Isn't EI "obliged" to operate a certain number of DUB-LHR rotations per day in accordance with the agreement made between the government and IAG at the time of the sale of EI? If EI drops this rotation, I'd have thought they'd need to move it to another slot during the day so as not to be in breach of this requirement?

EI321 wrote:

In the long term surely there is no logical reason why the EI engineers could not just transfer employment to BA?

That's very shortsighted ...!
Maybe they don't want to work for BA...?

Ryanair braced for potential Easter and summer disruption after progress stalls on some union talks

Low-cost carrier Ryanair is braced for some flight disruption over Easter and potentially over the summer months as it aims to press on with union talks.

The airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary told a news conference today he expected some impact on flights - specifically into and out of Ireland and Portugal - as Ryanair hashes out the details of union recognition and how it will work with pilot unions.

"We are very close to concluding agreements in Spain and Italy and expect them to be finalised within the next month," Reuters reported O'Leary telling a news conference in Brussels.

http://www.cityam.com/281735/ryanair-br ... tion-after

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Ryanair will no longer charge trainee pilots €29k for training

Ryanair will no longer charge trainee pilots almost €30,000 upfront for training under a policy change announced today.

Up to now, trainees known as cadets were charged a course fee of €29,500 and were not paid until they had completed a significant portion of their training.

However, in the careers section of its website, Ryanair has announced what it calls a new "sponsored" type-rating programme, under which pilots will only have to pay a one-off upfront payment of €5,000 for their training.

However, pilots will also be subject to a "5 year reducing bond" binding them to the airline for that period.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/03 ... ir-pilots/

Does anyone know if SAS Ireland is planning to operate its A320s on routes to/from Dublin. They've been operating to London, but I thought they were going to be operating DUB routes at some stage in the future?

Anyone know FRs plans for Paphos ? I’m dreaming of connections to DXB , AUH etc ..

Eurowings have shortlisted Cork for a new route in 2019. People may remember Shannon got shortlisted for a new route in 2018 but was not selected. People can vote (Cork currently most popular)

https://www.vote-and-fly.com/

JAmie2k9 wrote:

Eurowings have shortlisted Cork for a new route in 2019. People may remember Shannon got shortlisted for a new route in 2018 but was not selected. People can vote (Cork currently most popular)

https://www.vote-and-fly.com/

Good find. I am not sure winter is the best time to launch a flight to Cork.

LTenEleven wrote:

JAmie2k9 wrote:

Eurowings have shortlisted Cork for a new route in 2019. People may remember Shannon got shortlisted for a new route in 2018 but was not selected. People can vote (Cork currently most popular)

https://www.vote-and-fly.com/

Good find. I am not sure winter is the best time to launch a flight to Cork.

It was was a twice weekly Berlin I think it could work with the right schedule.

No surprise to see that Dublin-Toronto is the 8th largest Europe/Canada market in terms of capacity,
with 4 daily departures in summer on EI, AC, TS, WS.

Top 10 as follows:

London Heathrow - Toronto Lester B Pearson 1302306
Paris Charles de Gaulle - Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1283488
Frankfurt International - Toronto Lester B Pearson 796828
Amsterdam - Toronto Lester B Pearson 772204
London Heathrow - Vancouver International 609016
Paris Charles de Gaulle - Toronto Lester B Pearson 587565
London Gatwick - Toronto Lester B Pearson 478792
Dublin - Toronto Lester B Pearson 434954
London Heathrow - Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau 405940
London Heathrow - Calgary 383106

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... norwegian/

Flights landing at City of Derry Airport targeted with laser pens

Police have received reports of laser pens being pointed at planes landing at City of Derry Airport.

Posting on the PSNI Foyle Facebook page on Tuesday, officers said aircraft had been targeted from the Londonderry area.

The post read: “While this may seem fun to some, it can have serious and very real consequences.

