Aer Lingus is to place a brand new aircraft which was only delivered last week in a storage programme in Spain due to the downturn in business triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a video message to staff delivered from on board the new aircraft, Chief Technical Officer Fergus Wilson said that with travel restrictions and the 14-day quarantine still applying, passenger demand remains extremely low.
“It had been planned that the newly-delivered aircraft would have entered service immediately as the airline reached the peak of summer 2020 season however the additional capacity that we added to our European schedule at the start of July has failed to perform to the level we had hoped” Mr Wilson said.
The brand news aircraft will join two other Aer Lingus A330s in a long-term storage programme at Ciudad Real airport in Spain.
Parking the aircraft in a warm semi-arid climate like Spain would help to reduce the risk of corrosion and protect it from deteriorating due to lack of operation and environmental factors.