Aer Lingus

[Aviador]

Aer Lingus maintain flights to Dublin for Winter 2011/12

Bristol-Dublin

The Aer Lingus timetable for winter 2011/2012 shows BRS-DUB continuing its summer 2011 schedule of 20 flights per week.

Ryanair is also showing 21 flights per week for the winter too, a continuation of the current summer schedule.

That's a lot of seats for summer, let alone winter.

Generally speaking flights to Dublin will perform well year round. There's a high number of Irish people living in the UK who fly back and fourth to Dublin to see their families.

I don't know what the support is like for Bristol City but the Irish like to support the English football clubs. The likes of Leeds United and Manchester United attract a sizable number of Irish support. Many supporters come over to the UK just for the weekend to go to football matches. Others like to come over just to go drinking because it's so much cheaper here than it is in Dublin.

Whether there will be sufficient numbers of passengers to sustain 41 flights a week from Bristol to Dublin remains to be seen.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I don't know what the support is like for Bristol City but the Irish like to support the English football clubs. The likes of Leeds United and Manchester United attract a sizable number of Irish support.

I don't think that Bristol is known for its sporting prowess. I can't imagine many Irish people come over to watch Bristol City, or Bristol Rovers for that matter.

The airport and city do well when Ireland are playing Wales at rugby at the Millennium and when there is an Irish side in the Heineken rugby cup final when that too is played at the Millennium.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The booking Aer Lingus booking page is now showing that BRS-DUB will be only 2 x daily on weekdays this winter. The evening rotation seems to have been axed.

Next summer's booking engine is showing a return to 3 x daily but so did the winter one until recently.

Ryanair was still 3 x daily this winter the last time I looked but we know how FR is liable to chop and change its timetable right up until it begins to take effect. 6 x daily rotations in winter always seemed a bit excessive even though the Dublin route is the most popular from BRS in terms of annual passenger numbers.

 

[Aviador]

The booking Aer Lingus booking page is now showing that BRS-DUB will be only 2 x daily on weekdays this winter. The evening rotation seems to have been axed.

Next summer's booking engine is showing a return to 3 x daily but so did the winter one until recently.

Ryanair was still 3 x daily this winter the last time I looked but we know how FR is liable to chop and change its timetable right up until it begins to take effect. 6 x daily rotations in winter always seemed a bit excessive even though the Dublin route is the most popular from BRS in terms of annual passenger numbers.

Well I guess at least it's still running which is the main thing. I half expected Aer Lingus to pull this route before now if I'm honest. It's still going so good on them for making a go of it, especially against the might of Ryanair. It would be nice to know how many passengers are using this service to transit to the US.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]A pilot was arrested after failing a breath test minutes before he was due to fly a plane from Bristol to Ireland.

Worried airport staff called police when they saw the unnamed pilot walk through the passenger security gate rather than the designated crew entrance.

He was not wearing his pilot's uniform and one source claimed he had gone to a hotel with a member of the cabin crew.

That afternoon he had been into Bristol city centre following a five or six-hour stopover in the city.

The pilot was due to fly the 5.10pm Aer Lingus Regional ATR72 flight (run by Aer Arann) to Cork in Ireland with 24 passengers on board

Police arrived at Bristol Airport about 5.30pm last night to breathalyse the pilot following the concerns about his fitness to fly, the Daily Mirror said.

Officers arrested him on suspicion of being over the alcohol limit when he failed the test.[/textarea]

Full report at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... limit.html

The pilot later passed a second breath test at the police station and was released.

Aer Arann stated they were conducting a thorough investigation and taking the matter very seriously.

Tha passengers were later flown to Cork (four hours late) with another crew.

I'm surprised that the pilot was able to have 'free time' in Bristol during the afternoon.

I always believed that one crew did ORK-BRS-SNN-BRS-ORK leaving Cork mid morning and returning early evening.

24 passengers also seems a light load. It's much lower than the usual monthly average load even in mid winter.

"He was not wearing his pilot's uniform." Was he wearing anything? :shok:

 

[fevflyer]

Hi

Looking for tie ups with Arann's flights on behalf of Aer Lingus Regional.
Can anyone provide the alphanumeric callsigns?