“Firstly, lasering an aircraft is incredibly dangerous. By lasering an aircraft you may dazzle or distract the pilot, it can cause temporary blindness, glaring, flash blindness and after images which can endanger both the crew and members of the public on the aircraft but also to those on the ground.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 76798.html

Apparently EI will make MIA summer seasonal.
Also big announcement next week re new uniform

The uniform is sixty years out of date , dreadful cheap rubbish... worse uniform they’ve ever had

Good call on the uniform. The current uniform is very dated.

Shamrock145 wrote:

Apparently EI will make MIA summer seasonal.
Also big announcement next week re new uniform

MIA has just not performed as expected. Indeed the crew love it as its an easy flight to work on and even better for staff travel.

It dates from 1996? I think the male cabin crews uniform is even more dated looking than the females.

Great news re. EI uniform. Definitely needs a refresh. Looking forward to seeing the new design.

Would be nice if one of the A330's that will arrive around the same time as the uniform launch was painted in the 1950's livery to coincide with the uniform launch. The polished metal effect would be hard to replicate though, I assume that once metal is polished to that effect (ie AA's previous scheme), it is hard to reverse it and apply normal paint again.

Shamrock145 wrote:

Apparently EI will make MIA summer seasonal.
Also big announcement next week re new uniform

Not surprised however they pulled the winter 18/19 flights only to be them back a few weeks ago.

Disappointing if correct. I've heard MIA loads haven't been as expected.

I wonder will they launch another route to use the aircraft over the winter like CPT or LAS?

Cape Town would be brilliant , and get lots of potential feed from the USA and north of the U.K. , fingers crossed

EI should look at TLV sometime. They could build that route up too with connections and local traffic.

I agree that TLV could be interesting for EI. Also I should also look at cities such as Tallinn, Kiev, Ljubljana, Belgrade. But they’ve pulled all Baltic and Scandinavian routes previously and seem obsessed with the safe havens of Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

I think EI’s predictabilityregrading routes is its own worst enemy, because when you do try to go for new routes, you have to deal with things like brand recognition and so on. Outside of EI’s strongholds (US north east coast, Germany, UK), barely anyone knows who EI even is. If EI is to develop and evolve, then it needs to stop with the US and the predictable short haul routes, and get into other markets, and it needs to work on brand recognition in an unprecedented way. Otherwise, any new routes that are not within an EI catchment are doomed to failure.

Apparently there is a new BA uniform in the pipeline as well so perhaps a joint IAG thing?

EI321 wrote:

Disappointing if correct. I've heard MIA loads haven't been as expected.

From what I’m seeing in res systems, it’s not going summer seasonal, but might be pared back a bit in the lowest months of Winter (ie Jan and early Feb).

It would be crazy IMHO to not give the route it’s first summer season to then assess forward bookings for winter.

There’s been a lot of innuendo about this route with no firm evidence, and there are industrial issues involved, so I wouldn’t necessarily believe everything you hear on this one!

OA260 wrote:

EI should look at TLV sometime. They could build that route up too with connections and local traffic.

The problem is that there's not a lot of local traffic between the two countries and every Tom, Dick & Moshe flies between other European hubs and TLV. On top of that, there's Arkia as well (wonder what they'll use this summer, now that their 753s are gone to FI) and Israelis don't generally view Ireland as a friendly country. Just can't see TLV working for EI.

shamrock321 wrote:

Apparently there is a new BA uniform in the pipeline as well so perhaps a joint IAG thing?

I heard the same thing - that a universal navy IAG uniform is on the cards. It may have some subtle details to reflect the individual airline but I really hope they don’t ditch the green completely. I know the current uniform is dated but you can’t argue that is highly unique - you see EI crew in an airport and you know exactly who they are. I think it would be best to keep the green of some kind but redesign the uniform to a more modern standard.

Phen wrote:

shamrock321 wrote:

Apparently there is a new BA uniform in the pipeline as well so perhaps a joint IAG thing?

I heard the same thing - that a universal navy IAG uniform is on the cards. It may have some subtle details to reflect the individual airline but I really hope they don’t ditch the green completely. I know the current uniform is dated but you can’t argue that is highly unique - you see EI crew in an airport and you know exactly who they are. I think it would be best to keep the green of some kind but redesign the uniform to a more modern standard.

