A few weeks ago, I covered how Aer Lingus announced that it might end transatlantic flying out of the United Kingdom, which was an unusual announcement (airlines usually announce what they’re going to do, not what they might do). Well, there’s now an update, and the decision has been finalized, and this is officially happening.
Continue reading: Aer Lingus Officially Cancels Manchester Transatlantic Flights, Blames Employees
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Pathetic excuse from another corporation that thinks their employees' lives are like pristine hillsides meant to be strip-mined until the carved out husks of what they once were are all that is left. Those flight attendants are human beings with value and any relationship between employer and employee should be based on mutual respect. When the trust gap is broken between management and employee, the result is increasingly transactional relationships between both and a general souring of the culture.
What information do you have that says the employees were not being paid sufficiently? Rather than just claiming "because they didn't get a pay increase", an evil corporation is exploiting them?
".... The airline was looking for growth opportunities, and the idea was that Manchester was an underserved transatlantic market on a year-round basis (or something)."
Airlines continue to amuse and amaze me. Subsidies have dried up, have they? How did they see growth opportunities? I wonder whose crystal ball they used for their projections.
What is up with Manchester?? All US airlines United, American and Delta have left MAN. BA does not even fly to the US from MAN?
@jim it all comes down to yields. Airlines are happy to service marginal routes when there are subsidies to be milked, but if those routes can't sustain themselves once the subsidies dry-up, then it's curtains.
Well, companies can lie and scapegoat, but it doesn’t make it true. I feel for those workers and the consumers who now have less competition.
I wish they were more cunning than this… well, they don’t call it CunningLingus, now do they!
Parker, I doubt that was even real Eskimo; the fake would likely say something provocative while impersonating.
Well said, All Due Respect. Ignore the haters and corporate shills like Eric. Workers and consumers deserve better.
Manchester has been a difficult market for many years. We have quite often seen tag on flights (e.g., ET from GVA), less than daily service, etc. in order to mitigate low yields. EI had a bold approach, establishing evan an operating base - and has failed. There is just not enough revenue, except for the occasional holiday flight or twice weekly flights with high ethnic demand.
Can't help but feel this is another case of getting out of the ridiculous APD in the UK. By moving those flights to Dublin the higher tax is avoided.
@jim , it's nothing to do with Manchester itself. The US airlines don't fly to any European destination that doesn't have strong demand from the US point of sale. They'll happily fly to tertiary airports like the Corsican ones or SCQ, but they won't bother with Düsseldorf, Birmingham, or even WAW.
FAFO. Unskilled labor pushed too hard. Companies are not charities, and they are not government jobs programs. Perhaps FAs around the world need to realize that as unskilled labor, perhaps you should be grateful of the inflated wages you already get relative to the general population, and if you want more money then increase your skillset instead of extorting companies, and therefore the general public, into paying them more than the market rate.
Unless the passengers are also moving house to Dublin, the APD is still payable for UK departing passengers - with additional taxes and charges for the connection in Dublin.
Think about what you say and then hope you never get in a situation where cabin crew have to deploy the skills they are trained in.
It's impressive how many bigoted tropes you can fill in one paragraph.
Please do tell the flight attendants exactly how you feel about them the next time you fly, preferably before meal and beverage services. Drink up!
(Mantis purports to be an American who abandoned us to live in Asia and frequents these blogs with hate-filled right-wing talking-points on the regular. Call it out when you see it.)
I'd imagine the workers, consumers (passengers, cargo, businesses) affected by this sure do. Now, you, personally, may not care at all, and that's fine, you do you, but let's not assume that just because you don't care, then, no one else does. I'd argue that we all should care when companies scapegoat and lie, because, next time they'll do it to you, and all of us. Accountability still matters, even if we're living through an era of grift and global corruption. Times will change again, soon enough. It starts with each of us 'caring.'
No, Matt, it's because Erdogan's government is authoritarian, and it's a state-owned airline and airport. Ironically, UA flies EWR-DXB and AA flies PHL/JFK-DOH, yet, I guess no one 'loves' Turkey (yes, I spelled it correctly, in English; no I will not submit to a tyrant. Free İmamoğlu.)