

berari wrote:

It's good to see such growth for ET at DUB. But I think there's a spin to the 1 million passengers number out of Dublin. I think that this number is reached by totaling all flights through Dublin including those to Washington Dulles and Toronto who never set foot on Dublin soil.

Correct its all marketing and juggling figures. However there is no doubt they have done very well and also continue to gain corporate traffic up front. They have quickly gone from weak brand awareness to having a reputation for a decent reliable product.

kaitak wrote:

I see, on another thread, that they're looking at flights to ORD or IAH. Wonder if they'll apply for more fifth freedom rights. Not so much for ORD, but IAH would be good to see.

They have been looking to expand 5th Freedom for a while although there is huge pressure from the usual suspects to block it.

dstc47 wrote:

Interesting comments by FR on possible substantial future expansion in France, since they have recognized unions.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0 ... nch-plans/

Scandinavia was another area mentioned for growth after the Union situation was settled, hard to see them expand much over there now with Norwegian being so big though. Hopefully the expansion in France leads to them finally starting CDG or ORY, didn’t they apply for slots in ORY but refused them in the recent past?

Arrived at S Gates last night, off aircraft through the terminal and onto a bus and dropped at one of the USPC gates to access arrivals. Wasn't bad overall.

Looks like Aer Lingus will be operating a significant number of flights on behalf of BA from February through to April including a number of BA8XX services on the DUB-LHR route and a number of LHR-HAM services.

The original plan was for BA to once again lease a number of QR aircraft but this seems to have fallen out of favour for some reason. Apparently the lease is a result of both the delay in delivery of new aircraft from Airbus and the need to send extra aircraft to LGW to cover the increased schedule following the takeover of the Monarch slots.

Unsure of how the service will work. One can assume Club will not be available on the EI operated flights however whether BA will provide a complimentary service for customers on these services like they did last year during the QR lease or if they will allow EI use it’s own buy on board service is to be seen.

Interesting times ahead but a fleet of green tails at T5 will be cool!

tonystan wrote:

Looks like Aer Lingus will be operating a significant number of flights on behalf of BA from February through to April including a number of BA8XX services on the DUB-LHR route and a number of LHR-HAM services.

The original plan was for BA to once again lease a number of QR aircraft but this seems to have fallen out of favour for some reason. Apparently the lease is a result of both the delay in delivery of new aircraft from Airbus and the need to send extra aircraft to LGW to cover the increased schedule following the takeover of the Monarch slots.

Unsure of how the service will work. One can assume Club will not be available on the EI operated flights however whether BA will provide a complimentary service for customers on these services like they did last year during the QR lease or if they will allow EI use it’s own buy on board service is to be seen.

Interesting times ahead but a fleet of green tails at T5 will be cool!

Wow, thanks for sharing this information! Will they do W rotations on HAM between DUB and LHR?

Good to see great growth at DUB over the past 12 months. Its a shame that the 30 million wasn't quite met, but it will almost certainly be achieved in 2018. Just 20 years ago the airport was handling 11million, given the recession wiped 4 million passengers off the yearly totals, its incredible growth really. Theres not too much difference between 12th/13th/14th in the tables, but a big jump for the top 11, so I suspect DUB will remain outside the top 10.

tonystan wrote:

Looks like Aer Lingus will be operating a significant number of flights on behalf of BA from February through to April including a number of BA8XX services on the DUB-LHR route and a number of LHR-HAM services.

The original plan was for BA to once again lease a number of QR aircraft but this seems to have fallen out of favour for some reason. Apparently the lease is a result of both the delay in delivery of new aircraft from Airbus and the need to send extra aircraft to LGW to cover the increased schedule following the takeover of the Monarch slots.

Unsure of how the service will work. One can assume Club will not be available on the EI operated flights however whether BA will provide a complimentary service for customers on these services like they did last year during the QR lease or if they will allow EI use it’s own buy on board service is to be seen.

Interesting times ahead but a fleet of green tails at T5 will be cool!

Making good use of a slightly slack time for the EI fleet, I guess?

The QR lease was not looked upon favourably by the UK CAA - they were keen for EU alternatives to be used.

Rather strange view on QR, they were only happy to use them a few months ago for MON. EI have quiet a few spare aircraft in Feb/Mar/Apr

BrianDromey wrote:

The QR lease was not looked upon favourably by the UK CAA - they were keen for EU alternatives to be used.

They did not want it to become a regular thing from what I heard. For MON is was an emergency situation and the strikes at BA before that. For normally needs they indeed prefer an EU airline.

Skyblue39 wrote:

Wow, thanks for sharing this information! Will they do W rotations on HAM between DUB and LHR?

Yeah I imagine it will be mostly W patterns/4 sector days ex DUB for the crew. Don’t get me wrong, BA crew are generally brilliant but IMO the BA passengers are in for a treat!

JAmie2k9 wrote:

Rather strange view on QR, they were only happy to use them a few months ago for MON. EI have quiet a few spare aircraft in Feb/Mar/Apr

Quite logical really... makes a bit more sense to use spare capacity from another IAG airline in the low season and keep the fees "in house" rather than going outside. I imagine there will be more of this kind of thing in the future.

UA to reduce ops even further at SNN.
Having suspended EWR service from Nov.25 in 2017 to Mar.10 this year and cancelled all 2018 ORD services, the winter suspension will begin on Oct.27 this year. They have also moved the SNN departure time from 9.00am to 12.30pm when the service restarts on Mar.10 which limits the amount of onward connections on arrival at EWR given the mid afternoon arrival time, compared to previous late morning arrival time.
https://www.clare.fm/news/blow-shannon- ... k-service/

IrishTexan wrote:

They have also moved the SNN departure time from 9.00am to 12.30pm when the service restarts on Mar.10 which limits the amount of onward connections on arrival at EWR given the mid afternoon arrival time, compared to previous late morning arrival time.