Agreed. Yes it's outdated but it's unique and so many new uniforms look the same these days with very few that really stand out. They could easily get it very, very wrong if rushed. I've also wondered how far IAG would go in terms of synergies within the group, we've heard of standard seats, aircraft cabins and layouts, orders and the usual back office stuff but if two airlines in the group considered a major investment in uniforms, would IAG only allow the investment if it was done their way, the cheapest way and possibly standardised?

IAG has made it clear in the past that it's not some kind of super airline but a group of carriers with individual brands, missions and targets to meet so I'm not sure they'd want to unveil a standardised uniform for four very different brands but they might be involved quite heavily in the entire process from choosing the design and provider to colour and how individual it can be for each airline.

I'm not entirely sure they'd go that far but I do hope that any new uniform maintains the green that is at the heart of the Aer Lingus brand image.

shamrock350 wrote:

I'm not entirely sure they'd go that far but I do hope that any new uniform maintains the green that is at the heart of the Aer Lingus brand image.

Agreed,hopefully they understand the value of the green uniforms to the brand, and not just the cost of uniforms. I'd certainly imagine that with an organisation as large as Aer Lingus they should have the critical mass when it comes to Uniform production and distribution to maintain their own unique look and brand.Perhaps a common supplier, but can't imagine their being much savings from a common group uniform.

DUB is one of the top 5 destinations globally without a link to China (with almost double the passenger flows of EDI).

See: http://www.anna.aero/2018/03/07/chinese ... 2010-2017/.

I can't believe that we still don't have any confirmation of HU's PEK and/or SZX services, despite all of the talk.

Cheers,

C.

UK entrepreneur eyes Irish airport for startup airline

Could service-starved Waterford Airport have not one but two airlines flying from the southeast into Britain? Don't pack your bags just yet, because while it could be a runner, it's still, well, up in the air.

New UK startup Firnas Airways says it's working on its regulatory checklist and securing necessary finance to formally launch the UK's newest independent regional airline.

Targeting a third-quarter start date, it's earmarking airports to service short-haul routes with 31 19-seat BAE Jetstream aircraft at first.

Founder Kazi Rahman - named British Muslim Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 - said the "investment programme is on schedule and going extremely well", with Firnas aiming to "complement a market dominated by low-cost carriers and full service, legacy airlines".

https://www.independent.ie/business/iri ... 91305.html

planemanofnz wrote:

DUB is one of the top 5 destinations globally without a link to China (with almost double the passenger flows of EDI).

See: http://www.anna.aero/2018/03/07/chinese ... 2010-2017/.

I can't believe that we still don't have any confirmation of HU's PEK and/or SZX services, despite all of the talk.

Cheers,

C.

Does anyone know what's actually happening with this? It seems to be dragging on forever, I recall news articles 2+ years ago where the announcement was 'imminent' yet all we've heard since then has been another article every few months exclaiming yet again that its imminent.

Phen wrote:

shamrock321 wrote:

Apparently there is a new BA uniform in the pipeline as well so perhaps a joint IAG thing?

I heard the same thing - that a universal navy IAG uniform is on the cards. It may have some subtle details to reflect the individual airline but I really hope they don’t ditch the green completely. I know the current uniform is dated but you can’t argue that is highly unique - you see EI crew in an airport and you know exactly who they are. I think it would be best to keep the green of some kind but redesign the uniform to a more modern standard.

Don’t worry, that’s not happening. Apparently EI are not moving away from the current Irish designer (L.K who designed the current one which was released in 1998] for the new uniform.

BA on the other hand is moving away from the Julian McDonald and apparently it’s going to be either Burberry or Victoria Beckham!

I see Aer Lingus are advertising for an Airline Partners Manager & in the job spec it says you’ll head their entry into the AA/BA/IB/AY transatlantic joint venture. Finally some movement

Loganair flights now bookable for a new route Dublin - Carlisle, 6W effective 08JUN on the Loganair website.