Many thanks in advance

Stuart

 

[alphagolf]

Bristol - Shannon route suspended from 30th September! :s_sad

SHANNON Airport has suffered a blow with the news that Aer Arann is to suspend its service to Bristol for the winter.

The service will operate up to and including Sunday, September 30.

Low passenger numbers are being blamed for the suspension of the service.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Aer Arann said Aer Lingus Regional remain fully committed to its Shannon base and will now focus on developing existing services from Shannon airport.

Aer Arann’s interim chief executive Sean Brogan said: “Aer Lingus Regional has a strong presence in Shannon Airport and we remain fully committed to our Shannon base. Our experience shows us that the Shannon-Bristol service is a seasonal route that is reasonably busy in summer but less busy in winter when fewer people travel.”

The airline also has routes going to Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Rennes in France. It employs 30 staff in Shannon.

Article from Limerick Leader

 

[Aviador]

Stopping at the end of September is even before the end of the traditional summer season so forward bookings must be really low unless the yield is for them to be stopping the route earlier. I have my doubts whether Shannon will be back for next summer. I expect the article will have originated from the airline as a press release and unfortunately airline press releases often distort the truth.

 

[ezy_brs]

hello all! 1st post on these forums! As you all may or may not be aware Etihad Airways has purchased a nearly 3% stake in Aer Lingus recently, meaning that on the Bristol-Dublin routes you will soon see codeshare flight numbers on these routes with Etihad Airways. Not bad I suppose!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

hello all! 1st post on these forums! As you all may or may not be aware Etihad Airways has purchased a nearly 3% stake in Aer Lingus recently, meaning that on the Bristol-Dublin routes you will soon see codeshare flight numbers on these routes with Etihad Airways. Not bad I suppose!

Welcome to the forum ezy_brs and thank you for the above.

We hope to read more posts from you in future.

Stopping at the end of September is even before the end of the traditional summer season so forward bookings must be really low unless the yield is for them to be stopping the route earlier. I have my doubts whether Shannon will be back for next summer.

The BRS management was aware as long ago as mid-June that the Shannon route would not operate this coming winter. In fact, it hasn't been bookable on the Aer Lingus website after September for a few weeks. So far as I know they expect it to return next summer.

This may be one reason why Ryanair has reinstated their Knock service for this winter. In 2011 it was reduced to a summer-only route.

The last two months have seen average loads of 42-44 on the 6 x weekly service BRS-SNN route (CAA stats) - ATR 72 equipment.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol-Dublin

Aer Lingus Regional will operate a third rotation on Fridays and Sundays commencing 16 November this year.

Timings are: DUB-BRS 1010-1120; BRS-DUB 1145-1300

Aer Lingus Regional commenced a 3 x daily BRS-DUB in summer 2011 against Ryanair's 3 x daily. Last winter and in summer 2012 Aer Lingus Regional reduced to 2 x daily whilst Ryanair retained its 3 x daily.

The winter about to start sees Ryanair reducing to 2 x daily so maybe Aer Lingus Regional has spotted a gap at weekends.

 

[Aviador]

That's good news, the route must be performing well for them.

As you mentioned, Ryanair has a tendency to reduce rotations to Dublin during the winter months, probably because the 737-800 is too large for the route to sustain profitability.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2013

Aer Lingus Regional now showing in its timetable that BRS-DUB will operate 3 x daily on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, with the remaining four days each week double daily.

In summer 2012 all days were double daily.

No doubt taking advantage of Ryanair's move to cut back to double daily from 3 x daily.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.anna.aero/2013/05/09/intervi ... aer-arann/

This interview is worth a read. It deals with Aer Arann's expansion plans under the Aer Lingus Regional brand and at one point speaks of current evaluation of new routes to the UK with particular reference to Cork and Shannon airports.

The airline intends to double its annual passenger numbers to two million by 2015 and will need 15 aircraft to operate its summer 2014 network.

There must be a chance that the Shannon route will reappear. In terms of loads it never did as well as the airline's BRS-ORK route (when Ryanair operated BRS-SNN the loads were regularly well above the 100 level but that ended when FR fell out with SNN) but it was on a par with CWL-ORK which the Welsh capital's airport is hoping to restart after several years without it.

