Last week Aer Lingus A320 EI-DEG rolled out of the IAC hangar at Shannon Airport in the special new eye-catching IRFU rugby livery. The A320 ‘Green Spirit’ St. Fachtna features IRFU players Robbie Henshaw, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Tadhg Furlong, along with a rugby ball and shamrock on the tail, and the wording “Official Airline of the Irish Rugby Team.”
This distinct special livery consists of four colours, taking approximately 400 litres of paint and 9 days in total to complete. The final stage of this project took 36-hours and 15 of IAC’s most experienced specialists to apply the rugby player decals with precision and accuracy. This paint event was technically supported by sister company, Eirtech Aviation Services’ Part 21 specialist team who provided approved livery drawings.
In 2015, Aer Lingus became the official airline partner to the IRFU and to mark this partnership, IAC completed a similar special livery project for Aer Lingus. May 2015, saw the first ‘Green Spirit’ unveiled with a striking livery featuring four IRFU rugby players. That year, the ‘Green Spirit’ carried the Irish Rugby team to the Rugby World Cup and to the Six Nations. Later that year, the IAC team transformed a second aircraft into the special ‘Green Spirit’ livery for Aer Lingus.
The men’s rugby team will be welcomed onboard this A320 ‘Green Spirit’ featuring its new special livery, for their flight to London this weekend as they take on England as part of their Six Nations campaign. Having won all their Six Nations so far, the Irish men’s rugby team are leading in their Six Nations campaign and are on track for a second straight grand slam. Keep an eye in the skies for the new distinct A320 ‘Green Spirit’ special livery.
Aer Lingus delivers profits of €225m in 2023
Aer Lingus recorded an operating profit of €225 million for the full year 2023, an increase of €168 million on 2022. The positive financial performance in 2023 reflected strong demand for leisure travel on both short-haul and long-haul routes. In 2023, Aer Lingus served 10.7 million passengers, operated its largest-ever North American network and added more routes and capacity to European destinations from Ireland. Business travel in 2023 lagged pre-Covid levels but is showing some signs of recovery in early 2024. The financial performance in 2023 is not yet at 2019 levels of profitability and margin due to higher operating costs.
Advancing its sustainability programme, Aer Lingus took delivery of two Airbus A320neo aircraft in 2023. The aircraft delivers the lowest emissions per seat on the company’s short-haul network. Aer Lingus also procured its first supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in 2023, 750 tonnes at London Heathrow and has an ambition to use 10% SAF by 2030. The airline committed over €306 million in 2023 to investment in new fleet, customer experience, technology and other operational areas and welcomed almost 900 new people into the airline.
Aer Lingus’s CEO, Lynne Embleton said: “These results put Aer Lingus on the right trajectory for the future. We have a compelling growth strategy for Aer Lingus that will be good for the company, our employees, our customers and for Ireland. However, achieving it is dependent on having the right cost base and productivity levels and not being constrained by the unnecessary passenger cap issue. These challenges will need to be resolved by a collaborative and sensible approach by all stakeholders that delivers the right outcomes”.
