Kavanagh interview excerpt A321LR use
Dec 14, 2018, 4:44 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 686
Kavanagh interview excerpt A321LR use business class euro routes
Aer Lingus plans to sweat the new long-range aircraft. Once they touch down in Dublin of a morning, they will be used to serve short-haul routes around Europe.
“I’ve been excited about this aircraft for the last seven years,” Kavanagh says, with a noticeable excitement. Flying to and from the east coast of America consumes about 15 hours of the asset, with nine hours a day going spare.
“They no longer go spare because when they come back to Dublin they will be going through to Paris, to Amsterdam, or through to Barcelona. This will also allow Aer Lingus to offer a business-class service on these European routes, something that was axed in 2002.
“When we have the long range aircraft going on into Europe, they will have a business cabin with full lie-flat [seats]. So they’ll get consistent service from all of the gateways in North America to the principal gateways in Europe.”
“I’ve been excited about this aircraft for the last seven years,” Kavanagh says, with a noticeable excitement. Flying to and from the east coast of America consumes about 15 hours of the asset, with nine hours a day going spare.
“They no longer go spare because when they come back to Dublin they will be going through to Paris, to Amsterdam, or through to Barcelona. This will also allow Aer Lingus to offer a business-class service on these European routes, something that was axed in 2002.
“When we have the long range aircraft going on into Europe, they will have a business cabin with full lie-flat [seats]. So they’ll get consistent service from all of the gateways in North America to the principal gateways in Europe.”
Last edited by mccartje; Dec 14, 2018 at 4:58 am
Dec 14, 2018, 4:55 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 686
“We expect there to be a lot of demand,” he said. The service will be available on a number of flights out of Dublin, including to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona, which are among the most popular onward destinations for American travellers.
“It will be offered from the third quarter of 2019,” he said. “The first of the aircraft arrives in June into service, the second in August and then we’ll start to schedule the aircraft on to the principal high-volume business routes into Europe.”
Eight of the 14 new aircraft will fly onwards to Europe, Mr Kavanagh said.
“It will give us the ability to offer a full end-to-end business cabin experience to the five or six principal European destinations. That gets us 50 to 60 per cent of the opportunity,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Mr Kavanagh, who steps down as Aer Lingus chief executive at the end of this month, added: “All that will be on offer will be the space and the comfort. We are not going to be reintroducing bespoke catering. There will be catering but it will be the same as you buy on board, it will just be complimentary. We will keep the process relatively simple.”
“It will be offered from the third quarter of 2019,” he said. “The first of the aircraft arrives in June into service, the second in August and then we’ll start to schedule the aircraft on to the principal high-volume business routes into Europe.”
Eight of the 14 new aircraft will fly onwards to Europe, Mr Kavanagh said.
“It will give us the ability to offer a full end-to-end business cabin experience to the five or six principal European destinations. That gets us 50 to 60 per cent of the opportunity,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Mr Kavanagh, who steps down as Aer Lingus chief executive at the end of this month, added: “All that will be on offer will be the space and the comfort. We are not going to be reintroducing bespoke catering. There will be catering but it will be the same as you buy on board, it will just be complimentary. We will keep the process relatively simple.”
Dec 17, 2018, 10:39 am
#3
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Dublin
Programs: Aer Lingus Aerclub Concierge, UA*S, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 41
So further to that, no different catering, just complimentary but same stuff. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...ghts-1.3730604
Dec 19, 2018, 9:05 am
#4
Moderator: SAS
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: BLL & CPH & ZRH
Programs: LX, SK EBD (*G)
Posts: 3,148
I see this development with great happiness, despite never having flown AerLingus before... The article states that the A321LR will be regularily used on European routes such as to Paris, London etc. and therefore offer a REAL Business class seat on certain european! Imo this is huge!
(Until now the only other carrier to have something similar is BA with a few ex-BMI A321s they use on longer route to Tel Aviv, Baku, Beirut, Cairo and Amman. The only other airline to have Business eats (although not lief flat) would be Aeroflot.)
I certainly hope that some other central European carriers follow the example...
