![]() Y ou don't have the tour groups, don't get a lot of corporate. The winter is not a great time to fly to Shannon. “And even though we fly Shannon continuously, we're the only airline that has committed to Shannon and we've committed to Shannon for 60 years. “We’re currently into the fall season.” he said. So, without those two elements, you really only fly in people who want to visit family, and that flight to Shannon is not enough to save the day. One, there's little or no corporate traffic moving at all, and there's not a significant amount of tour business going into Ireland right now. “Shannon isn't flying right now for a couple of reasons. “If we could get substantial numbers of people that want to fly on that flight, we'll put it into service. “What's happening with the Shannon service from both Boston and New York is pretty much the same,” said Byrne. So that's kind of how we've been operating. And then when it becomes obvious travel is not returning, we must cancel. We have had all the other cities on sale, with the hope that travel would return at some point. “We follow most cities booking requests every day. And if you can't fly out from those cities, then what are you saying about yourself as a business?īyrne said Aer Lingus has routes from 14 North American cities, but New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC and Toronto are now active. And also, we're the airline that connects America and Ireland. “We did that for a couple of reasons: There were some that still travel coming out of those cities People had to get back, that is, they might have had investments or sick relatives or something they had to get back to. Throughout the pandemic, those are the only ones that we've operated and we've continued to operate those, even though we've had few to no passengers up until recently,” he said in a Zoom interview. “ Certainly, New York, Chicago and Boston are the gateways to Ireland. Still, even as Ireland begins to re-open for visitors, the Aer Lingus Dublin flights remains the only reliable way to get from here to the Irish homeland.īill Byrne, Aer Lingus’s Senior Vice President for Global Sales for Aer Lingus, spoke recently with about the airline’s strategy for travel between the eastern US and Ireland. The next month, when the Irish government imposed strict rules that dramatically curbed the number of visitors coming into the country, and required 14-day quarantines for all arrivals, Aer Lingus canceled the Shannon flights, continuing flights from Boston only to Dublin throughout the pandemic.įaced with a long road trip by bus or rental car back to the west of the island after the overnight flight to Dublin, many Bostonians have found those trips much less convenient. Many Boston Irish have family roots in the west of Ireland – Galway, Cork, Sligo, Kerry and the midlands among others – and they found that the five+-hour flight across the Atlantic to Shannon would deliver them close to their home counties.īut that all changed around St Patrick’s Day 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and the airline industry shut down worldwide. In the mid-1990s, a direct to Dublin non-stop was added, and in the busy summer tourist season, there often were three or more daily direct flights to both Irish cities. Clare, and after a brief stopover, it would continue on for the half-hour flight to Dublin. ![]() For many years, the flight went directly to Shannon Airport, in Co. Over six decades, Ireland’s national airline, Aer Lingus, has delivered maybe a million or more happy Irish folks to and from Boston and the Emerald Isle.įor many, the route has been straightforward – a ride over to Logan Airport at suppertime to board a green-colored, shamrock-bedecked aircraft for an overnight flight to Ireland. I will continue to blast them on social media.An interview with Bill Byrne, the airline’s VP for global salesīoston historically has been a “Gateway City” to Ireland, one of only three American cities with that distinction. This was my first flight on Aer Lingus and it will certainly be my last. Some people spoke no English and may not have had the 100 pound plus taxi fare to Heathrow or money for the train. We had to fend on our own to get back to Heathrow. We had to go through customs and immigration and were dumped into the lobby at an airport totally unfamiliar to us. We had to wait and retrieve our luggage, searching all carousels till it finally arrived. We, an entire plane load of people, never received any assistance from Aer Lingus again. ![]() We were told to deplane as we were told that we would then receive further information as to how we would get to Heathrow. After an aborted landing (because of winds) we were abruptly diverted to London Gatwick. On Sunday, April 23, we were flying from Dublin to London Heathrow. If I could rate this airline worse than a “1” I would. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |