Aer Lingus

[Wardair166]

Would be good if it became a permanent fixture.

 

[KARFA]

I expect it will be Aer Lingus flight numbers with a BA CityFlyer callsign.

No, these are BA (well BACF to be pedantic!) flights with BA prime flight numbers BA44xx

 

[LBA4EVER]

Would be good if it became a permanent fixture.

Was thinking that myself, i feel that could be a possibility

 

[White Heather]

Was thinking that myself, i feel that could be a possibility

Yes, let's hope they like it at LBA so much they don't want to leave!

 

[lbaspotter]

British Airways Cityflyer - Belfast City - Leeds/Bradford route. All flights operated by Embrear 190SR aircraft.

Sunday, June 13th
BA4473 = BHD 18:15 - LBA 19:15 / BA4472 = LBA 19:50 – BHD 20:50
Monday, June 14th
BA4473 = BHD 09:30 – LBA 10:30 / BA4472 = LBA 11:00 – BHD 12:00
Tuesday, June 15th
BA4473 = BHD 09:30 – LBA 10:30 / BA4372 = LBA 11:15 – BHD 12:10
Thursday, June 17th
BA4473 = BHD 10:30 – LBA 11:30 / BA4472 = LBA 11:15 – BHD 12:10*
Friday, June 18th
BA4475 = BHD 16:30 – LBA 17:30 / BA4476 = LBA 18:15 – BHD 19:15

All schedule flight times are subject to change.

 

[lbaspotter]

Aer Lingus schedule update:

https://www.aerlingus.com/support/flight-disruption-information/

Still no replacement for Leeds/Bradford - Dublin route yet but they are progressing plans to announce details shortly for August onwards.

In meantime I guess they will be rebooking passengers onto either there own Manchester - Dublin route or alternatively onto Ryanair's service, which is due to restart July 16th.

 

[lbaspotter]

New Aer Lingus franchise carrier Emerald Airlines has secured leases for six ATR72-600s, The first 2 are MSN 1107 (VH-VPI of Virgin Australia) & 1169 (VH-VPJ Virgin Australia). Both are currently at Exeter and will be leased from Chorus Aviation.

Emerald Airlines wins Aer Lingus Regional-contract

Emerald Airlines wins Aer Lingus Regional-contract Irish start-up Emerald Airlines has won the Aer Lingus Regional-contract. The contract will run from 2022 to 2032 and the new car

www.scramble.nl

 

[LBA8098]

Presumably these will operate the LBA DUB route once again??

 

[LBA787]

Hopefully both DUB and BHD will be restored to at least 2 per day.

6 a/c doesn’t seem that many though, how many ATR’s did Stobart operate for Aer Lingus?

* Note to self, read the article before posting… Ok so up to 15 ATR’s will join the fleet. This will be enough for LBA to return to previous operational levels with Aer Lingus at LBA.

 

[LBA8098]

Unlikely BHD will be restored now BA on the route.

 

[lbaspotter]

Unlikely BHD will be restored now BA on the route.

My gut feeling is BA CityFlyer will give away as flights are only on sale until end of August, it really dose now look they are just temporary standing in for IAG until Aer Lingus gets its replacement franchise (Emerald Airlines) up and running.

But they might have a fight on the hands, as I hope easyJet are in for the long term!

 

[CM.]

Presumably these will operate the LBA DUB route once again??

Hopefully, but would be nice to see the Aer Lingus mainstream fleet do the LBA flights using the A320.

 

[Finger66]

The biggest potential losers in this may be T3. If there was any truth in the rumour of them starting BHD I can’t see them wanting to go up against BA or EI and also U2. I don’t doubt BACF stepping in is only temporary whilst they have spare capacity. It makes total sense. We need the EI brand back on DUB. BFS/BHD will take care of itself in some form or another due to its overall popularity. I think that will settle down to EI and U2. As it’s the EI thread I will resist drifting off topic as to where I think that leaves T3 ops at LBA. Oops sorry I did it anyway.

 

[Easy 189]

Aer Lingus Regional service set for relaunch by October

Aer Lingus Regional aircraft could be back in the air by October as Conor McCarthy’s Emerald Airlines finalises steps to launch services over the coming weeks, it is understood.

m.independent.ie

 

[Easy 189]

Could be interesting to see how BACF react to EI potentially relaunching LBA BHD!

 

[KARFA]

Could be interesting to see how BACF react to EI potentially relaunching LBA BHD!

they will react by not extending the route beyond September if Emerald commence from October.

 

[CM.]

they will react by not extending the route beyond September if Emerald commence from October.

That’s if they are planning to relaunch at LBA. By reading sources they are looking to operate 14 aircraft by next year so I’m hopeful that they will return to LBA with both BHD and DUB.

 

[White Heather]

It's hard to see them operating from LBA until they expand their fleet in 2022, so hopefully BACF stick with it, and ideally, as pax pick up, go to twice daily. I think they only ever intended to fly the route as a stop gap until Emerald are up and running. The worry is that if demand increases at their traditional bases and the aircraft are needed there, they might just quit. Hence the limited future booking periods.

 

[KARFA]

It is certainly not part of BACF strategy to operate domestic routes permanently except from LCY. They have dabbled from time to time (SOU-EDI is a recent example this summer) but these are usually short lived and served as a filler in between other flight to ensure maximum utilisation of the aircraft and crew. They have picked up this route and Exeter as a stop gap simply because they have aircraft and crew sat around so have plenty of spare capacity, but once Emerald is up and running and is ready to assume the route I suspect BACF will quit and continue to focus on LCY as usual - especially as EasyJet are now also serving Leeds-Belfast.

 

[CM.]

especially as EasyJet are now also serving Leeds-Belfast.

I agree with everything you said above. However with Emerald it is stated they will hopefully start in October but that does not mean they will at LBA. EasyJet’s flights are currently seasonal operating until October 31st and flying to the less preferred Belfast airport. There’s currently nothing bookable to Belfast beyond October 31st so would be nice to BACF continue BHD flights into the winter season as at the moment there’s nothing for Winter. Things could change though and easyjet might decide to make their route year round and Emerald might do LBA flights to BHD and/or DUB but we are not certain of these things yet.