Tag Archives: Aer Lingus

AER Lingus relayed some good news for Shannon this week at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport hearing where it was also taken to task for opening a base in Manchester. The good news for Shannon Airport came with the airline saying it will significantly increase its transatlantic capacity there next summer. While it still has not as yet decided to resume the summer leisure routes that it had pre pandemic, the airline’s Chief Strategy & Planning Officer Reid Moody told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport that there will be stronger US-Shannon links. “There’ll be exactly the same frequency on Boston, but more capacity because there are more seats on the new aircraft.” He said that there had been four weekly New York services pre pandemic, but it will be daily next year, while Aer Lingus will also maintain its three daily Heathrow services. Mr Moody was very positive about the performance of Shannon. “Shannon as a whole is …

PASSENGER numbers at Shannon Airport exceeded one million for the first nine months of the year, indicating the strength of its recovery since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Up to the end of September of this year 1,050,916 passengers had come through Shannon Airport. This represents 82.4% of the amount it carried in the first nine months of 2019, the last full year before Covid-19 shut down aviation across the world. The percentage would have been even higher had Covid not still been a factor in the early part of 2022. Shannon saw less than half the number of passengers in January 2022 that it did in January 2019, which was a relatively worse performance than in any of the eight months since. In addition, February was the second worst month by comparison with 2019. Shannon Airport Group CEO Mary Considine said it has been a positive year and that routes to Europe and the US have performed very well, …

THE obligation on Aer Lingus to serve Shannon-Heathrow expired last week, but on Wednesday the airline’s representatives said that the link is set to continue into the future. Its representatives were before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications on Wednesday and they also said they plan to continue with Boston and New York services from Shannon, but don’t plan to look at other destinations in the US.  Following a question from Clare TD Cathal Crowe, Aer Lingus Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty says the Shannon-Heathrow route is doing well and will continue. “The arrangement has elapsed, but we are still selling Shannon-London Heathrow, it’s doing well, all of our routes out of Shannon have performed well during the course of 2022 and we expect that to continue long into the future, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t.” Although he said several times that the existing Aer Lingus flights at Shannon are doing well, Mr Moriarty said he …

A CLARE man who was among thousands of passengers stranded after an IT problem saw Aer Lingus cancel 51 flights earlier this month has praised an Ennis Travel Counsellor for his help in getting him home. Michael Lorrigan from Quilty had traveled to Bulgaria and was due to return to Ireland on September 10. However, it was only on arrival at Bourgas Airport that he became aware of what he describes as “the Aer Lingus fiasco”. The disruption was caused by what Aer Lingus said was a “major incident” with their network provider which meant its cloud-based systems enabling check-in, boarding and website were unavailable. Michael describes the scene at the airport as “chaos” with people, including families with young children, arriving to discover their flights had been cancelled. Fortunately Michael had a place to stay while he tried to organise a way home. The next morning he contacted well-known Ennis travel counsellor Gearoid Mannion, through whose company he booked …

AER Lingus chiefs has reassured local Dáil deputies the airline it has no intention to withdraw the lucrative Shannon to Heathrow slots in the near future. However, the national airline has confirmed it has no plans to reopen its base in Shannon, stating this would not be the best option in the current climate. Concern has been expressed by Deputy Cathal Crowe and Deputy Joe Carey there is no legal guarantee once a commitment given during the sale of the government share in Aer Lingus to AIG ends this September. The two Clare deputies raised a number of issues and questioned senior Aer Lingus management during a briefing for Oireachtas members at the Transport and Communications Oireachtas committee this week. Aer Lingus chief corporate affairs officer, Donal Moriarty told Deputy Carey normally the airline has three return services daily between Shannon and Heathrow, which were operational before the mandated cuts due to capacity issues in the London hub. Mr Moriarty …

THERE are renewed concerns about the future of the Shannon to Heathrow slots in the wake of the latest “body blow” to tourism and business following a cutback in some weekly flights in order to meet the London airport’s cap on passenger numbers. Aer Lingus has decided to cull one of its flights to Shannon from Heathrow ein a move, which may continue for a number of weeks. The Shannon Group has been informed by Aer Lingus that selected flights on one of its three daily Aer Lingus services from Shannon to Heathrow have been cancelled due to London Heathrow’s mandated capacity reduction. The group’s advice to passengers is to keep in contact with their airline for flight updates.” The following flights were cut EI387/388 London Heathrow – Shannon – London Heathrow from Tuesday to this Thursday and the EI385 London Heathrow – Shannon on Saturday. There are no cancellations planned for Friday or next Sunday. Lahinch hotelier, Michael Vaughan …

ANGER has greeted a decision by Aer Lingus to cut back on its services from Heathrow to Shannon Airport, this week, in order to meet the London airport’s new rules on passenger numbers. Senator Timmy Dooley has expressed his frustration at decision of Aer Lingus to pull the 7.20pm daily Shannon to Heathrow flight for this week. The Irish airline had said Aer Lingus decided that the flight being cut this week will be the 7.20pm service from Heathrow to Shannon. The service is the last of the day to Shannon. Anyone looking to travel to Shannon this week from Heathrow will only have the options of the 9.20am or the 2.45pm service. All airlines were told to cut flights from Heathrow in order to bring the number of outgoing passengers moving through the airport down to 100,000 a day between now and September. “Shannon Airport has again lost out as aviation decision makers continue their obsession with Dublin Airport,” …

IN 2015 political concerns about the sale of the State’s share in Aer Lingus to IAG were addressed in part by a commitment from the new owners to keep Shannon-Heathrow connectivity in place until September 2022. However that is now just around the corner, and while there hasn’t been very much discussion about the issue publicly, there is real concern about the future of the Heathrow slots, which are absolutely vital for Clare tourism and the many multinational companies in the Mid-West.  “There is still a great concern that they will go. There’s no doubt that there are people using them, but the fact of the matter is the slots can be used for any route and there could be other routes that could give a better yield,” said Lahinch hotelier Michael Vaughan this week. “That has always been a concern and we were seeking guarantees previously on that, which of course amounted to what we got. You’d have to …