That actually concerns me more. Shifting it that far forward may loose them a lot of business then they will turn around and say the route is not profitable anymore !

Discussions ongoing on another Irish forum of another A330-200 having been sourced for this Summer '18 by Aer Lingus, with talk that 4 weekly Denver is to be announced as the latest "cab off the rank" at the press conference scheduled for next Thursday pending approval and finalisation, with additional frequency to ORD also being announced bringing it up to 17 weekly flights.

Certainly a lot of capacity growth by Aer Lingus on the transatlantic market for this summer if it proves true, up a net 3 A330 aircraft on last years schedule, or a 28% increase in fleet numbers, not to mention the commencement of A321NEO/LR deliveries in 2019, an awful lot of growth, fingers crossed they havn't bitten off more than they can chew.

Seems very late in the day to be announcing a new route; I could understand an extra A330 being made available, as QR has quite a few to offload, with all the A350s coming into the fleet, but probably just as a reserve aircraft.

kaitak wrote:

Seems very late in the day to be announcing a new route; I could understand an extra A330 being made available, as QR has quite a few to offload, with all the A350s coming into the fleet, but probably just as a reserve aircraft.

Not really, plenty of lead in for late May start. EI having a reserve aircraft would go completely against their strategy unless the cost is really good.

JAmie2k9 wrote:

kaitak wrote:

Seems very late in the day to be announcing a new route; I could understand an extra A330 being made available, as QR has quite a few to offload, with all the A350s coming into the fleet, but probably just as a reserve aircraft.

Not really, plenty of lead in for late May start. EI having a reserve aircraft would go completely against their strategy unless the cost is really good.

With feed from both IAG and UA (DEN is a UA hub) it could be a real winner, less risky than SEA IMO.

I honestly reckon staying out of the AA JV and sticking with AC, B6 and UA interlining suits EI (and IAG) far better.

AmricanShamrok wrote:

eidvm wrote:

Discussions ongoing on another Irish forum of another A330-200 having been sourced for this Summer '18 by Aer Lingus, with talk that 4 weekly Denver is to be announced as the latest "cab off the rank" at the press conference scheduled for next Thursday pending approval and finalisation, with additional frequency to ORD also being announced bringing it up to 17 weekly flights.

Certainly a lot of capacity growth by Aer Lingus on the transatlantic market for this summer if it proves true, up a net 3 A330 aircraft on last years schedule, or a 28% increase in fleet numbers, not to mention the commencement of A321NEO/LR deliveries in 2019, an awful lot of growth, fingers crossed they havn't bitten off more than they can chew.

I'd be surprised if they up DUB-ORD to 17 weekly - that'd mean that it would overtake both DUB-JFK and DUB-BOS to be EI's highest frequency transatlantic route. Traditionally ORD growth followed JFK and BOS.

JFK is 5 x daily, with another 3 x daily EWR as well, plus Norwegian to Stewart. ORD would have UA interlining to support it too, which offers more choice than B6 in JFK/BOS.

eidvm wrote:

Discussions ongoing on another Irish forum of another A330-200 having been sourced for this Summer '18 by Aer Lingus, with talk that 4 weekly Denver is to be announced as the latest "cab off the rank" at the press conference scheduled for next Thursday pending approval and finalisation, with additional frequency to ORD also being announced bringing it up to 17 weekly flights.

Certainly a lot of capacity growth by Aer Lingus on the transatlantic market for this summer if it proves true, up a net 3 A330 aircraft on last years schedule, or a 28% increase in fleet numbers, not to mention the commencement of A321NEO/LR deliveries in 2019, an awful lot of growth, fingers crossed they havn't bitten off more than they can chew.

I'd be surprised if they up DUB-ORD to 17 weekly - that'd mean that it would overtake both DUB-JFK and DUB-BOS to be EI's highest frequency transatlantic route. Traditionally ORD growth followed JFK and BOS.

IrishTexan wrote:

UA to reduce ops even further at SNN.
Having suspended EWR service from Nov.25 in 2017 to Mar.10 this year and cancelled all 2018 ORD services, the winter suspension will begin on Oct.27 this year. They have also moved the SNN departure time from 9.00am to 12.30pm when the service restarts on Mar.10 which limits the amount of onward connections on arrival at EWR given the mid afternoon arrival time, compared to previous late morning arrival time.
https://www.clare.fm/news/blow-shannon- ... k-service/

Disappointing how UA, which was up until recently the second largest transatlantic carrier at SNN, is contracting so much here. The later departure time for EWR brings it to similar timings as EI and DL on their JFK flights.

AmricanShamrok wrote:

eidvm wrote:

Discussions ongoing on another Irish forum of another A330-200 having been sourced for this Summer '18 by Aer Lingus, with talk that 4 weekly Denver is to be announced as the latest "cab off the rank" at the press conference scheduled for next Thursday pending approval and finalisation, with additional frequency to ORD also being announced bringing it up to 17 weekly flights.

Certainly a lot of capacity growth by Aer Lingus on the transatlantic market for this summer if it proves true, up a net 3 A330 aircraft on last years schedule, or a 28% increase in fleet numbers, not to mention the commencement of A321NEO/LR deliveries in 2019, an awful lot of growth, fingers crossed they havn't bitten off more than they can chew.

I'd be surprised if they up DUB-ORD to 17 weekly - that'd mean that it would overtake both DUB-JFK and DUB-BOS to be EI's highest frequency transatlantic route. Traditionally ORD growth followed JFK and BOS.

I would of expected BOS to get extra as well but since EWR/BDY it's likely taken some pressure off capacity in the region and with DL at BOS now. I can see why they may have looked towards ORD.