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Baden Baden based ACM Air Charter are an occasional visitor to Shannon. The company’s Cessna Citation X registered D-BTEN made a fuel stop in Shannon this morning on the westbound leg of a transatlantic crossing. Pictured above D-BTEN, msn 750-0085 is seen taxiing for departure off R24.
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Aer Lingus passed another significant milestone in its long history last week with the retirement of its first female pilot, Capt. Grainne Cronin.
Grainne joined Aer Lingus in 1977 and made her first flight on a B737 aircraft the following year.
Reflecting on the time she joined the company she said last week that "It wasn't easy, I have to say, entering such a male-dominated arena but Aer Lingus were very forward thinking for the time, they were the second airline in Europe, after SAS, to introduce female pilots. British Airways did not hire any female pilots for at least a further seven or eight years. In 1978 and 1979, two more female pilots joined and we flew the flag for the female race for the next 10 years."
On 2nd August 1988, the first all-female Aer Lingus crew operated a flight from Dublin to Shannon with Grainne in command and First Officer Elaine Egan on board the airline's landmark flight.
To mark this historic occasion, Captain Elaine Egan and First Officer Shelley Gahan joined Grainne on Tuesday last, May 25, as she completed her final flight as an Aer Lingus Captain on an Airbus A330 aircraft, operating flight EI 137 from Dublin to Boston.
Grainne Cronin is the daughter of retured Aer Lingus Capt. Felim Cronin. Her husband, sister Caroline and daughters are also pilots.
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Ryanair published today what it claims is “irrefutable evidence that the Irish Government is responsible for the collapse in Irish tourism”. Citing a report by RDC Aviation which shows that Irish airport seat capacity in the period January to April 2010 fell by just over 700,000 seats from the 2009 figure of just over 5m, the carrier says that growth at European airports has returned to all but those applying government travel taxes. According to Ryanair, the Irish, UK and French markets continue in decline whilst those in Spain, Belgium and Holland have returned to growth.
Commenting on the report, Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said “Ireland’s traffic and tourism decline will increase when charges at the DAA Monopoly rocket by over 40% in October as the Dept of Transport rewards the DAA for its traffic decline and the €1.2bn white elephant, T2. Unfortunately 2010 will be even worse than 2009 in terms of lost visitors, jobs and tourism revenues in Ireland. It is time to axe this stupid €10 tourist tax and slash the DAA’s high fees."
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Ryanair announced Friday that it was appointing two new non executive directors to the Board of Ryanair Holdings plc. Former EU commissioner and Irish Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevey and Declan McKeon, former audit partner at accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper will take up their new roles, effective immediately.
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Friday last saw one of Shannon’s long term residents, Boeing 737-3M8, msn 25017 registered to Wells Fargo as N389DF. The aircraft is the former EI-DTY which had been operated by Russian operator KD Avia prior to that carrier’s collapse last year. On September 11 last the aircraft was ferried to Shannon where it has spent the best part of the intervening period in open storage. The aircraft is still in KD Avia colours and had the US registration applied on Friday last. N389DF was pictured at the Air Atlanta Aero Engineering hangar this morning.
Ten years ago in 2000, Gulfstream 4 msn 1025 changed its registration from N421SZ to N928SZ in preparation for the acquisition of Bombardier Global Express msn 9056 which assumed marks N421SZ on delivery. In January 2002 the Gulfstream again changed registration to N921ST.
In October 2008, as has happened with many Global Express aircraft, msn 9056 changed for a newer model, msn 9239 which took over the marks N421SZ as a result of which msn 9056 took over the registration N928SZ which had been freed up when the Gulfstream was reregistered N921ST.
Question is – which aircraft is pictured above ? The paper trail on these aircraft must have kept the man in the FAA busy for a few days.
Pictured above, CAM Acquisitions N928SZ is seen in the east ramp in Shannon.
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Friday last saw one of Shannon’s long term residents, Boeing 737-3M8, msn 25017 registered to Wells Fargo as N389DF. The aircraft is the former EI-DTY which had been operated by Russian operator KD Avia prior to that carrier’s collapse last year. On September 11 last the aircraft was ferried to Shannon where it has spent the best part of the intervening period in open storage. The aircraft is still in KD Avia colours and had the US registration applied on Friday last. N389DF was pictured at the Air Atlanta Aero Engineering hangar this morning.
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Two months after the launch of Aer Lingus / Aer Arann franchise routes form Dublin and Cork, both carriers announced today that the second phase of the agreement will come into operation from July 1st next with the launch of four new routes from Shannon to the UK.
Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Aer Arann will serve Manchester and Glasgow seven days per week, while Birmingham and Bristol will be served every day except Saturday.
Announcing the new routes in Shannon Airport today, Aer Arann Chief Executive Paul Schütz said “We are delighted to launch the second phase of our franchise operations with Aer Lingus in Shannon where we know there has been a strong demand for new UK direct services. We are providing a unique product that combines the best of both Aer Arann and Aer Lingus and offers both business and leisure passengers a quality service with excellent frequency”.