Yay, anyone visiting Carlisle. give me a shout and I can show you the sights and pubs of the city

NAC buys four CityJet CRJ900s

Danish lessor Nordic Aviation Capital has completed a sale-and-leaseback deal covering four Bombardier CRJ900s with CityJet.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... 0s-446493/

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Flybe increases London City-Belfast frequency

Regional airline Flybe is set to add 12 flights a week to its London City to Belfast City airport service from 7 May.

The increased frequency includes new morning, early evening and weekend flights, offering business travellers up to six services a day and 35 per week.

https://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/0 ... -frequency

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Regular flights to Lake District taking off from City this June

The Loganair service will fly six times a week from June 4.

The airline is running the route as a partner of Stobart Group, and later in June Flybe will start flying four times a week to Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/busi ... 98186.html

Aer Lingus have confirmed a new uniform is coming and will be designed by the current designer, Louise Kennedy. It will be revealed in Spring 2019.

https://blog.aerlingus.com/new-uniform-designer/

It’ll be interesting what they come up with!

Edit: ha you beat me to it!

They have reaffirmed the importance of green so thankfully it does seem a generic IAG uniform is not going to happen! I can imagine it must be quite a logistical task getting all ground and cabin crew fitted out and stocked up. I wonder if it will be phased in or everyone told to wear the new uniform on a particular date...

'I'm very frightened': Stories from people who were denied entry at Ireland's border

New research found some people denied entry were held in prisons for a number of days before being sent back to their country of origin.Some detainees appear not to have been put on the next available flight, despite being aware that there were several flights back to their airport of origin that day, and in two cases included in the research, they had offered to pay for their own fare.

Case studies

A young Somali man was held for five hours at the airport before being transferred to Cloverhill Prison. He was refused leave to land because immigration officers at Dublin Airport did not believe he was in Ireland as a tourist, despite his being scheduled to fly back to the Scandinavian country where he had refugee status two weeks later.
In this man’s case, there was no flight back to the Scandinavian country from which he had travelled to Ireland that day. He was told he might be removed two days later, on Thursday. He offered to buy his own ticket back home, but was informed “that’s not how it works”.
Two men from Hong Kong were refused leave to land at Dublin Airport and held werethere from 11pm until 10am the following day. They were given food and water in the morning, but said they’d had to ask for it.

http://www.thejournal.ie/border-control ... 7-Mar2018/

Expect announcement tomorrow on new PEK route ...

Airbus have the A330-900 at SNN at the moment doing circuit training if anyone interested is in the vicinity.

kaitak wrote:

Expect announcement tomorrow on new PEK route ...

CA, HU or EI? I'll believe it when I see it ...

Cheers,

C.

Doubt it will be EI, and I hope it’s direct! Routing something via EDI or anywhere else just isn’t goi g to give the route the shot it deserves

shamrock321 wrote:

Doubt it will be EI, and I hope it’s direct! Routing something via EDI or anywhere else just isn’t goi g to give the route the shot it deserves

Yes, and as I posted above, EDI's Chinese traffic is nothing compared to DUB's - hopefully they'll recognise this, and give DUB the stand-alone service that it deserves.

Cheers,

C.

AmricanShamrok wrote:

Airbus have the A330-900 at SNN at the moment doing circuit training if anyone interested is in the vicinity.

Saw some pictures online looks great.

AmricanShamrok wrote:

Airbus have the A330-900 at SNN at the moment doing circuit training if anyone interested is in the vicinity.

Saw the pics on Twitter, with this comment:
"The sky was blue around Shannon this morning with @AerLingus’ newly purchased @Airbus 330 NEO on test flight duty."
https://twitter.com/ShannonAirport/stat ... 0852752384

Did I miss something? Newly purchased A330NEO?!

Someone getting a bit confused ... Putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5. No 330neos planned by EI. Doesn't offer any great advantage over the current 330s.

It does appear it should be announced this week from what I am hearing they plan to spoil the party for CX launch!!