Now that the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA) has voted to accept a Labour Court proposal that included a pay increase of 17.7% over four years for pilots at Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin International), the Irish carrier has reignited conversations with parent entity IAG International Airlines Group to take A321-200NY(XLR) aircraft.
The company’s chief executive Lynne Embleton said during IAG’s 2024 second-quarter investors call that she is reengaging with Luis Gallego and Nicholas Cadbury (the group’s CEO and CFO, respectively) “on the possibilities of A321neo(XLR)s”, adding that the type would bring new opportunities for Aer Lingus.
Embleton added that the pilot deal introduces a new pay scale that applies to all narrowbody flying and gives Aer Lingus the confidence to look at more narrowbodies, particularly XLRs across the Atlantic, “but it also means we get more productivity for the pilots who are flying between Europe so that they can do European flights and then they can do transatlantic flights.”
The Irish carrier had been named as the global launch operator of the XLR. However, due to the pilot pay dispute, IAG dropped Aer Lingus and instead opted for Iberia to take the role of receiving the first A321neo(XLR), which is set to be introduced into commercial service in mid-November when the Spanish airline deploys it from Madrid to Boston.
Gallego said that IAG was still considering what to do with the XLRs. The group ordered eight XLRs from Airbus. The first two, msn 11348 and 11504, are set to be delivered to Iberia, and both have been seen with the Spanish carrier's livery on their tails and engines.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Aer Lingus’ fleet comprises 56 aircraft namely twenty-nine A320-200s, six A320-200Ns, eight A321-200NX(LR)s, three A330-200s, and ten A330-300s.
