The loss making airline is in a very difficult spot. Day after day, I wonder how Mueller would find a way to save Aer Lingus. Earlier, the airline announced that it’ll cut 676 jobs to save costs. Last news says that this number could rise to 1000 jobs if the Irish airline decides to move its operation out off the United Kingdoms. Indeed after talks with union fails, Mueller unveils the possibility to move into UK. The airline offers of cutting staff member wages that are over 35 000€ per year, but crew refused. The Irish flag carrier also announced that it’ll “move to” eliminate additional loss making routes. Indeed the airline plans to cuts its long haul fleet from six to four and its short haul jets from 32 to 28 aircrafs. Mueller added that “these redundancies will commence immediately and will be compulsory”.

Aer Lingus’s chef executive said that he remains confident that Aer lingus can pursue an independent future.

I’m less optimistic. Ryanair , Europe’s biggest budget airline, has already seen two of its bids for Aer Lingus be rejected. The no-frills airline already owns 30% of the national Irish company and  O’Leary recently confirmed that if another bid for Aer Lingus is now unlikely, he’ll quit Ryanair only when his company has succeeded in taking control of Aer Lingus. he said, “we’ll let them mismanage Aer Lingus for the next two years, and they’ll then come back to ask us to rescue it.”

Will Aer Lingus survive? and Can Aer Lingus pursue an independant future?  Nothing is less certain

Please click on AG icon for a direct link to the Aer Lingus photos gallery.

Aer Lingus (Dublin) failed to get approvals from all of its unions on new contracts and will cut the number of positions to retain its independence.

News link:

www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCNGEE5B025020091201?rpc=44

Here are the results of my poll about airlines in difficulty. Last week, I asked: “According to you, which of these airlines is in the worst spot?”

The first thing that the results showed is that all of these airlines are in a tough spot. Indeed, the votes are almost equally place the airlines in the same posture.

Among the airlines I mentioned, the results show that you think Iberia is in a worst spot with a total of 31%. The second “shakiest” airline is British Airways with 25%. I have to say that I put the poll online before the merger announcement; it could have changed the results if voter had known about the BA/Iberia merger.

Aer Lingus and JAL are, in other words, in a better spot than BA and Iberia. I believe JAL will survive because it’s too big to die, and in any case, the Japanese government will find a solution. However I’m less optimistic about Aer Lingus. The Irish airline won’t be supported by its government and no airline but Ryanair has showed any interest. I’ll bet that Aer Lingus will first go through a pretty critical and difficult phase.

EasyJet apologises for Holocaust fashion shoot

BA-Iberia merger – bigger, but is it better?

Aer Lingus looks to move for the long-haul

Ryanair passengers miss flight in airport mix-up

Ryanair leaves passengers stranded

JAL Seeks 40 Pct Pension Cut For Survival

The beleaguered Aer Lingus may relocate from Ireland to UK

AirAsia: Ancillaries and brutal cost control deliver 17.6% after tax margin for Malaysian operations

Emirates to fly to Tokyo

Branson Says Competing Airlines Should Start From Scratch

Ryanair seeks judicial review

Ryanair sued for allegedly buzzing German granny

Ryanair to begin legal battle on airport charges directive

O’Leary not impressed by ex-highflier’s appointment

Ryanair to seek review of decision on charges

Ryanair denies aircraft flew too low

Chinese airlines fall, as yuan seems unlikely to move soon

Air France A380 set for first transatlantic flight

American Airlines warns JAL of ‘enormous risks’ in switch to SkyTeam

Aer Lingus: Airline faces ‘bleak future’ without restructuring

Aer Lingus este compania nationala a Irlandei. Compania are baza in Dublin fiind fondata in 1936.

Aer Lingus (Dublin) is facing its worst financial crisis since its founding according to this published report.

News link:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8358894.stm

 

Aer Lingus Airbus A320-214 EI-DEP (msn 2542) LHR, originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Aer Lingus (Dublin) is considering selling four older aircraft (four A320s, three A321s and four A330s) to raise capital.

News link:

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1110/1224258479348.html

Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information, prints for sale and other photos:

http://airlinersgallery.com/2/1239615/#/gallery/aer-lingus/aer-lingus-a320-200-ei-dep-96-apr-lhr-a6-lr-900615/

Aer Lingus (Dublin) reported its revenues dropped by 9.7 percent in the third quarter. The company is cutting 676 positions and parking a long-range aircraft for the winter.

News link:

www.independent.ie/business/european/aer-lingus-revenues-down-97-1937800.html

Spanish pilots enter in rebellion over security practices of ryanair

British Airways to axe more jobs

New air tax travel in Italia?

Survey finds airline pilots’ salaries in the US

Ryanair Taunts British Airways: ‘We’re (About To Be) #1!’

Southwest Airlines traffic inches higher in Oct.

Is this the beginning of the end for bmibaby?

