LHR to ORK Aer Lingus Advantage

Airline:  Aer Lingus

Flight #: EI725

Route:    LHR-ORK

Class:    Advantage

Seat:     2F

Date:     Friday 11^th July 2025

Back in July we decided to have a weekend away somewhere, however with work on both the Friday and Monday, it couldn’t be somewhere too far, and we needed to make the most of our time away. With a flight time of around an hour from the London airports and late flights able to get us there the Friday night, Cork seemed like the perfect destination. Of course, to start an Irish adventure it seemed only right to fly with Aer Lingus and so Friday 11^th July saw us arriving at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 ready for the short hop across the Irish Sea.

I was expecting Heathrow to be rather chaotic at 1900 on a Friday with the weekend rush, but surprisingly there was only a handful of us on the shuttle bus from the car park to Terminal 2 and it only took us just over five minutes from stepping into the terminal to getting through security. As well as there being no queues, the new security machines that mean you can leave everything in your bag certainly speed things up. It genuinely took us longer to get a lift from the bus stop to check-in than to get through security! Hopefully every airport will soon have these machines installed and working, and the rules can be standardised across the board. Fingers crossed for summer 2026…

As I knew we were going to have a bit of time at Heathrow before our flight, I’d paid the extra for Aer Lingus’ ‘advantage’ fare for the outbound flight. This fare includes some additional flexibility regarding flight changes, free seat selection and a checked bag; however, it also includes lounge access, giving us somewhere comfortable to wait for the couple of hours until we headed for the gate. It also meant that I’d be able to check out the Aer Lingus lounge in Terminal 2, which had unfortunately still been undergoing refurbishment during my last flight with the airline (read about that here).

Located on the Mezzanine level where you exit security, round to the right near the top of the escalators down to the main departure lounge, the Aer Lingus lounge was a really nice space. It’s pretty large and quiet with a nice mix of seating areas for both relaxing and working, and even through it was fairly busy didn’t seem crowded. We settled down in a couple of armchairs next to the windows which provided a great view of runway 23L despite the design of Terminal 2 having ‘bars’ over all the windows. Nonetheless I was still able to see plenty of aircraft departing, including a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400F heading back to Hong Kong.

The lounge also had a great selection of drinks, including Guiness (not on draft, but the draft cans, so still a decent pint) and we were able to get some Chicken Makhani and rice for dinner which was really tasty! Unfortunately, with ours being the last flight of the night for Aer Lingus, the lounge was winding down ready to close, and so there didn’t seem to be quite as many snacks on offer as otherwise might be, however it was good to still be able to get dinner. In fact, our flight was so late that there were only a handful of flights scheduled to depart Heathrow after us, including BA105 to Dubai and VS411 to Lagos.

Our aircraft arrived at 2137 on the inbound flight from Cork and parked on the stand immediately below our window in the lounge, so this seemed as good a time as any to head down to the gate. The aircraft for our flight was EI-NSB, one of Aer Lingus’ relatively new Airbus A320neos, with this one being three years old. It also turned out that this aircraft was very aptly named, being christened St. Aidan, after the Irish saint that I am also named after. It was a pretty busy flight and we’d ended up fairly far back in the queue meaning that although boarding started at 2145 onto the jet bridge, we eventually made in onboard at 2158. It also meant that despite us being in seats 2E and 2F, our carry on bags ended up in the overhead lockers above row 7.

As would be expected for a short-haul aircraft in Europe, the cabin was laid out in a 3-3 configuration, with the first row dedicated to ‘AerSpace’, Aer Lingus’ short-haul business class equivalent. In row 2 we had plenty of leg room and a well-placed window, whilst all the seats also had access to two power sockets per three seats on the rear of the seats in front (not sure where row 1’s power sockets were). Boarding ended up taking about half an hour, with the front door closing at 2215, and us pushing back just a few minutes later. Our taxi to runway 23L started at 2226 and we were soon joining a queue of seven other aircraft waiting to depart, however ended up sneaking out ahead on BA786 to Stockholm, taking off at 2235.

Heading pretty much directly west, we were treated to a display of fireworks below us as we passed over Reading and the most beautiful crimson sunset as we approached Wales. Crossing the Welsh coast near Haverfordwest around 2300, we continued across the Irish Sea, passing south of Wexford and skirting the southern edge of Ireland. Onboard, the crew did a great job of providing a full service on such a short flight, and whilst we only got a pair of bottles of water for €6, there was a reasonable selection of food and drink available to purchase.

Just 45 minutes after taking off from Heathrow, the captain was making the 10 minutes until landing announcement and just south of Mallow we made a left turn to line up for a northerly approach into Cork. Whilst the darkness meant I couldn’t see much out of the window on the approach, I was able to see Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone, illuminated as we passed. At 2329 we touched down on runway 16, landing one minute early, and backtracked along the runway to the terminal, arriving on stand five minutes later and parking next to EI-DEE which had arrived a bit earlier from Malaga.

Whilst the doors opened quite quickly after arriving on stand, I unfortunately ended up waiting until I was almost the last person onboard to be able to collect our bags. This also meant we ended up near the back of the long queue for passport control (giving us plenty of time to discuss the requirements of the UK/Irish Common Travel Area), although thankfully this was fairly quick moving. Eventually, after a bit of faffing getting some cash out of an expensive airport ATM, we were in a cab just after midnight and at our hotel 10 minutes later.

This was a short but pleasant flight with Aer Lingus, and I’d certainly recommend them over Ireland’s other major airline if you want a more relaxing journey. Whilst we had obviously paid extra through the type of ticket purchased, being able to access the lounge at Heathrow was a great bonus and an excellent place to wait for a flight. All in all, it was a great way to start our weekend.

Lounge              4*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food                3*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      21/25 (read about my rating system here!)