Good morning and a very happy, safe and successful new year to you all; hope 2017 is a great new year for you all!

I think it's pretty reasonable to say that 2016 was a good year for Irish aviation, with many positive developments - record passenger numbers for Dublin, two new European carriers for Shannon and perhaps the best Christmas present of all, for Cork: the green light for Norwegian's bid to link the US to Cork.

There have been political uncertainties, with Brexit and Donald Trump and who knows what effect these will have on the new year. Let's hope the negative effects are kept to a minimum; it's hard, at this stage, to see negative effects this year, whatever about years to come.

Of course, most importantly - and sometimes it's something we can take for granted, because accidents are so rare in our island - let's hope that 2017 is another very safe year for Irish air travellers, wherever they are.

Here's to you all and thank you for making the Irish threads as enjoyable as they are!

Go mbeirimid anseo ag an am seo aris!

Here's a link to the last thread, should anyone wish to refer back: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1348987

As always, thanks for the new thread and indeed happy new year to all. For me 2016 will be looked upon very positively with new EI routes to BDL and resumption of EWR, ACto YVR, the continued expansion of UA with bigger aircraft on a number of routes, LH continuing to expand MUC and the announcement QR will launch DOH. May 2017 be as fruitful for DUB

For anybody interested, AF/KLM have some cracking fares to to the US ex-DUB at the moment. DUB-JFK return in mid February is available for as little as €303 all in!

321neo wrote:

For anybody interested, AF/KLM have some cracking fares to to the US ex-DUB at the moment. DUB-JFK return in mid February is available for as little as €303 all in!

Some excellent fares in November too for anyone looking at a spot of pre Christmas shopping, business for €1400, economy €320

321neo wrote:

For anybody interested, AF/KLM have some cracking fares to to the US ex-DUB at the moment. DUB-JFK return in mid February is available for as little as €303 all in!

€251 was the cheapest I saw and it was out of BFS.

What's holding up Norwegian on the ORK-BOS service now? Wasn't it approved already?

Freshside3 wrote:

What's holding up Norwegian on the ORK-BOS service now? Wasn't it approved already?

D8's operation into the US was approved but they won't be making any announcement on routes/schedules until "early 2017". ORK-US route/s will begin this summer and they also plan to start ops from SNN but there is more of a question mark over the start season of the SNN flights.

http://media.norwegian.com/us/#/blog_po ... onal-52737

Does D8 routes will be pretty centered towards the east coast or do they have plans to fly to the west coast?

usflyer123 wrote:

Does D8 routes will be pretty centered towards the east coast or do they have plans to fly to the west coast?

Not for the foreseeable future. D8 (the Norwegian Air International subsidiary based in Ireland) has a fleet of forty-something 737-800s which don't have the range to fly Europe-US West Coast. By my understanding of the complicated structure of Norwegian, the purpose of this subsidiary is to provide transatlantic services to secondary markets in Ireland and the UK as well as already-established intra-European routes. This entire fleet of 738s is based at EU airports as opposed to Norway itself.

DU (the Norwegian Longhaul subsidiary) has a fleet of 787s that do reach the West Coast but these are not intended for use in secondary markets in Ireland and the UK and are instead operated on routes like London-New York, London-Los Angeles etc.

The you have DY (the main Norwegian Air Shuttle code) that flies intra-European routes with its main operating base at Oslo (they also have EU bases).

DI is Norwegian Air UK which only has two 737s in its fleet and I'm not sure what the purpose of this subsidiary is.

Belfast lifts the limit of 2m passengers.

I assumr that as only at 2.5m passengers which at an average of 75%load factor is around 3.4m seats the bigger barrier is the runway length.

With lifting of the passenger requirement time will tell if new owners prepare to invest in lengthing runway


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38491188

The Ulster rugby team will travel to Wales this week for again at Llanelli against the Scarlets, once again using Eastern Airways and one of their Saab 2000s oder EMB-145s:

http://footballcharters.blogspot.com/20 ... -2017.html

AmricanShamrok wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

Does D8 routes will be pretty centered towards the east coast or do they have plans to fly to the west coast?

Not for the foreseeable future. D8 (the Norwegian Air International subsidiary based in Ireland) has a fleet of forty-something 737-800s which don't have the range to fly Europe-US West Coast. By my understanding of the complicated structure of Norwegian, the purpose of this subsidiary is to provide transatlantic services to secondary markets in Ireland and the UK as well as already-established intra-European routes. This entire fleet of 738s is based at EU airports as opposed to Norway itself.