Zimbabwe plane crashes after run-in with pigs

Aer Lingus passenger numbers down 25%

British Airways remains in the red as recession bites

“A wizard is never late, he arrives precisely when he means to!”, Gandalf

Unfortunately, I am not a wizard, so I can’t really use that excuse. My lack of input has been down to college and me being extremely lazy. Plus, it’s a little disheartening writing all this stuff when no one actually reads it, but I’m Anglo-Irish (therefore, inherently awesome and godly) so I’ll get by and stick to my imperial guns. If there’s anyone out there (I sound like Robert Neville from I Am Legend), please stay tuned for the other parts, as writing this will probably motivate me to write all the others.

Japan is still surprisingly fresh in my mind, even though I came back nearly two months ago; it’s almost impossible to believe. At least it brings me one step closer to my next outing, whenever that may be.

Also, I give serious kudos to the chap that stumbled upon this blog by searching for ‘touronaut’ – you, sir/madam, are the cream of society.

Enjoy the first part of the Adventure.

*  *  *

After having been reassured twice by the Aer Lingus employee at Dublin airport that I would not be seeing my baggage again until Tokyo’s Narita airport, I set off on my trip to London. Landing in England, strolling past the luggage carousels with only mild amusement that my fellow fliers would have to wait several years for their suitcases to be transferred one hundred metres from plane to arrivals, I continued my onward journey in a vain effort to find Heathrow’s Terminal 3.

After about twenty minutes of traipsing through underground tunnels and taking the wrong elevators, I turned up in the airport’s third terminal, not unlike a glorified concrete shed, a very far cry from the cosy and familiar interior of Terminal 1. Everyone seemed to be dressed either like some Afghani goat-herder or Jamaican Rastafarian. Despite feeling somewhat out-of-place, after much ado in attempting to find why Virgin Atlantic’s flight to Japan had already left, I finally got to the right check-in desk (operated by ANA, a completely different airline no less – turns out they share flights with VA) and was told rather apologetically that my luggage may or may not have been delivered to the plane because some sticker or other bit of arbitrarily meaningless paper hadn’t been stuck to my passport indicating that said bag would have to be driven from one plane to another, no doubt a frightfully difficult process. Thankfully, I received my boarding-pass without too much hassle and continuing the theme of sheds and goat-herding, I passed through security like a timid bullock in a huge cattle auction and walked nearly half-an-hour (I kid you not) to my departure gate.  Suddenly, I was surrounded by a lot of Japanese people.

ANA's Boeing 777 to Tokyo - my home for twelve hours.

I had images of my time on the Boeing 777 that would fly me half-way around the planet being some sort of moving paradise. I would sit next to a lecherous Japanese schoolgirl, have a butler constantly on call and that I would have the same amount of leg-room that I had enjoyed on my flight from Dublin to London. I was rather mistaken. Instead of an attractive Japanese woman, I was stuck beside an Anglo-Japanese man that I took an instant dislike to (for no real reason, really) and a middle-aged Japanese woman that spent most of the flight seemingly in some sort of stable coma. Despite having my legs doubled-up upon themselves, I couldn’t  exactly complain about the service that the ANA staff provided – drinks, snacks and meals were constantly supplied and I watched one of Liam Neeson’s new films, Taken,  and some subtitled Japanese film about mountain-climbers charting a conveniently uncharted mountain. Both were brilliant and provided suitable entertainment until I fell asleep somewhere above Moscow and woke up just above Vladivostok with a terrifically bad dead-leg that induced a degree of hypochondria for the remaining three hours it would take for the plane to touch down in Tokyo (and pretty much for the rest of my stay in the East).

Welcome to Japan - ah, good ol' global commercialism.

When I finally landed in Tokyo after what seemed like six months of aimlessly flying around the globe, I was greeted with gloriously torrential rain – Kanto (Japan’s eastern province, home to the capital and Yokohama) was experiencing one of several of its summer typhoons. Of course, me being me, I would never be allowed to leave the plane without some other tragic mishap occurring – within moving five paces from flying vehicle to skybridge, a small notice indicated that I had been paged by ANA staff. ‘Sod’, I thought. When I finally came to the luggage carousels, I was informed that my bag ‘may have not been on the flight’. Being a mild-mannered person, I apologetically filled out their missing-bags form and probably complimented them on their excellent service, perhaps advising them on how to lose other people’s baggage in the future. I was left clutching little else but the hope that my suitcase would turn up within the next two days.

It was 3:30pm and I was starting to smell rather like a lone sports sock found at the bottom of a kit-bag. The one drink I hesitantly bought was cold rice tea. My host, H., was an hour late. Even my stiff upper-lip was beginning to crease. Thankfully, the Fates decided to smile upon me and H. arrived; he had an extremely delightful and accommodating family indeed, and on the way back, I was treated to a view of Tokyo’s night lights which were most impressive. After a brief trip to collect our German friend, D., from my host’s local train-station and we arrived at what would be base-camp for the next fortnight. Sleep was only too welcome.

