- Aer Lingus bids to grow its North Atlantic fleet from 17 to 30 aircraft over next five years
- Aims to grow Airbus A330 fleet from 13 now to 16 and invest in 14 A321LRs.
- Transatlantic seat capacity would grow from 2.8m per year to 4.7m per year.
Aer Lingus has set out its ambitions as it and sister airlines in IAG updated the market at its Capital Markets Day.
The airline is looking west, with aims to boost its hub traffic at Dublin Airport.
Aer Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh said following the presentation: “Aer Lingus’ ambition is to be the leading value carrier across the North Atlantic. Over the last four years, our value model – a demand-led strategy focussed on the pillars of cost, product and service – has boosted guest numbers, created new employment, contributed to the growth in inbound tourism particularly from North America, and delivered high levels of return on investment to our shareholders.’’
“Today we are presenting our most ambitious plan to date with investments in guest experience, in brand, in fleet, in network expansion and in our people.’’
He outlined other initiatives already revealed, including: ‘’A new brand identity, new uniforms, dramatically increased marketing spend in North America, a free social media wi-fi package and complimentary alcohol for all guests across the North Atlantic, combined with improved mobile web, Aer Club and self- service options will underpin a growth strategy that will see our North Atlantic fleet increase from 17 to 30 aircraft by 2023.’
‘’We plan to grow our A330 fleet to 16 aircraft (from 13 in 2017) and invest in 14 A321LRs to provide capacity to grow both across the Atlantic and within Europe, continuing to build our network and our Hub at Dublin enabled by investment by the DAA in airport infrastructure.’’
Currently Aer Lingus has a transatlantic seat capacity of 2.8 million per annum. The increase in aircraft would see this grow to 4.7 million per annum.
He said that “tThis growth ambition will create a significant increase in direct and indirect employment and career opportunities for all at Aer Lingus as well as wider benefits to the Irish economy as recently identified in the EY DKM Dublin Hub Economic Impact study.”
Latest posts by TravelExtra (see all)
- TRAVEL Extra Remains Open for Business - April 26, 2020
- Irish Travel Agents Association announce upcoming events for Autumn 2020 - April 21, 2020
- Updated return to cruise dates - April 17, 2020
- Future of Aviation - April 15, 2020
- Travel Extra May 2020: Surviving the crisis - April 8, 2020