DU (the Norwegian Longhaul subsidiary) has a fleet of 787s that do reach the West Coast but these are not intended for use in secondary markets in Ireland and the UK and are instead operated on routes like London-New York, London-Los Angeles etc.

The you have DY (the main Norwegian Air Shuttle code) that flies intra-European routes with its main operating base at Oslo (they also have EU bases).

DI is Norwegian Air UK which only has two 737s in its fleet and I'm not sure what the purpose of this subsidiary is.

Could be wrong but I think they moved LGW based B787's to UK subsidy.

Joelatbsl wrote:

The Ulster rugby team will travel to Wales this week for again at Llanelli against the Scarlets, once again using Eastern Airways and one of their Saab 2000s or EMB-145s:

http://footballcharters.blogspot.com/20 ... -2017.html

Set to be Saab 2000 G-CFLV, just about to land at BFS now ...

Air Canada Rouge's Vancouver operation for next Summer has been brought back to 3 wkly again (from the planned 4).

Nothing major but Swiss will add 1 extra weekly ZUR (10 weekly) peak season (6 July-24 August). 14.55 ex DUB.

EIR are also dumping a lot of capacity into Scotland over summer 2017. ABZ (7 to 11 weekly), GLA (25 to 31 weekly (up to 6 daily) and EDI (27 to 37 weekly (up to 7 daily)).

-EDI gets second peak morning departure at 07.40
-ABZ gets morning and evening service + return of T/A connections
-GLA gets later evening services + middle of day service. (some of this is recovering some cuts when FR moved over)
Others
-BRS keeps extra freqy added since Cardiff cut (up to x4 daily)
-NQY extra freq and better schedule

Five-storey 100-bedroom standalone hotel to be built beside Dublin Airport

Yet another hotel is to be built beside Dublin Airport as demand for rooms from travellers continues to rise. Dublin Airport handled more than 27 million passengers last year.
A UK company connected to Carlton Hotels plans to build a five-storey, 100-bedroom standalone property beside its existing Carlton hotel close to the airport. The existing four-star property also has 100 bedrooms.

http://www.independent.ie/business/five ... 45176.html

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Airport boss stresses 'growth curve' despite loss of direct air link to US

The managing director of Belfast International Airport is optimistic a new direct US air link can be secured.
Northern Ireland will lose its only direct US air link when United Airlines stops daily flights from Belfast to Newark on January 9.
However Belfast International Airport managing director, Graham Keddie, said they are working hard with government and pursuing a "number of positive leads" to fill the gap left by United.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/busin ... 45900.html

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Flood defences planned for Shannon Airport

A NEW government plan is proposing extra flood defences for Shannon Airport in a bid to combat extreme weather.

The airport is located on the edge of the Shannon estuary and, as a result, is at elevated risk of flooding.

The plans have been published by Transport Minister Shane Ross as part of a consultation document, entitled Developing Resilience to Climate Change in the Irish Transport Sector.

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/ ... rport.html

Aer Lingus have been voted the world's safest low cost airline

http://www.airlineratings.com/news/997/ ... s-for-2017

Aer Lingus Regional announces new Cork-Cornwall route

Aer Lingus Regional, which is operated by Stobart Air, will start a new service from Cork Airport to Cornwall Airport Newquay from May.

The new service will operate twice weekly - on Wednesday and Saturdays - during the summer months.

It will bring to nine the number of Aer Lingus Regional routes from Cork Airport in summer 2017.

Aer Lingus Regional said it expects to carry over 330,000 passengers through Cork Airport this year, up 7% on 2016.

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2017/01 ... ork-route/

Eirules wrote:

Aer Lingus have been voted the world's safest low cost airline

http://www.airlineratings.com/news/997/ ... s-for-2017

The article lists the 10 safest "LCC's" in alphabetical order. So EI is not necessarily #1, they're just first on the list.

Of interest, it's been rumoured on the IAG long haul from BCN thread that Aer Lingus aircraft and crews will be used to operate what is suggested will be Vueling flights to LAX and another destination TBC. This is for next summer.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1350693

The suggestion that EI aircraft might operate these new routes is surprising to say the least. Unless IAG plan to use just one frame, which even at 7 frequencies overall to two destinations, would be hard to turnaround in time. Thus it is not easy to see how this might work given that EI do not have enough capacity to operate their full summer schedule until their new frames arrive.