My host's neighbour's place - what a fantastic building!

I had finally done it. I was in Japan.

Aer Lingus to New New York for €199

Aer Lingus insist on burying their latest deals pages on their site which can make them quite hard to find.

After a bit of digging, we found a flight to New York for €199 – you can find it here

A direct link to all of their lowest fare offers is here

September 11/12, 2009

“The key is not to sleep.”
-Greg

Jetlagged.

I did not sleep on the overnight flight due to my theory that staying up is the best way to beat this. It’s pretty rough. It’s about 3PM here on the first day when I’m writing this which is the same as skipping a night of sleep until 10am the next morning. I can tell Andy is feeling it too. We are chilling in the room right now hopefully not falling asleep…

Haven’t yet.

Today we arrived in Dublin.

The flight was somewhat unremarkable. Whatever, I watched Wall-E… it was awesome. I guess the main thing to be remarked on was that we were flying on September 11, which made a few people we told about it nervous. It was fine, though. We flew on Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. The plane was mostly empty and there was no one seated in the exit rows so we were asked if we wanted to move there. We did. We were seated directly across from one of the flight attendants and facing each other, which was a little bit awkward, but she was friendly. The in-flight entertainment was quite good and I ended up watching the first 5 episodes of Mad Men, along with a couple movies. It was a redeye flight and the “night” only lasted about 4 and a half hours.

After landing early in the morning, we stopped in the airport at the tourist information station, where there was something of a line. Andy smoked, of course, while I waited in it, and when we got up to the counter we decided to purchase what are called the “Dublin Pass.” These were cards that you paid up front for and allowed you to get into most Dublin attractions for free. We also got a city map with all the tourist attractions listed on it.

We walked from the airport bus stop to the hotel and checked in, then set out pretty much immediately across the river and east about ten blocks.

Arriving at our Hotel in Dublin

We stopped along the way a couple times to take pictures of Dublin in general. One of the first places we stopped was a restaurant called “gruel.” Andy had to have his picture taken in front of it:

Who could pass up a picture with the such well advertised gruel?

Andy thought this restaurant was cool, but I didn't notice him volunteering to eat there.

We also stopped at Christ Church Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse, both very impressive. The Cathedral was almost 1000 years old and filled with all sort of ornate decoration.

We have about 15 pictures of Cathedrals, here's the best picture, at Christ Church.

It also had crypts underneath it that you could walk through. I had never been in a crypt before. There were cool exhibits of all sorts including “The Cat and the Rat,” two mummified animals that had gotten stuck in the organ pipes and were mentioned in “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce, and jewels donated to Ireland by William of Orange.

Mummified Animals!

The Brewery and Storehouse had a very entertaining, thorough, and modern explanation of how Guinness is made, and they were in the process of celebrating their 250th anniversary. I tasted the featured beverage in the tasting center, but passed on the free pint at the Gravity Bar, which is the highest point you can go to in Dublin. I did not insult the locals by refusing their delicious gifts. The views from there were spectacular.

The View from the Guinness Storehouse Gravity Bar

Both places accepted our Dublin Pass, which seemed fortuitous.  Well, they were in the Dublin Pass brochure… so I think they had to.

The city kind of reminded me of Baltimore. I think that’s a compliment.  …really?

We stopped at a pub called “The Cink” on the way back for food. It was deserted at noontime. When do people here eat lunch? We stayed a while and watched soccer and talked and tried not to fall asleep. When we wandered back to the hotel, I tried to get my phone to work, but it didn’t. I did get the adapter to work so I knew I could charge it if I ever did get it to work.

We went to sleep at 3:15 (Andy) and 4:15 (Greg) and got up at 9:30 and 10:30 PM respectively to go have drinks at the hotel pub. They played 80’s music and it was pretty busy as it was Saturday night.  It was awesome!  I’ve never seen so many people jam out to the song “shout” since Animal House. We stayed up ’til 1:30 planning and chatting and then went back up to our room on the third floor for bed.

Here is a map of where we went on this our first day:

View Larger Map

About time eh.

Click the images to download the liveries. I’ve uploaded them to AVSIM as well and should appear shortly…

Aer Lingus (Dublin) is threatening to start a subsidiary with its own AOC in the United Kingdom if its unions do not approve its newly-proposed major restructuring. This would permit new routes from the UK. The Irish flag carrier has already built up a large presence in London, especially at Gatwick Airport.

News link:

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/1008/1224256169931.html

I landed in Chicago about an hour ago or so.  Dad and I are at our hotel watching the Twins game.  The trip was fine and I have all my stuff.

Copyright Photo: Sebastian Fernandez. Please click on photo for full view, information and other photos.

Aer Lingus (Dublin) is planning to cut a further 676 positions.

News link:

www.marketwatch.com/story/aer-lingus-joins-british-airways-with-job-cuts-2009-10-07