We know that loads themselves do not define profitability but I wouldn't be surprised to see BRS-SNN return.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Aer Lingus Regional winter 2013-2014

The EI booking engine currently shows DUB-BRS as single daily (early morning) for next winter. Does anyone know if this is what is planned or will a second daily rotation be added in due course?

I wondered if Rynair had increased its DUB-BRS leading EIN to respond by downsizing but FR's winter DUB-BRS doesn't appear to be published yet.

ORK-BRS remains single daily next winter as it's been year-round for a number of years.

Addendum

According to a poster on another forum BRS-DUB for winter 13/14 is only partially finalised.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Aer Arann targets British transatlantic fliers

Regional airline Aer Arann is targeting British transatlantic fliers as it bids to boost traffic on its routes.

The carrier said yesterday that it is planning to create 50 jobs and invest €144 million in eight new aircraft as part of a growth strategy begun last year.

Interim chief executive, Seán Brogan said it has identified a market for connecting travellers from British regional airports to Aer Lingus transatlantic flights from Dublin.......................................................

........................“As an example, Bristol did have a transatlantic service that ceased, we recently undertook a huge campaign there and we have quadrupled our transatlantic traffic since,” said Mr Brogan.[/textarea]

Full report at: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sect ... -1.1403245

That's encouraging news for both airline and airport though we aren't told what the quadupling of passenger numbers amounted to - four instead of one could fit that bill - but it is to hoped it's a substantial number.

 

[superking]

You sound like a bit reserved on the extra pax on tranatlantic flights localyokel if that is correct then point to point pax loads must be suffering. i have noticed its an atr 43 being used on most rotations in place of the at72.i dont know how pax numbers on the dublin route for arann. can only think loads on a 72 were dire and they now using the 43 with not far from a full load.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

You sound like a bit reserved on the extra pax on tranatlantic flights localyokel if that is correct then point to point pax loads must be suffering. i have noticed its an atr 43 being used on most rotations in place of the at72.i dont know how pax numbers on the dublin route for arann. can only think loads on a 72 were dire and they now using the 43 with not far from a full load.

I'm not reserved about this in the sense of being pessimistic - far from it.

The fact that EI put on a third daily rotation on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays this year is encouraging.

Looking at BRS-DUB as a whole, in April there were 24,621 passengers flown which is around 10% down on April 2012.

However, with Ryanair reducing their rotations from 21 to 16 x weekly compared with Apri 2012, and allowing for the third EI rotation on 3 days per week (the luncthime one is scheduled as an ATR 42 with Mayfly showing the other two daily rotations as a 72), it means there were approximately 16% fewer seats each month, so a reduction of only 10% in passenger numbers is a good sign that suggests improving loads.

What we don't know is whether EI or Ryanair has benefited most.

I suspect that EI will be happy with more passengers flying transatlantic even if point to points loads are down (if they are).

BRS-DUB always seems to be re-adjusting, up or down, to try to get the right balance of service frequency.

 

[alphagolf]

Aer Lingus Regional winter 2013-2014

The EI booking engine currently shows DUB-BRS as single daily (early morning) for next winter. Does anyone know if this is what is planned or will a second daily rotation be added in due course?

I wondered if Rynair had increased its DUB-BRS leading EIN to respond by downsizing but FR's winter DUB-BRS doesn't appear to be published yet.

ORK-BRS remains single daily next winter as it's been year-round for a number of years.

Addendum

According to a poster on another forum BRS-DUB for winter 13/14 is only partially finalised.

Just tried a dummy booking for the first week of November 2013 and it has come back with 3 x Daily Mon to Fri, 2 x Daily Sat & Sun.

I think last winter it was 2 x Daily Monday to Sunday, correct me if I am wrong........ if I am correct then its an increase of 5 flights per week.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just tried a dummy booking for the first week of November 2013 and it has come back with 3 x Daily Mon to Fri, 2 x Daily Sat & Sun.

I think last winter it was 2 x Daily Monday to Sunday, correct me if I am wrong........ if I am correct then its an increase of 5 flights per week.

That's good news.

Last winter Fri and Sun went to 3 x daily from 16 November. This summer sees 3 x daily on Mon, Thurs and Fri - the rest 2 x daily.

Any idea of the equipment for this coming winter? BRS seems to have seen a lot of 42s on the DUB especially the lunchtime and teatime rotations.