To recap, EI are expecting two new A333s next summer yet that should only give them enough capacity to cover their current plans, which include an upgauge for Toronto, LA going daily, plus more frequencies to Chicago and Orlando. Then there's the new Miami service beginning September 1st and another new route is also rumoured.

Source: http://www.irishcentral.com/travel/aer- ... i-and-more

It'll be interesting to see what their confirmed plans are.

Another two will have to come from somewhere and operated under Aer Lingus' AOC, there's zero room in their current fleet plans to provide any aircraft in peak summer.

Just because Aer Lingus is rumoured to be operating the new Vueling service doesn't mean the A330s used will ever have been in green before.

shamrock350 wrote:

Another two will have to come from somewhere and operated under Aer Lingus' AOC, there's zero room in their current fleet plans to provide any aircraft in peak summer.

Just because Aer Lingus is rumoured to be operating the new Vueling service doesn't mean the A330s used will ever have been in green before.

Yes true. However the suggestion is that they will be EI A332s, wet leased with EI crew. That's why I posted this. It's a rumour though, however if it's proven correct, there will be many fleet management questions for EI to answer.

"An official announcement is due on Wednesday on the proposed Barcelona-LAX route, Aer Lingus will wet lease aircraft to Vueling"

According to Travel Extra.

http://www.travelextra.ie/sunday-supplement-template-2/

Very sorry to report that Jim Lee , a well known enthusiast on Irish aviation circles for many years , has died. Jim was editor of the ASI magazine back in the 1990s and a regular contributor to Flying in Ireland magazine .

I don't know if he participated in this forum but I know he had a long standing passion for aviation and was well respected by all who knew him.

RIP, Jim.

AF taking over CDG from WX, schedules showing A318 from 29 October 2018. Following successful KLM AMS service which is showing x3 daily for winter 17/18 at the minute (08.55 ex DUB not showing).

Interesting to see if it happens....

I remember Jim from the ASI meetings in the hotel just off O'Connells street.

Rumour on another forum that Transavia France is eyeing up a seasonal ORY-SNN route to target inbound French tourists. Possibly a bit late for an announcement for Summer 2017 at this stage though.

I don't know whether this has been commented here, but this year Aer Lingus is resuming BIO and SCQ in early March. Are there more destinations with this new schedule? Is this a test to make them year-round?

SCQ83 wrote:

I don't know whether this has been commented here, but this year Aer Lingus is resuming BIO and SCQ in early March. Are there more destinations with this new schedule? Is this a test to make them year-round?

BIO has resumed in March for a few years, not 100% sure about SCQ.

There is potential for BIO to work in winter but scheduling would be key. No sure about SCQ, OPO likely a better choice.

http://www.travelextra.ie/behind-trans- ... er-lingus/

What is behind the trans-Atlantic ‘sandwich spat” at Aer Lingus?

Is serving a hot sandwich rather than a cold sandwich an industrial relations issue? Aer Lingus faces the threat of strike action over a new sandwich option for customers on long haul flights.

With an increasing number of long haul flights on offer from Aer Lingus (next up is the Miami in September), the airline has trialled extra food options on their longer services.

These include a magnum or cornetto ice cream between meals, and the replacement of the final meal, usually a cold sandwich, with a “bake house” hot sandwich.

Impact has claimed this is a change in terms and competitions. The union is to ballot 1,000 Aer Lingus cabin crew on whether selling of extra sandwiches, ice cream, tea and coffee on transatlantic flights is worthy of strike action. Michael Landers of Impact

The Sunday Business Post reported that the union whose aviation section is headed up by Michael Landers have asked staff not to co-operate with the new service and quote an internal memo: “The company have been informed that the ice cream/Bia with free tea and coffee/hot snack, sandwich service due to start tomorrow is in contravention to our service agreement,”

€80,000 spent on security at closed down Galway Airport

It has emerged that the two local authorities in Galway spent almost €80,000 last year on security at the abandoned Galway Airport.

The facility was closed to flights in 2013 and subsequently purchased by Galway City and County Councils.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0109/843742 ... -security/

JAmie2k9 wrote:

AF taking over CDG from WX, schedules showing A318 from 29 October 2018. Following successful KLM AMS service which is showing x3 daily for winter 17/18 at the minute (08.55 ex DUB not showing).

Interesting to see if it happens....

That would be a bit of a blow for City Jet!

JAmie2k9 wrote:

http://www.travelextra.ie/behind-trans-atlantic-sandwich-spat-aer-lingus/

What is behind the trans-Atlantic ‘sandwich spat” at Aer Lingus?

Is serving a hot sandwich rather than a cold sandwich an industrial relations issue? Aer Lingus faces the threat of strike action over a new sandwich option for customers on long haul flights.

With an increasing number of long haul flights on offer from Aer Lingus (next up is the Miami in September), the airline has trialled extra food options on their longer services.

These include a magnum or cornetto ice cream between meals, and the replacement of the final meal, usually a cold sandwich, with a “bake house” hot sandwich.

Impact has claimed this is a change in terms and competitions. The union is to ballot 1,000 Aer Lingus cabin crew on whether selling of extra sandwiches, ice cream, tea and coffee on transatlantic flights is worthy of strike action. Michael Landers of Impact

The Sunday Business Post reported that the union whose aviation section is headed up by Michael Landers have asked staff not to co-operate with the new service and quote an internal memo: “The company have been informed that the ice cream/Bia with free tea and coffee/hot snack, sandwich service due to start tomorrow is in contravention to our service agreement,”

This makes the union seem petty. Very similar to AF whose union banned the cabin crew from taking off the tray covers from J class starters.

stratocruiser wrote:

That would be a bit of a blow for City Jet!

It has been on the cards for a while and no surprise.

The wing tip of EI-DUZ struck the door of one of the hangars in Dublin while being towed, it had to be removed and will be out of action temporarily.

WOW have DUB-KEF increased from 5 weekly to daily beginning 28 October 2017. Notice ORK-KEF showing at x3 weekly from 1 October. Wonder if it will be workable year round. Guess a lot may depend on DY.

JAmie2k9 wrote:

WOW have DUB-KEF increased from 5 weekly to daily beginning 28 October 2017. Notice ORK-KEF showing at x3 weekly from 1 October. Wonder if it will be workable year round. Guess a lot may depend on DY.

Great to see. My last 2 flights on WOW were both the A321 which were both full, a lot of transfers beyond KEF but predominantly Irish visiting Iceland.

Were going to KEF in July, from ORK. Hopefully loads will be strong.
It's good to see WW extending the season from ORK, year round, or near year-round would be great, likely at less frequency. They might do well over Christmas and New Year times as well with transfers from the US network.

All indications are that Providence will be the 'Boston' surrogate to go along with Stewart north of New York City. As a resident of New Hampshire I was hoping that one of our two airports (Manchester and Pease) would land Norwegian's 737-800 Boston base of operations. But Providence has what MHT doesn't: Customs and immigration. Not an issue for Ireland flights, but certainly an issue for anything else Norwegian might launch.

Our own domestic carriers (aside from DL) are practically apathetic about flying from Boston to Europe, figuring that people can just find their way down to JFK to board those flights (Yeah, that'll happen).

The Montpellier Rugby team will arrive for the game vs. Leinster with an Enhance Aero EMB-145 tomorrow:

http://footballcharters.blogspot.com/20 ... -2017.html

Rumors getting stronger of Norwegian and BFS in talks about a possible BFS-NYC/BFS-BOS route.

JAmie2k9 wrote:

http://www.travelextra.ie/behind-trans-atlantic-sandwich-spat-aer-lingus/

What is behind the trans-Atlantic ‘sandwich spat” at Aer Lingus?

Is serving a hot sandwich rather than a cold sandwich an industrial relations issue? Aer Lingus faces the threat of strike action over a new sandwich option for customers on long haul flights

This is actually one of the most stupid things I have ever seen in my life. Aer Lingus Cabin Crew are paid a pretty decent salary compared to the likes of Ryanair and British Airways Mixed Fleet, so I will be in shock if there is industrial action over this. Deep shock.I would hardly turn around at my work when there is a change and say "that's not my job". Unbelievable.

OA260 wrote:

Rumors getting stronger of Norwegian and BFS in talks about a possible BFS-NYC/BFS-BOS route.

The 737 has the legs for it right? Wouldn't surprise to me to see it happen given Norwegian's ambitions but the talk of multiple carriers showing interest gets a bit tiring after a while, just like it did after the loss of the Canadian route a few years back.

Aer Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh was speaking at an event tonight, some of his comments shed light on their plans for the future.

At present there is no business case for either the A330neo or A350 for Aer Lingus according to the CEO, he cited fuel and ownership costs as factors. I think we can expect Aer Lingus to stick with the A333 as their widebody of choice well into the next decade unfortunately.

