Airline: Aer Lingus
Flight #: EI711
Route: LHR-ORK
Class: AerSpace
Seat: 1A
Date: Thursday 12th September 2025
Back in September I had decided to attend a railway related event to aid in my professional development, something I do fairly regularly, however on this occasion it required a bit more travel than jumping on a train to London or Birmingham as the talk was being held in Cork. Deciding to make the most of the trip to Ireland, I planned to spend some time exploring Cork and the surrounding area, as well as trying out Iarnród Éireann before flying back from Dublin. Before all that though, I had to get to Cork and so Thursday 12th September saw me waking up at a Heathrow hotel ready to fly across the Irish Sea.
To reach Cork I was flying with the Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus and, with a reasonable upgrade price on offer compared to the basic economy fare, I had decided to try out their AerSpace product for the short flight to Ireland. AerSpace can best be described as ‘Business Class Lite’ and is Aer Lingus’ premium product on flights within Europe, meaning that it comes with some perks that you wouldn’t get with a normal Economy ticket, including airport lounge access. However, before I could try out the lounge, I had to make it through Heathrow’s Terminal 2 and clearly the aviation gods were on my side for this trip as it took just 20 minutes from me getting ON the bus at my hotel to reaching the departure lounge. Check-in at one of the self-serve kiosks was really simple and with access to the fast-track security lane with my AerSpace ticket, security was a breeze.
You exit security at Terminal 2 on a mezzanine floor and, if you head to the right towards the escalators, you’ll find Aer Lingus’ lounge to which access is included in an AerSpace ticket. According to Aer Lingus’ website, the lounge had recently been undergoing refurbishment and had re-opened on the 7th September, 5 days before my flight. Unfortunately, upon reaching the lounge, I found it still hadn’t reopened and a sign on the door directed me downstairs to the Plaza Premium Lounge at the back of the departure lounge. With this being a contract lounge, its offering is ok but nothing special and with access being more open, the lounge was pretty busy. I did manage to find a spot to settle down and enjoy some breakfast, for which there was a fairly standard buffet offering, but with boiled potatoes!
Having headed to the gate around 0830, pre-boarding began at 0845 with me second in the queue after the first check of boarding passes. We were then ‘boarded’ into a tiny space behind the boarding desks, meaning any sense of a queue had disappeared and we were more of a mob. Actual boarding onto the aircraft started around 0900 and I managed to retain a spot near the front of the queue to allow me to get onboard and get settled. The aircraft for my flight was EI-NSC, a 15-month-old Airbus A320-200neo that had been Cork based and doing the Cork-Heathrow flights since mid-August.
I was in Seat 1A for the short flight to Cork and, other than the middle seat being left free, this AerSpace seat was the same as the rest of the seating onboard, however this is no different to short-haul business class on the vast majority of European airlines. AerSpace passengers also have the front overhead lockers reserved for their use but other than that the onboard ‘hard product’ experience isn’t much different to Economy. Another thing that I jotted in my notes that doesn’t have any impact on the experience but I clearly thought was worth mentioning was that whereas most airlines use the forward bulkhead to display their brand, Aer Lingus had opted not to and the bulkhead was blank.
The cabin crew were really friendly as they greeted us through boarding and with boarding complete at 0916, the First Officer started their pre-flight announcement, advising we’d have a flight time of around an hour. We pushed back at 0921, with our taxi to Heathrow’s active 27L starting five minutes later and taking us past a Loganair ATR parked on a remote stand awaiting its next flight. Whilst it looked like we would be fourth in the queue for take-off, after the BA at the front departed, we queue jumped the waiting Swiss and American Airlines’ aircraft and took off at 0932.
Our flightpath took us directly west-ish from Heathrow and for the majority of our flight over England the view was blocked by cloud cover. However, as we passed over Wales, the cloud bank began to break and we were treated to intermittent views of a sunny South Wales coast, including the Mumbles area to the south-west of Swansea. As the flight progressed, the crew started the onboard service and here’s where the AerSpace ticket has another perk, with a free drink and sandwich being included. The menu has a pretty good level of choice given how short the flight is, however I was disappointed to find that they didn’t have the Breakfast Ciabatta available. I opted for a coffee and the Ham & Cheese Croque, and whilst the offering here isn’t quite the Business Class offering on some European airlines, both were of a decent quality.
Just under 50 minutes after we took off the seatbelt sign came on and we began the final stage of the flight. Whilst the skies had been pretty clear as we crossed the southern Irish Sea, the clouds began to gather again as we got closer to the Irish coast. With an scheduled arrival time of 1045 I was expecting a little bit longer in the sky, however at 1031, just 59 minutes after taking off from Heathrow, we landed on Cork’s runway 34. With Cork airport being quite small, we had a short taxi to the stand and I was off the aircraft four minutes after we landed. Passport Control was also really quick, helped by the Free Travel Area between the UK and Ireland, and I was landside just seven minutes after touchdown!
I really enjoyed this flight in AerSpace with Aer Lingus. Whilst it was slightly disappointing the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow was still closed, especially given the website advertised it was open, the Plaza Premium Lounge was still a nice perk of the ticket. Onboard, the extra space is nice and does make the journey more comfortable, even on a short flight such as this one. I was genuinely impressed with the onboard offering, with a free coffee and sandwich being a nice bonus, and the crew were just excellent. Overall, other than the onboard catering not being quite at the same standard, there’s not much difference between AerSpace and one of the other European airline’s Business Class and overall the price is better value for money, so I’d certainly recommend upgrading if you can.
Lounge 3*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 4*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 20/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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