Article from BTNews 28 OCTOBER 2019
IAG concern at Airbus hold-up
Concerns over aircraft delivery disruption were reported last week to have spread to Airbus after International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh said the company was "upset" over delays to the A321-200neo(LR) for Aer Lingus.
The Irish Independent reported Walsh as saying: “Sometimes they gloss over the impact of a delay like this for an airline like Aer Lingus, who are trying to transform their transatlantic service, [but] it has a huge impact.
“We haven’t had a sense that Airbus have fully appreciated the negative impact these delays are having.”
According to c-h aviation, Aer Lingus has so far taken deliveries of two out of eight of the long-range narrow-body A321neos, planning to use the aircraft predominantly on the transatlantic market.
They currently operate a single route to the US, connecting Dublin International with Hartford Bradley. They are also being deployed on services to Heathrow but Aer Lingus has put off launching Dublin – Montreal until next summer due to the delays.
The carrier currently has 34 A320-200s, three A321-200s, five A330-200s and eight A330-300s. It also wet-leases four twinjet Boeing B757-200s from ASL Airlines Ireland and two ARJ-85s from CityJet.
(See also Delays hit B777X deliveries in this issue).
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