Looking at finalising a deal for the A321neoLR in the coming weeks and plans to use them on both medium and short haul routes. I'm guessing medium haul is referring to east coast North American destinations and short haul is UK and Europe!

The airline will take delivery of 4 A333s over the next 18-24 months, we already know 2 on the order books due later this year so it's safe to assume a further two could be arriving next year.

Also considering using the A330 on DUB-LHR to feed IAG Cargo, we already see extensive wide body use between the other IAG hubs of LHR and MAD with A330s/340s of Iberia and 767/777s of British Airways scheduled regularly. It's often said this is down to the cargo, rather than the passenger, demand between to the two cities.

Shamrock350

shamrock350 wrote:

At present there is no business case for either the A330neo or A350 for Aer Lingus according to the CEO, he cited fuel and ownership costs as factors. I think we can expect Aer Lingus to stick with the A333 as their widebody of choice well into the next decade unfortunately.

shamrock350 wrote:

The airline will take delivery of 4 A333s over the next 18-24 months, we already know 2 on the order books due later this year so it's safe to assume a further two could be arriving next year.

I wonder if Aer Lingus would have any use for, or interest in, the A330-300s that future oneworld ATI/JV partner AA is looking to offload in the next few years?

JAmie2k9 wrote:

http://www.travelextra.ie/behind-trans-atlantic-sandwich-spat-aer-lingus/

What is behind the trans-Atlantic ‘sandwich spat” at Aer Lingus?

Is serving a hot sandwich rather than a cold sandwich an industrial relations issue? Aer Lingus faces the threat of strike action over a new sandwich option for customers on long haul flights.

With an increasing number of long haul flights on offer from Aer Lingus (next up is the Miami in September), the airline has trialled extra food options on their longer services.

These include a magnum or cornetto ice cream between meals, and the replacement of the final meal, usually a cold sandwich, with a “bake house” hot sandwich.

Impact has claimed this is a change in terms and competitions. The union is to ballot 1,000 Aer Lingus cabin crew on whether selling of extra sandwiches, ice cream, tea and coffee on transatlantic flights is worthy of strike action. Michael Landers of Impact

The Sunday Business Post reported that the union whose aviation section is headed up by Michael Landers have asked staff not to co-operate with the new service and quote an internal memo: “The company have been informed that the ice cream/Bia with free tea and coffee/hot snack, sandwich service due to start tomorrow is in contravention to our service agreement,”

This has got to be a joke, right ? Is it the choice of ice cream that's unsettling them or the sudden change from 'cold hand' to warm hand' creating a health & safety issue ?

commavia wrote:

shamrock350 wrote:

At present there is no business case for either the A330neo or A350 for Aer Lingus according to the CEO, he cited fuel and ownership costs as factors. I think we can expect Aer Lingus to stick with the A333 as their widebody of choice well into the next decade unfortunately.

shamrock350 wrote:

The airline will take delivery of 4 A333s over the next 18-24 months, we already know 2 on the order books due later this year so it's safe to assume a further two could be arriving next year.

I wonder if Aer Lingus would have any use for, or interest in, the A330-300s that future oneworld ATI/JV partner AA is looking to offload in the next few years?

What engines do AA fleet have?

I suspect they have/will agree a cheap deal with Airbus for A333 over the coming years.

The wrong engines - P&W I believe, the A333s.

Stobart revives €14m buyout of leasing firm from Aer Lingus despite scrapping Cityjet merger

Stobart Group is pressing ahead with the €14m acquisition of a 33pc stake in an aircraft-leasing firm that supplies its planes - despite a wider plan to merge with CityJet being scrapped at the last minute before Christmas.

http://www.independent.ie/business/iris ... 58314.html

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Aer Lingus Regional’s Donegal services carried 25% more people in 2016

Aer Lingus Regional carried 40,000 passengers on flights from Donegal last year, an increase of more than 25%.

The service, links Donegal Airport with Dublin and Glasgow, with July the busiest month in 2016.

Martin Saxton, Stobart Air’s Chief Commercial Officer says Donegal is an integral part of the Aer Lingus Regional network, and the increase in passenger numbers on both of the Donegal routes indicates a rising demand for connections to major tourism and commercial centres.

http://www.highlandradio.com/2017/01/12 ... e-in-2016/

Record 2016 For Dublin Airport With Almost 28M Passengers:

https://www.dublinairport.com/latest-ne ... passengers