Despite not growing their fleet much, Aer Lingus has very nicely expanded their longhaul route network the past few years.
Last year Aer Lingus added flights to Los Angeles, Hartford, and Newark. In 2015 they added frequencies to New York and San Francisco, and added a new route to Washington Dulles. In 2014 they started flying to Toronto and San Francisco. So they’re not growing at a Gulf carrier pace, but they are adding capacity consistently.
It looks like we now have a hint of Aer Lingus’ next longhaul route. While the schedule hasn’t yet been published, Aer Lingus’ CEO has stated that the airline will launch 2-3x weekly flights between Dublin and Las Vegas this coming winter.
Aer Lingus’ peak season is obviously in summer, when most people want to visit Ireland, and many Irish want to travel as well due to school holidays. Meanwhile the winter months are a lot slower for travel to Ireland, so it’s when the airline does most of their maintenance.
However, Aer Lingus’ plan is to make the new Dublin to Las Vegas flight a winter seasonal route, at a minimum, and possibly operate it year-round (though that would likely come at the expense of other routes or frequencies, since Aer Lingus’ fleet is well utilized already).
The airline is initially planning it as a seasonal service, but chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said it could be extended depending on how it performs.
“We are working to build a business case to operate a seasonal service to Las Vegas,” Mr Kavanagh told the Irish Independent.
“We need to find a balance to the peak summer months, where the US consumer is the main source of our traffic and where Ireland is the destination.” He added that a winter service to Las Vegas would “natucomplement” the seasonality Aer Lingus sees on its transatlantic services.
In addition to Aer Lingus’ new route between Dublin and Las Vegas, Qatar Airways also plans to launch flights to Las Vegas early next year, out of Doha.
What do you make of Aer Lingus’ new route between Dublin and Las Vegas?
LOOKING FORWARD TO LAS VEGAS .
I WILL BE FIRST TO BOOK WITH AER LINGUS.
It would be great for aer Lingus to start flights to Las Vegas, and greater still as my family live there.
New Vegas route ? Viva baby!
when is the route starting
That's a pretty weird slant on it. It may not be the peak season for Americans to go to Europe, but Vegas is certainly popular with Europeans in the winter. Obviously this blog needs to be US-centric, but it's not all about you!
Could they possibly route this DUB-YYZ (anywhere in Canada)-LAS using the 757 or 321? They would be able to carry local and through passengers, and be able to judge the market better. A thru flight is still better than a connection.
They're betting on the "luck of the Irish" at LAS. Next stop... MFM ;-)
EI said they were looking hard at a route to Dallas, TX a few years ago. Whatever happened to those plans?
@ Daniel he was, but supposedly they're unhappy with the A330-200s on the west coast routes, while they love the density/fuel economy of the -300s on East Coast routes. I wouldn't be surprised to see the a350s come in and the EI a330s mostly shipped off to Vueling for IAGs 'next gen' long haul LCC venture. Realistically I don't know how much control Kavanagh really has over the long-term fleet plan, I think he just...
@ Daniel he was, but supposedly they're unhappy with the A330-200s on the west coast routes, while they love the density/fuel economy of the -300s on East Coast routes. I wouldn't be surprised to see the a350s come in and the EI a330s mostly shipped off to Vueling for IAGs 'next gen' long haul LCC venture. Realistically I don't know how much control Kavanagh really has over the long-term fleet plan, I think he just goes along with whatever Willie Walsh/IAG wants for them.
I'd be very surprised if EI will be seeing any of the A350s they've ordered. They'll probably be moved within the IAG group. Stephen was busy saying EI are are 330 operator.
Not to mention the current request for proposals for 7 A321LRneos to replace/expand the long haul single-aisle fleet, primarily destined for increased frequency/secondary airports on the East Coast of the US, that should be finalised in the next few weeks.
They have expanded the long-haul fleet quite significantly in the last few years Lucky, two new A330-300s in 2015, two last year, two more coming this year, and the lease of four 757s since 2014. With plans for 9 A350-900s coming 2018-2020 too.