(Until now the only other carrier to have something similar is BA with a few ex-BMI A321s they use on longer route to Tel Aviv, Baku, Beirut, Cairo and Amman. The only other airline to have Business eats (although not lief flat) would be Aeroflot.)
I certainly hope that some other central European carriers follow the example...
Last edited by Nick Art; Dec 19, 2018 at 9:10 am
Dec 19, 2018, 9:16 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 686
I see this development with great happiness, despite never having flown AerLingus before... The article states that the A321LR will be regularily used on European routes such as to Paris, London etc. and therefore offer a REAL Business class seat on certain european! Imo this is huge!
(Until now the only other carrier to have something similar is BA with a few ex-BMI A321s they use on longer route to Tel Aviv or Moscow (and even there I'm not sure they even exist anymore) or Aeroflot.)
I certainly hope that some other central European carriers follow the example...
(Until now the only other carrier to have something similar is BA with a few ex-BMI A321s they use on longer route to Tel Aviv or Moscow (and even there I'm not sure they even exist anymore) or Aeroflot.)
I certainly hope that some other central European carriers follow the example...
Dec 19, 2018, 9:21 am
#6
Moderator: SAS
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: BLL & CPH & ZRH
Programs: LX, SK EBD (*G)
Posts: 3,148
Indeed. I think Turkish airlines have real business class as you say on their routes to Europe also (I've never flown them however). There may be a slight snag in the european routes with availability, from what I read into it, the seats will be prioritised for those travelling from or onwards to the US/Canada so as to offer a full business class service. I don't know how exactly they will manage this but I'm guessing not all business seats will be opened up for those purely on the european leg. Maybe only a % of them will be or maybe they will only be released based on loading of TATL pax. It may end up frustrating those who wish to book business on european routes that they are even more frustrated knowing there are seats up the front but with the inability to routinely book them!
Dec 21, 2018, 2:13 am
#8
Moderator: SAS
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: BLL & CPH & ZRH
Programs: LX, SK EBD (*G)
Posts: 3,148
That is true, but those are operated by long haul aircraft usually, so having lie flats on shorthaul aircraft is very rare in europe.
Dec 22, 2018, 2:38 pm
#10
Join Date: Oct 2007
Programs: DL PM; Marriott Plat; Hilton Honors Gold
Posts: 257
While this is great news for the transit Atlantic business class passenger, the timing is going to make it largely impractical to matter much for inter-European business travel. Remember this is only one flight a day. It will leave Dublin around 730 and depart from Europe at around 1100. While the outbound leaving Dublin at 730 would be nice for some business class passengers the 1100 is really impractical for most business travelers headed to Dublin.
Last edited by rcurry01; Dec 22, 2018 at 2:39 pm Reason: Typos
Dec 25, 2018, 3:07 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Naas at the weekend and FRA during the working week
Programs: EI Aer Club Concierge , BAEC Silver, Tesco clubcard
Posts: 409
While this is great news for the transit Atlantic business class passenger, the timing is going to make it largely impractical to matter much for inter-European business travel. Remember this is only one flight a day. It will leave Dublin around 730 and depart from Europe at around 1100. While the outbound leaving Dublin at 730 would be nice for some business class passengers the 1100 is really impractical for most business travelers headed to Dublin.
Jan 30, 2019, 12:58 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 686
https://www.ausbt.com.au/here-is-aer...business-class
Nothing surprising in this, as expected same seat and layout as we thought.
Nothing surprising in this, as expected same seat and layout as we thought.
Last edited by mccartje; Jan 30, 2019 at 5:13 am
Jan 30, 2019, 7:46 pm
#13
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: BA Silver, Hilton HHonors Gold
Posts: 150
https://www.ausbt.com.au/here-is-aer...business-class
Nothing surprising in this, as expected same seat and layout as we thought.
Nothing surprising in this, as expected same seat and layout as we thought.
1-1
2-2
1-1
2-2
A321LR seat maps show another 2-2 row at the front for 16 seats over the current 12.
Jan 31, 2019, 2:23 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 686
Agreed actually looking again prob not based on the A321LR at all.