Irish Aviation Research Institute

                                                Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner  Etihad Airways has introduced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the Dublin route ahead of schedule utilizing both variants of the type -9 and -10 in lieu of its daily EY41/42 Boeing 777-300ER service.  The 787 Dreamliner is fast becoming the backbone of the Abu Dhabi-based carrier's long-haul fleet. For the summer peak season Etihad will operate four additional Boeing 787-9 services between 27 June to 15 September featuring 28 Business Class flat-bed seats and 271 Economy Class seats. Originally Dublin was to be one of the first Etihad 787 routes when announced in 2012 Dublin along with Frankfurt, Istanbul, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Nagoya – when deliveries of the aircraft begin in the last quarter of 2014. However Etihad's equity partnership with Air Berlin saw the carrier focus 787 capacity into the German market serving Air Berlin's primary hub in Dusseldorf. In a st

                                                  Boeing 777-300ER image courtesy of Emirates Airlines  Dubai Airports has confirmed a 45-day closure of the southern runway at Dubai International Airport (DXB) from 16 April to 30 May for an extensive upgrade to boost capacity, infrastructure and safety levels of the runway. In January, Emirates Airlines said a significant number of its flights will be impacted by this closure. They have grounded 48 aircraft and reduced 25% of the flights operated by the airline during this 45-day period. The Dublin route will have minimal disruption in this period as service is reduced slightly from 14 to 11 times weekly with EK161/162 closed for bookings three days weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Emirates carried more than 442,000 passengers on its twice daily Boeing 777-300ER Dublin to Dubai route last year, an increase of 2% and transported close to 10,000 tonnes of Irish exports during 2018. Emirates Holidays launched in Ire

                                                  EI-STA Boeing 737-31S Credit Sean Flynn Aer Lingus commenced it's wet-lease of EI-STA Boeing 737-31S MSN 24097  from ASL Airlines (Ireland) (Air Contractors) from Belfast City. The aircraft positioned from Dublin to Belfast City as EIN990P at 1630 hours local on Sunday 14 April two weeks ahead of last year's start on 1 May. The aircraft is tasked with two daily rotations to Faro (EIN72/3) and Malaga (EIN948/9) enabling Aer Lingus to redeploy the based Airbus A320 to Dublin enabling the carrier operate increased frequency on existing routes. ASL Airlines has partnered with Aer Lingus since 2014 operating four Boeing 757-200s on wet-lease with two based in Dublin operating selective services on Hartford, Philadelphia and Washington Dulles routes and two in Shannon operating Boston and New York routes.  This summer the 757 deployed on Hartford will be redeployed to new route Minneapolis-St. Paul upon the entry to servic