Hello all just to clarify the two A330’s that EI have new this year
(EI-DUO A330-200 & EI-DUZ A330-300) are the baseline models they are not the X model or E model, there’s no such thing as A330-200E!,there been loads of confusion over on a.net about this which i find very funny!
Another point about the A330-300E is that northwest airlines were the launch customer for this aircraft,aer lingus are not,(another point missed on a.net!),to the best of my knowledge the E model incorporates avionics & cabin improvements derived from the A340-600/500 family,it has the same range as the A330-300X which has a slight increase in weight and therfore range over the baseline 300 model which by the end of june aer lingus will have 5 in total.This A330 order means that EI will still need the A330-200’s in the fleet to fly west coast USA routes as the 300E doesn’t have the legs for,up until the A350’s come,the new A330 order is a gap filler for EI to do the east coast bread & butter stuff,but i believe EI will lease addtional A330-200’s until the A350’s come and then try and somehow source more A350’s from lessors,as a small fleet of 6 A350’s is gona cause problems in a fleet of A330’s as if an A350 goes tech,the A330-300 might not be able to cover due to range limits,
All in all aer lingus needs to transition to an all A350 long haul op as soon as it gets the first one;)