Aer Lingus (UK) begins narrowbody transatlantic operations

Aer Lingus (United Kingdom) (Belfast City) took delivery of its first narrowbody aircraft, an A321-200NX(XLR), last month and inducted it into service on its transatlantic operations in early December.

G-EIRH (msn 10319) was initially delivered to Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin Int’l) in March 2021. It was removed from the Irish carrier’s operations on November 1 and subsequently stored at Dublin Int’l, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. It was then registered in the United Kingdom on November 30, ferried to Manchester Int’l on December 2, and began operating on the Manchester-New York JFK route the next day. The aircraft is dry-leased from Air Lease Corporation, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module indicates.

The airline earlier deferred the launch of its core services from Manchester to JFK and Orlando Int’l to December 2021 after travel restrictions between the UK and the US rendered its original plan to launch the routes in July 2021 (later postponed to September 2021) impossible. However, despite these setbacks, the carrier launched in October 2021 with the Manchester-Bridgetown route.

The aircraft joins Aer Lingus (UK)’s fleet of two A330-300s, both of which were also transferred from its Irish sister company. One of the two widebodies currently operates the Bridgetown route, while the other was ferried to Bordeaux for maintenance on December 5. The ch-aviation schedules module shows that the route to Orlando will be operated with an A330. The carrier’s published schedule for the Winter 2021/22 season indicates that it would need just a single A321-200NX(LR) and a single A330-300 to operate all three transatlantic routes.