Aer Lingus expects to exit OW in April '07
 

From the EI IPO prospectus:

In 1999, Aer Lingus entered into a strategic alliance with British Airways and American Airlines. As part of the strategic alliance, Aer Lingus entered into codesharing agreements with British Airways and American Airlines, as well as agreements in relation to the co-ordination of frequent flyer programmes and access to business class lounges.

On 1 June 2000, Aer Lingus extended its strategic alliance with British Airways and American Airlines by becoming a member of the oneworld alliance, the global airline alliance formed by British Airways and American Airlines and comprising a number of international airlines.

The primary objectives of Aer Lingus’ strategic alliance with American Airlines are to ensure connectivity to US points beyond the four gateways served by Aer Lingus and to benefit from the American Airlines global sales effort for high yield passengers. Under the terms of the codesharing agreement, American Airlines may sell tickets and place its code on an Aer Lingus operated transatlantic flight when sold as part of a connecting journey from another US city (e.g., Dallas-Chicago-Dublin). Similarly, the primary objectives of the strategic relationship with British Airways are to enable Aer Lingus to compete effectively on a worldwide basis. Under the terms of the codesharing arrangement, British Airways may sell tickets and place its code on Aer Lingus operated services between Ireland and London Heathrow when sold as part of a connecting journey (e.g., Dublin — London Heathrow — Bangkok). For 2005, approximately 5.4% of Aer Lingus’ passenger revenues derived from its interline and codesharing arrangements with American Airlines
and British Airways (Source: Management accounts and internal financial and operating reporting systems).

On 30 May 2006, Aer Lingus announced its intention to exit the oneworld alliance, which is expected to become effective in April 2007. Since Aer Lingus joined oneworld in 2000, its business model has changed
fundamentally as Aer Lingus has repositioned itself as a low-cost, low-fares airline. As a result, membership of the oneworld alliance has become less relevant for Aer Lingus. However, going forward, it is part of Aer Lingus’ strategy to maintain strong bilateral relationships with its existing oneworld partners. In particular, Aer Lingus intends to maintain codesharing and interline arrangements with British Airways and American Airlines and negotiations are currently ongoing with American Airlines and British Airways to determine the shape of new arrangements which will come into effect following the exit of Aer Lingus from oneworld.

It is the intention of Aer Lingus that the new bilateral agreements will retain the key elements of its existing arrangements with both American Airlines and British Airways.
In addition, Aer Lingus has, since 1995 operated pursuant to a codesharing agreement with KLM. KLM codeshares on Aer Lingus operated flights between Dublin and Amsterdam and Cork and Amsterdam. Aer Lingus also currently has interline agreements in place with 36 carriers.

Good deal! I have recently started to fly on AA. I notice that EI has incredibly competitive business fair from LAX to DUB. It's a pity that there aren't more connections from DUB to airports in continental Europe; however, I could do a lot worse than spend a night in DUB! As long as AA allows me to earn EQP's on EI, I will start flying the Irish carrier.

Thank God they are finally leaving OW. EI certainly does not fit into OW.

EI has offered a J fare that is about 1/2 the price of competing airlines for the past 2 years. Just be aware that EI J is not the same as J on most other airlines, it is considerably inferior to AA J for example. So you get what you pay for. That said, I like flying EI westbound (the seat is fine for a day flight).

Any ideas on whether the subsequent bilateral agreements with AA/BA will include reciprocal lounge access - I have a LAX-LHR-DUB r/t booked for next July.

FWIW, I think I've seen it mentioned here that holders of xONEx tickets purchased (or begun?) before the withdrawal date will continue to be able to use EI for the entire validity of their tickets.

The xONEx tickets list allowed carriers on them, and that stays valid for the duration of the ticket (including adding new segments on any of those carriers), so there is potentially 2 more years to fly EI.

The lounge access disappears when EI leaves OW, and of course the only J on EI is trans-Atlantic (so you would have to be flying EI in J to use the lounge in DUB). While the DUB lounge is pretty poor, the rest of the airport is even more dire (makes TBIT look lavish). I'm pretty sure that the only relationship EI will have with AA and BA will be for codeshares (BA has 0 flights LHR-DUB so really needs this codeshare; all the BA flights are LGW-DUB; AA seems to have started new service to Ireland so it is mostly EI wanting codeshares on AA feeder routes in the US).

"considerably inferior" to AA J - good god, that's gotta be very very bad.

AA J trans-Atlantic is above average, compared to the J market as a whole; obviously I don't agree that AA J is "very bad". EI J suffers from erratic service, sub-standard seat pitch, no sleeper seats or evan an attempt at a seat that you can sleep in, limited overhead space (no overhead bins in the center section, so roughly half the bin space per pax compared to almost every other airline) and poor lounges. The good points about EI are the cheap fare, generally reliable service (their mechanics seem to keep the planes in good shape), excellent on-board duty-free shopping with lots of "made in Ireland" items (maybe the best duty free of any airline), and good bread (the rest of the food is less good). I wind up flying EI a couple of times a year and don't regret it, but it isn't a bargain, even with the low fare (basically it is a fair fare and you get what you pay for, no more).

You're kidding surely? I would rate Ei J and AA J roughly on a par. BA and VS are far far ahead, LH, SK and AF are all better and even CO BF product is considerably better than AA J.

LH, SK and AF have all improved in the past 2 years, but there are 30 carriers flying trans-Atlantic.

I rate AA J as superior to VS J because I also include ontime performance and irregular ops in the rating; with VS I have to allow an extra day in my schedule, because VS has been delayed >3 hours 50% of the time that I have flown with them. Obviously they cannot possibly be that bad all the time. Also other than the fantastic seat and the great lounges, most of the VS service elements are hit or miss. I'm of the old school that thinks how an airline flies (as in getting me to my destination on time and safely) is just as important as how good the food is. And most of the time, AA J food is better than BA J food, for example (though I only fly AA J on the 763s, which do have much better food than the 777 J flights, to make up for the lack of F service).

So no, I am not kidding, AA is actually pretty good trans-Atlantic and to deep south america (EZE). Less good trans-Pacific (for lots of reasons).

IMO AA J to MAD, EZE and SCL is ok, not brilliant but good, more so from DFW than from MIA, and best from JFK. On the other hand, AA J to LHR, particularly from LAX, is rather poor.

If only AA FAs stopped chewing gum all the time I'd be even happier.

No experience on SK or VS but I agree with everything else. CO BF is great, even on 757 the AVOD and only 16 seats (great service). AF has improved dramatically with the new seats, great food, great service, good lounges and AVOD. The new NBC seats will be a big improvement on AA. EI is fine on the day flight back to the US. They hope to raise 470m Euro after costs from the IPO.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0912/aerlingus.html