“In launching these routes we are responding to calls from the business and tourism sectors in the region and we plan to work with them to ensure the success of these routes and having achieved that to grow our presence in Shannon and to develop more new routes in the future”, he continued.
Also commenting on the announcement, Aer Lingus Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Kavanagh said “Aer Lingus Regional services have enjoyed strong support from customers in the short time since their launch. Aer Lingus welcomes the introduction of these additional services from Shannon and wishes Aer Arann continued success."
Under the franchise agreement between the two airlines Aer Lingus Regional flights are operated by Aer Arann using its own ATR 72-500 aircraft and crew. All franchise flights are sold and distributed through www.aerlingus.com. Aer Arann assumes full operational and commercial responsibility for the services covered by the franchise agreement with Aer Lingus receiving a franchise fee.
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Aer Arann is expected tomorrow to announce that it is to restart services from Shannon. In the recent past Aer Arann operated a Shannon – Dublin service which was hampered by timings which prevented day trips in either direction. Tomorrow’s announcement by Aer Aran is expected to announce that the carrier is to commence services from Shannon to Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, all of which have been served in the past by Ryanair, but none of which figure in Ryanair’s current schedules from Shannon.
If the Ryanair business model has a flaw (from the consumer point of view) it is that the carrier relies totally on one aircraft type. The frequency of service on any particular route is therefore dictated by how often the airline can fill an aircraft. This model may be suitable for leisure travellers who can vary their travel plans to suit the airline’s schedules but for the business community which needs an airline which matches its needs, the like of Ryanair is quite often a compromise when it comes to timings, especially when a route is not served on a daily basis.
Thinner routes need lower capacity aircraft which can serve routes on a higher frequency and thus better serve the needs of the indigenous business community. The economic well being of the mid western region of Ireland is highly dependent on connectivity with the UK and hopefully Aer Arann’s new services will be well supported by local businesses which in the past have been highly vocal when that vital connectivity has been threatened.
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Ryanair took delivery of two more aircraft on Friday last, May 27. EI-EMM is msn 38514, hex code 4CA855 and EI-EMN is msn 38515, hex code 4CA856. Pictured above by Gerry Barron, EI-EMM is seen under tow shortly after arrival in Dublin from Seattle and below, EI-EMN is seen on finals to R28 at Dublin.
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Munich based Air Independence visited Dublin, mid last week with Bombardier Challenger 604 registered D-AIND (msn 5572). German registered since 2006 the aircraft was previously operated by Indianapolis Motor Speedway as N400. Pictured above by Derek Gannon, D-AIND is seen during its layover in Dublin.
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A visitor to Dublin on Thursday last was Texas Instruments Bombardier Global Express registered N917GL (msn 9117). The aircraft was pictured above by Derek Gannon.
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Duesseldorf is the most westerly airport in the scheduled network of Romanian operator Carpatair. The company operates a fleet of Saab 2000, Fokker 100 and Fokker 70 aircraft. The Fokker 70 is the newest addition, the type joining the fleet at the end of 2009. Former Malev frame (ex HA-LMB), msn 11565, registered YR-KMB was added in February of this year and is one of three aircraft to join the fleet. On Thursday last YR-KMB visited Dublin and was pictured by Derek Gannon during its stopover.
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Portuguese operator SATA International’s appearances in Ireland over the years have been by and large associated with inclusive tour charter flights to Madeira. These flights have tended to be operated by the carrier’s Airbus A320 aircraft so last Thursday, May 27th’s visit by an Airbus A310 was certainly out of the norm. The aircraft concerned was Airbus A310-325ET, msn 624 which was built in 1991 for Austrian Airlines with whom it was registered OE-LAD. Following a spell with Air Plus Comet as EC-HIF the aircraft became TF-ELR in 2005. A large number of leases followed including a spell in Dublin for summer 2005 in Aviajet colours. In April 2007 the aircraft assumed its current marks. Derek Gannon pictured CS-TKN following its arrival in Dublin on Thursday.
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The commercial airlines may have tried to put the effects of Icelandic volcanic eruptions behind then as fast as possible but the world of executive aviation would appear to be in no rush to follow suit. Bizjet movements have quite some way to go before they reach pre eruption levels with current levels making the once mundane seem exciting. One such example was London Executive managed Embraer 135-BJ Legacy G-WCCI which visited Dublin last week. The aircraft is operated on behalf of Altarello Ltd and is msn 145505.
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It’s hard to believe but today’s announcement by Ryanair that it is to open a base at Barcelona will mark the establishment of the carrier’s 42nd base. Having established a leading presence in the Irish, UK, and Italian markets the carrier has turned its attention to the Spanish market. From September next 5 aircraft will be based in Barcelona operating a total of 270 weekly flights on twenty routes, 10 of which are domestic. Ryanair expects that 2m passengers will use its Barcelona services on an annual basis. Among the routes to be operated is Dublin – Barcelona which has been served by Iberia for more years than can be remembered at this stage.