NWA747SNN

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0606/aerlingus.html?rss

eireman

so let's keep open SFO during the winter- makes sense!!!!
The only rational must be the SFo operation of UA

majik

This is bad, really bad. Definitely a UA enforced decision. I can understand cutting capacity, but could they not do it on the over-capacity eastern seaboard. BOS, JFK, IAD, MCO, ORD (EI) JFK, ATL (DL) PHL(US) ORD (AA) and EWR (CO), all serviced from Dublin!

I excused their decision to cut the DXB service, they never really marketed it well enough. But now I'm beginning to think that decision and this one are a sign of route planning ineptness. Am I being too harsh?

flame

What surprises me most, is that it took so long for EI to announce this. Looks like they are using Fuel costs as an excuse.

When the SFO route was started, it was widely rumoured, at least here in Ireland, that LAX would be terminated ... and now it has

on a personal note..this is going to affect me a lot

GoldCircle

Yes, we discussed this here last August... and it all startedhere way back in 2003. Plus ca change, eh?

And I don't reckon it has anything to do with UA at all.

The obvious question would be where will replace LAX, but I guess the equipment will be rotated out for refurbishment sequentially- and that should take months and months and months. And then they will either re-instate LAX, open a new route, put the 330 on LHR and AGP or simply lease it out.

flame

Goldcircle;

Thanks for the link...I forgot about that, glad to see I got 2 out 3 correct..!!!

eireman

We can only hope that "suspension" is the operative term and that this will return for Summer of 09

Did EI negotiate something beyond "open Skies" with the USA, remember they launched the new route based on an individual agreement with the USA- did that include any freedom rights and would it not be feasible to operate DUB/SFO/LAX/DUB or reverse????

eireman

We can only hope that "suspension" is the operative term and that this will return for Summer of 09

Did EI negotiate something beyond "open Skies" with the USA, remember they launched the new route based on an individual agreement with the USA- did that include any freedom rights and would it not be feasible to operate DUB/SFO/LAX/DUB or reverse????

modularmayhem

Me too... i travelled this route almost every month.

Stampy

Who cares about LAX. It is the dumpiest airport in the continent. Who on earth enjoys flying out of there anyways? Let the airport feel the pain that airlines are cutting routes there (such as SQ LAX-TPE-SIN & UA LAX-HKG) so they'll feel what a disgrace of a facility they are running and be more motivated to improving standards.

Just amazed that there are those "whining" that someone is cutting service to a "crappy" airport.

colmc

Wonder if they'll re-route people onto B6 into Burbank and Long Beach

Bowgie

I understand the sentiment. I recently flew LAX (terminal 2), AMS, DUB, OSL, SVO, St. Petersburg, SVO, HKG, Guangzhou, Huangshan, Hangzhou, Shenzen, HKG, TPE, ICN, LAX (Bradley).

LAX is on par with the two Russian airports and inferior to the mainland China airports visited. I would love to give LA politicians responsible for the disgrace of LAX a good spanking, but sad fact is that they don't care, and airlines dropping routes is not going to make them care. While LAX terminal 2 approaches "semi-OK", Bradley is a disaster.

Public transportation is a joke. Returning to LAX, I was lucky to board the "G" shuttle immediately on exiting the terminal; it is often a 40 min wait. MTA Green line to Norwalk terminus was OK, but why the hell does it not go straight in to LAX? SVO (Moscow) is opening a direct rail connection later this month.

Exiting the Green line, I was also lucky to jump aboard a Norwalk municipal bus (one hour frequency, but kuddos for this small suburban town for even offering connecting bus service at all.) Total time door-to-door in LA: 2.5 hours with two lucky transit connections -- not good at all and by far the slowest transit except for rush hour SVO with their direct rail connection not quite yet operating.

I really don't think EI abandoned LAX just because it is a lousy airport. Must not have made business sense for them. I can't say that either EI or LA politicians have shown much care for the Los Angeles flying public. We still have to fly out of LAX to connect to EI's remaining SFO service. But personally, I would rather spend 15k or 30k NWA WorldPerks miles to upgrade coach to biz, and fly KLM out of LAX to DUB via AMS, like I did to start my trip.

modularmayhem

I dont choose to fly to LAX because i like the airport

I fly there cause i actually have to go to LA

I seriously doubt that EI dropped this route because they didnt particularly like the airport set up.

GoldCircle

Aer Lingus couldn't care less about LAX's crappiness. It has a runway. Anyway, they fly in to worse places. The route will have been dropped due to a combination of the following:

1) SFO has lower landing charges than LAX
2) SFO used to be EI's no.1 interline destination in the US. Higher yields can be achieved on the direct pax, so the balalnce has tipped and they now stand to make more money flying direct to SFO and interlining pax to LAX.
3) SFO saves fuel - it is marginally closer, has fewer atc delays and is a cooler destination for fuel burn on take off.
4) Cargo may be swing the balance also.
5) SFO is nicer!

eireman

Interested to know that myself, I could see myself flying BUR/JFK/DUB if I had to, but with EI pulling out of LAX, the loyalty has gone, If it make sense economically to fly via SFO, then I will do it, if not then all the other gateways are now out there for me to choose.

RE:b6- it will be interesting to see if they do this, but I guess EI probably prefers to route us via SFO on UA- wonder what EI will do when UA goes belly up! Routing via SFO means EI gets a bigger share of the revenue with a longer TA segment

As for those complaining about LAX, come on. It is not exactly luxury, but as long as it has a runway, who really cares.

Goldcircle- do you really think that LAX has a ATC problem- can't say it is any worse that the others, strongly think it is better than the average of the other majors - SFO, especially in the winter is terrible. I bet there will be times this winter than EI wishes they were flying into LAX than SFO and so will the pax who misconnect.