DUB to BHX Aer Lingus Regional Economy

Airline:  Aer Lingus Regional (Emerald Airlines)

Flight #: EI3274

Route:    DUB-BHX

Class:    Economy

Seat:     21A

Date:     Wednesday 20^th March 2024

Having had a busy 24 hours in Ireland, it was time to head home and rather than catch a ‘boring’ Airbus or Boeing back across the Irish Sea, I’d timed my return to England to fly onboard one of the two daily Aer Lingus Regional flights from Dublin to Birmingham. Operated by Aer Lingus’ regional partner, Emerald Airlines, these flights use one of the airline’s 18 ATR 72-600s, offering something a bit different to the usual narrowbody jets that operate between Ireland and the UK. I have flown on one of these Aer Lingus Regional flights previously, back when they were operated by Stobart Air, but it had been a few years, so this was a good opportunity to try the ATR out again.

I arrived at Dublin Airport the recommended three hours (yes, three!) before my flight’s departure time and headed to the Aer Lingus area of terminal 2 to check-in, intending on using one of the self-serve kiosks to get my boarding pass. Unfortunately, the kiosk didn’t want to work and the member of staff assigned to help passengers at these, whilst being very friendly and apologetic, wasn’t able to get it to check me in. Joining the queue to be seen at a conventional check-in desk, I was doubly unfortunate as American Airlines had cancelled its Chicago flight, resulting in a lot of their passengers being diverted to Aer Lingus and needing to be checked in manually as well.

Having joined the back of a significantly long queue, I eventually reached the front around half an hour after first trying to check-in and found that there was seemingly some requirement for a seat change preventing me from checking in. I’m not sure why my selected seat 7A wasn’t available, but after being assigned 18B at the rear of the aircraft, I was all checked in and headed to security. Here it was busy, but thankfully well organised and not chaotic, and I reached the departure lounge around 45 minutes after arriving at the airport. Unfortunately, it seems bad luck does come in threes and, after the self-serve check-in problems and long check-in queue, there was already a 30-minute delay to my flight being advertised as I reached departures.

With a couple of hours to kill, I tried to utilise the lounge access provided by my bank, however found that the contract lounge was full and so eventually found a quiet spot in the link between terminals 1 and 2 to settle down and wait. Given the delay, boarding didn’t start until a couple of minutes before our original departure time from one of the bus gates on the ground floor, gate 334. Making it onto the first bus to the aircraft, it was a five or so minute ride to the remote stand our aircraft was parked on and I was onboard at 1504. After a bit of a wait for the second bus to arrive, the aircraft door shut at 1520, meaning the 30-minute advertised delay was pretty accurate.

As expected, the aircraft for the flight was an Emerald Airlines ATR 72-600, specifically EI-GPN, an eight-year-old aircraft originally delivered to Flybe in December 2015. Having then been leased to SAS, the aircraft was transferred to Stobart Air and their Aer Lingus Regional operation in January 2020 before being taken over by Emerald Airlines in November 2021 following Stobart Air’s demise. One of the interesting things about ATRs is that the only passenger door is at the rear of the aircraft, with the cargo hold being between the passenger cabin and flight deck, and so my seat in row 18 at the back of the cabin was actually ideal for a quick exit at Birmingham.

Emerald Airlines’ ATR 72-600s are laid out in a 2-2 configuration with a total of 72 seats in an all-economy cabin. There’s ok leg room, but nothing exceptional and other than the tray tables and a single toilet, no other facilities to speak of. Whilst I’d been allocated seat 18B, an aisle seat, when boarding was complete, I was pleased to find that window seat 18A was empty and I had the pair of seats to myself. Our 30-minute delay ended up being 33 minutes as we pushed back at 1523 and began our short taxi to Dublin’s relatively new runway 28R just three minutes later. Following a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 to the runway, we had a bit of extra delay after lining up to prevent our smaller aircraft being caught in the Dreamliner’s wake turbulence. Taking off at 1031, the benefits of Dublin’s now dual runway operation were clear to see as an Aer Lingus flight was landing on 28L as we departed from 28R.

After departure we made an immediate right turn and headed north for a short while to take us north of Swords before making another turn to head towards the coast. Continuing pretty much due east, our path took us across the Irish Sea and over the northern half of Anglesey, before we crossed the English coast to the south of Liverpool. Here we made a turn to the south-east, passing between Stafford and Wolverhampton and over Birmingham itself before making a 180° turn over Warwick to line up for a landing on Birmingham’s runway 33.

Despite Aer Lingus Regional’s longest route being a seasonal flight to Brest in northern France, there is a limited range of drinks and snacks available to purchase during the onboard service. Be warned though, it is a limited choice, with the most substantial snack being a protein bar, so if you think you’ll get hungry make sure to stock up before boarding. Being at the back, I was the last to be served, however thankfully with only 18 rows it didn’t take that long and the service was easily completed during the short flight, although I don’t think I’d have had time for a coffee to cool to a drinkable temperature before landing. Opting for a protein bar and a bottle of water, I paid the princely sum of €5.50, although this is probably comparable to buying the same from a high-street WH Smiths these days.

For the majority of the flight the view was blocked by a bank of clouds, however having descended to start our approach, I was able to get a glimpse of the HS2 works near the M6 as we flew over the West Midlands. I also got a good view of Birmingham Airport itself as we passed it on the ‘downwind leg’ of our approach, before we turned to line up to the active runway. Touching down at 1625, we’d made up some of the delay and landed only 15 minutes late. Thankfully this, combined with a short taxi and an efficient arrivals process meant I made it to the airport’s railway station via the light rail connection just 18 minutes after we landed and made the train I was aiming for.

Overall, this was a short but reasonably ok journey with Aer Lingus Regional / Emerald Airlines. The experience at Dublin was a bit frustrating, although the staff were great and I want to make it clear the lost point under service is due to the system and overall stress caused by it, not the staff themselves. Onboard, its what you would expect for a short hop across the Irish Sea given we were airborne for less than an hour, and although the delayed departure was a bit annoying, the fact we made up time and the quick arrival experience at Birmingham recovered some of this. I certainly enjoy flying on these smaller aircraft a bit more than an A320 or B737, and I will always try and make my plans line up with an Aer Lingus Regional flight if I’m visiting Dublin.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     2*

Food                2*

Service             4*

Punctuality         4*

Overall Rating      16/25 (read about my rating system here!)