Things in the Sky

On March 28th, Aer Lingus regional starts up, with service provided by Aer Arann. The two have interlined in the past, but this brings the partnership much closer. I really think this is a good idea for Aer Lingus. Right now, the airline has a huge seat gap. The smallest aircraft it operates is the A320, with 174 seats. (It wasn’t always that way – the airline used to have Fokker 50s and BAE 146s but they were eliminated.) I think that seat gap makes them either too big for some markets or makes them serve them inefficiently.

Here’s an example – right now Aer Lingus has one A320 a day to Glasgow, while Ryanair operates two daily 737-800s. Once Regional starts up, the mainline service goes away and is instead replace with four flights with ATR s. In end, Aer Lingus will still have less capacity than Ryanair in the market, but with twice the frequency. Rynair’s flights are at the beginning and end of the day, but Aer Lingus has a schedule throughout the day, so Aer Lingus might be able to win some customers based on schedule here. The same thing for Endinburgh – right now Lingus has a lone A320 in the middle of the day (and Ryanair has two 737-800s), but now the ATRs can enhance that schedule with an earlier and later flight.

Personally, I’d like to see Aer Lingus get some other small aircraft of its own, perhaps a 319, or an E-Jet, or maybe even a CSeries. But enough about that. Check out these pictures of the first ATR72 to wear the Aer Lingus colors, snapped by photographer Malcolm Nason. I think the aircraft looks great – thanks to Malcolm for letting me post them here.