Ireland Archives – London Air Travel

CityJet withdraws scheduled flights at London City

CityJet is to withdraw scheduled flights from London City from Sunday 28 October. Its service to Dublin will be operated by CityJet under the Aer Lingus name.

London Air Travel » Ireland

After a long period of contraction at London City airport, CityJet is to officially withdraw scheduled passenger flights from Sunday 28 October 2018.

CityJet has been progressively suspending routes. In recent years, it has suspended Antwerp, Avignon, Edinburgh, Nantes, Paris Orly, Rotterdam and Toulon.

At present, it is left with just three routes: A codeshare on KLM operated flights to Amsterdam; daily flights to Dublin; and a seasonal route to Florence.

As a consequence of today’s announcement:

– The codeshare on KLM’s service to Amsterdam will end on Saturday 28 October 2018.

– Aer Lingus will take over the sale of CityJet’s service to Dublin from Saturday 28 October 2018. The route will be operated for Aer Lingus by CityJet Avro RJ85 aircraft aircraft and crews in Aer Lingus livery

– CityJet’s seasonal service to Florence will end on Sunday 30 September 2018.
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What is the status of the integration of Aer Lingus into IAG?

London Air Travel » Ireland

International Airlines Group - Aer Lingus, BA, Iberia, Vueling — International Airlines Group – Aer Lingus, BA, Iberia, Vueling

More than a year has passed since International Airlines Group (“IAG”) acquired Aer Lingus and it joined British Airways, Iberia and Vueling under the umbrella of IAG.

The merger is of particular interest particularly because of both the proximity of Dublin to London Heathrow and the fact that Dublin airport offers US Customs & Immigration pre-clearance.

Whilst much has been done to align Aer Lingus to their IAG siblings, there is still a lot to be done, with many announcements yet to be made.

Here’s a quick run through of what has and hasn’t happened, with some added speculation on our part.
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BA begins codesharing on Aer Lingus flights

London Air Travel » Ireland

Aer Lingus London Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)

British Airways and Aer Lingus have taken their first steps to greater collaboration now that the two airlines are under the umbrella of International Airlines Group.

The two airlines have historically codeshared on certain routes between Ireland and the UK, but BA codeshares on Aer Lingus operated flights have typically only been available when transferring onto a long-haul flight.

Aer Lingus routes between London Heathrow and Dublin, Shannon and Cork and London Gatwick and Dublin, Belfast City and Cork can now be booked via ba.com when travelling direct between the UK and Ireland from Wednesday 11 November 2015.

In addition, Aer Lingus routes between London Gatwick and Knock and London Heathrow and Belfast City can now be booked as codeshares through ba.com when travelling from Wednesday 11 November 2015.

BA is also applying its flight codes to Aer Lingus flights from UK regional airports, with Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool being the first added.

A gentle reminder that when booking codeshares it is the operating airline’s procedures that apply regarding luggage and in-flight service. Also, Aer Lingus flights from London Heathrow depart from Terminal 2.

We should hear more in the coming weeks about greater co-operation between Aer Lingus, IAG and the Oneworld alliance specifically with regard to reciprocal frequent flyer recognition, codesharing and co-ordination of schedules.

Aer Lingus returns to Los Angeles & Newark, launches Hartford

London Air Travel » Ireland

As was widely tipped online, Aer Lingus has today announced it is to return to Los Angeles and Newark airports next year, and launch a new direct route from Dublin to Bradley International Airport in Hartford County, Connecticut. The latter route will be the sole transatlantic route from the airport.

Aer Lingus will fly five times a week to Los Angeles from Sunday 1 May 2016, and daily to Newark from Thursday 1 September 2016. Both routes will be operated by A330 aircraft. Flights for these routes are on sale now at AerLingus.com

Aer Lingus will also fly daily to Bradley International Airport from September 2016 and flights for this route are expected to go on sale 3 November. This route will be operated by a Boeing 757 aircraft.
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The European Commission approves IAG’s takeover of Aer Lingus

London Air Travel » Ireland

International Airlines Group’s takeover of Aer Lingus moved another step closer today, 14 July 2015, after the European Commission gave formal approval of the deal.

It is subject to some conditions, known as “commitments” in order to assuage competition concerns of the European Commission.

These are:

1. IAG must forfeit up to five slot pairs at London Gatwick airport for use on routes between London and Dublin and London and Belfast. One slot pair must be used for London – Belfast, two slot pairs must be used for London – Dublin and the remaining two can be used for either route.

2. IAG must offer rival airlines special prorate deals for passengers connecting from Aer Lingus short-haul flights to long-haul flights operated by rival airlines at London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Amsterdam, Shannon and Dublin airports. This is so rival airlines such as KLM and Virgin Atlantic can still offer passengers connections from Aer Lingus short-haul flights.
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BA launches London City – Dublin from 26 October 2014

London Air Travel » Ireland

Sunset in Dublin, Ireland (Image Credit: British Airways)

The London City – Dublin route is going to become significantly more competitive from 26 October 2014 when British Airways launches a five daily service between the two airports.

This route has traditionally been a mainstay of CityJet which operates the route up to 7 times a day. BA will also be completing against Flybe, a new entrant to the airport, which also launches this route at the time as BA.

There are two points of note from this announcement:

1. It shows a significant commitment by BA to Dublin.

Until two years ago, BA did not serve the city at all as it relied on codeshares with Aer Lingus. BA returned to Dublin after it inherited the London Heathrow – Dublin route from BA. From 26 October 2014, BA will operate up to 13 flights a day combined from London Heathrow and London City. BA is also moving London Heathrow – Dublin flights from Terminal 1 to 5 on the same day.

2. This puts more competitive pressure on CityJet.

This is the second occasion in recent times BA has launched a route at London City that has been well served CityJet, which was recently sold by Air France-KLM. The other route being Rotterdam. CityJet has withdrawn routes such as London City – Edinburgh and diversified away from London City, launching routes from UK regional airports, such as Cardiff.

BA is cancelling the London City – Aberdeen and London City – Stockholm routes to make way for this service and flights are now on sale on ba.com