Aer Lingus will be hoping that its deal with pilots will put it back in the running to secure new Airbus jets from its parent, International Airlines Group (IAG), after two of them slipped from the carrier’s grasp in the spring.
IAG assigned two Airbus A321 XLR (extra-long range) aircraft to other airlines in the group while Aer Lingus wrestled with pilots over pay. The jets are narrow-body aircraft, the type familiar to anyone who has flown from this State to Europe. However, their range means they can travel between here and North America, distances normally covered by larger “wide-body” planes, but at less cost, giving them an advantage over the bigger models.
Aer Lingus was meant to be the first airline to fly them commercially, with both it and IAG originally regarding XLRs as ideal for the Irish carrier’s plan to grow its transatlantic business by offering connections via Dublin to its European network. Four more are available and IAG is likely to allocate them later this year.
The Aer Lingus pay deal with the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) caps narrow-body pay at point 20 on the carrier’s salary scale. By 2026 a captain at that point would earn just shy of €200,000 a year under its terms. The company’s management believes this element of the agreement will make its narrow-body fleet more efficient, bolstering its case for the remaining XLRs.
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Developing its transatlantic business, with the Dublin base as a hub, was part of IAG’s rationale for buying Aer Lingus in 2015. The Irish airline maintains that this strategy works. In particular it is luring a high number of North Americans to fly to European cities via the Irish capital’s airport. Up to 40 per cent of passengers on some flights from North America are connecting onwards, and then taking the same route back.
Only time will tell if its recent industrial strife has taken the sheen off the Irish airline for these customers. Meanwhile, we could get some sense of IAG’s plans for those four XLRs when the group reports quarterly figures next week.
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