Aer Lingus reveals new hard product for 757 fleet

Aer Lingus is an airline which has really stepped up their game over the past few years. Their former CEO was Christoph Mueller, who is now the CEO of Malaysia Airlines (though he’s mysteriously leaving the airline in a few months). Aer Lingus was losing a lot of money before Mueller started there, but under his leadership they underwent some very successful growth.
They added several new US destinations, introduced a new business class seat, and invested heavily in their product otherwise as well, adding inflight wifi, an arrivals lounge in Dublin, pre-flight dining in their US lounges, etc.
While all of their Airbus A330s are outfitted with a new business class product, Aer Lingus is also leasing three Boeing 757-200 aircraft, which weren’t part of the initial fleet overhaul plan.
However, Aer Lingus has now finished installing a different new business class product on their three leased Boeing 757-200 aircraft… and you can view the cabin in Google Street View.
Aer Lingus’ new 757 business class cabin consists of a total of 12 seats spread across four rows. Rows one and three are in a 1-1 configuration, while rows two and four are in a 2-2 configuration.
This looks remarkably similar to JetBlue’s Mint cabin on their A321 aircraft, which features the same number of seats, though the single seats have a sliding door of sorts, making it a private “suite.”
Aer Lingus presently operates their 757s between Boston and Shannon, New York and Shannon, and Toronto and Dublin. Previously these were the planes to avoid, given that they featured angled seats, while most of the rest of Aer Lingus’ fleet has already been reconfigured with a new product. However, the new cabin looks really nice, and I’d fly it in a heartbeat.
Aer Lingus business class on transatlantic flights is a great use of British Airways Avios. On top of that, keep in mind that Aer Lingus should soon be joining oneworld, meaning it will be possible to redeem (and earn) other oneworld miles for travel on them.
American is eventually planning on installing a new business class product on their international 757s, and I can’t help but assume that this will likely be the new product, given the balance it strikes between a comfortable product and an efficient configuration.

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