Boeing lost another battle - Aer Lingus orders A320s

[CathayPacific]

The long awaited Aer Lingus order on narrow body is announced. This round goes to Airbus (again). 17 A320s are ordered.

http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/ne...tr1083744.html

[MauwieAir]

WoW never thought Aer Lingus would place such a big order, are the A320's replacing the 737-500?

[Bogi]

Good news for Airbus



Anyone know how this Order will be Split? 319+320+321 are a for sure part of the deal but what is about the A318 to Replace the BEA146 that are still in the AE Fleet? The A318 would be look Cool in the Green Colour

[philb]

The order is as follows:

7 x A320 to be purchased outright
10 x A320 to be leased from ILFC

A further 10 A320s are on option.

All other types except the A330 will be removed from the fleet by early 2005, starting with the BAe 146.

[Airnerd]

The order is as follows:

7 x A320 to be purchased outright
10 x A320 to be leased from ILFC

A further 10 A320s are on option.

All other types except the A330 will be removed from the fleet by early 2005, starting with the BAe 146.

All A320s huh? Seems like a lot of airplane to replace the BAe146 and B735s... Do they have a regional carrier they'll be giving the lighter routes to?

[philb]

No, they don't. There are a great number of reasons behind the decision.

Aer Lingus has dropped all its Government subsidised internal routes over the last two years not bidding for licence renewal. All these are now flown by Aer Arran.

Aer Lingus has ceded dominance on many routes to the UK to Ryanair but, in the last 18 months, has launched Aer Lingus.com which offers seats cheaper than travel agents and there is a pick up on the routes to the UK they have decided to stay on, as well as to mainland Europe, poorly served by Ryanair from Ireland.

The A320 is large enough to provide a good level of service on routes with good load factors and small enough (with good operating economics) to operate profitably where load factors are low. Where the A321 is currently used (e.g. the high density Heathrow routes) the flights are basically One World operations with dual flight numbers and it will be interesting to see if there is some slot trade to allow more frequent service or if BA will come back on the routes to pick up the slack.

From a training, operations and engineering view the decision makes great sense and, no doubt, the ILFC leases will allow for return of aircraft if economic circumstances dictate.

One final point. Not yet confirmed, but highly likely, is a rumour in Dublin today that the first of the ILFC aircraft will be ex Swiss machines which will be delivered in a matter of weeks.

[DAL767-400ER]

Boeing lost another battle - Aer Lingus orders A320s

Wow, never expected that :P
This what most people have expected. It wouldn't have made sense for EI to replace their A320's with 737NG's (financial, crew training for the new type etc.), so they did what several other carriers (EZ, IB) have done with Boeing: Tell them you consider their aircraft, have them make you a good offer, thereby forcing Airbus to go even lower and bang, you have saved a nice sum of money.

[philb]

As I read it, what has actually happened is this.

Aer Lingus which, by the way has also today announced it intends to serve a further 15 new destinations over the next 22 months, had neither the cash, nor lines of credit, to purchase the new fleet it required.

Still semi-nationalised, it has come under great pressure (for the second time in 10 years) to get its house in order.

With little real clout available in negotiation (10 A320s is small beer to Airbus these days) it has opted for the best financial deal possible. Airbus will, no doubt, have given a discount but somewhere along the line will have had a hand in the disposal of the current owned fleet and will no doubt receive a payback for that involvement.

Any currently leased aircraft are likely to be on leases more expensive (due to the conditions prevailing at the start of the leases in the 1990s) than the costs with ILFC today, so the airline wins in getting newer aircraft at today's rates.

The maintenance deal will also have played a prominent part in the arrangements and I wouldn't be surprised to see Aer Lingus Shannon being guaranteed work from either ILFC or Airbus as a spin off as the Irish Development Agency is keen to develop further the job opportunities at Shannon.

Airbus have received an order for 10 new aircraft. The ILFC aircraft will come from both second hand and ILFC order backlog aircraft and the airline re-equips. A win win situation for all, except Boeing of course, but they were always running second in a fleet which has seen the marque reduced substantially during the last 10 years.