Aer Lingus to cut capacity on long-haul and short-haul routes in the winter

Aer Lingus, based in Ireland, has announced that it would reduce seat capacity on long-haul routes in the winter by about 25% for 2009-10, compared to the winter of 2008-09.

The carrier also would cut capacity on short-haul routes at Belfast Airport and Dublin Airport even as it would add frequencies and routes at Shannon Airport and London’s Gatwick Airport.

Changes that Aer Lingus would effect in short-haul capacity include cuts from 24 aircraft to 22 aircraft for the winter period at Dublin Airport and from 3 planes to 2 planes at Belfast International Airport.

A 5th aircraft has been added to its new bases at London’s Gatwick Airport. An Airbus A320 plane would be based at Shannon Airport from October 25, 2009, to “facilitate an increase in the Shannon-Heathrow services to 3 flights a day and is subject to confirmation of slots,” Aer Lingus said in a press release.

Aer Lingus went on to say that it would suspend flights from Dublin Airport to Washington Dulles Airport and San Francisco International Airport from October 25, 2009.

The airline will also suspend flights between Shannon Airport in Ireland and O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, the United States, from September 1, 2009.

The four-times-a-week service between Shannon Airport and John F Kennedy International Airport in New York “remains under close review” but “could stay” because Delta Air Lines is terminating its service on the route,” Colm Barrington, chairman of Aer Lingus, said in the press release.
Aer Lingus said it also would suspend flights to Paris, Milan, Rome, Faro and Barcelona in the winter.

Aer Lingus had, in August 2007, withdrawn its service between Shannon Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport and transferred its slots at Heathrow Airport to its base at Belfast Airport. However, following protests from the public as well as from shareholder and rival airline Ryanair, Aer Lingus had resumed a twice-daily service on the Shannon Airport-Heathrow Airport route.

In the press release, Colm Barrington said that the airline had also offered pilots and cabin crew unpaid leave as a part of the efforts “to help safeguard the long-term viability of the company.”

The “surplus of employees” resulting from the cutbacks in capacity “have been asked to show an interest in paid and unpaid leave,” Barrington said.
The total revenues of Aer Lingus, Barrington said, declined by 16% year-on-year in the first 3 months of 2009. He warned that the airline was facing an “exceptionally tough trading environment.”

Most markedly, he explained in the press release, long-haul average fares dropped by 19% in the first quarter of 2009, “reflecting weak economic conditions and consumer confidence on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Aer Lingus, its chairman admitted, was going through its most difficult period in its 73-year-old history.