Aer Lingus takes stock as it prepares for €1bn float in its 70th year

SEVENTY years ago Aer Lingus Teoranta was registered as an airline, on May 22, 1936.

The name, Aer Lingus is an anglicisation of the Irish form Aer Loingeas which means Air Fleet (as does Aeroflot).

Five days after being founded the airline opened its first service between Baldonnel airfield in Dublin and Bristol, England, using a six-seater De Havilland 84 Dragon biplane which was named Lolar (Eagle).

Later that year, the airline acquired its second aircraft, a De Havilland 84B Dragon Express, a four engined variant with a capacity of 14 passengers.

The company currently employs 4,000 people and has revenue of €906.8 million, as of 2004.

In January 1940 a new airport was completed in the Dublin suburb of Collinstown by Aer Rianta (now called Dublin Airport Authority), and Aer Lingus moved its operations to the new aviation centre. Apart from a new DC-3 run to Liverpool and an internal service to Shannon, services were curtailed in WWII.

On November 9, 1945 regular services were resumed with an inaugural post-war flight to London.

From this point on Aer Lingus planes were painted in a silver and green livery, and the airline’s first flight attendants were introduced.

On April 28, 1958 Aer Lingus operated the first transatlantic service from Shannon to New York. Three Lockheed Constellations were used for the thrice-weekly service.

Aer Lingus entered the jet-age on December 14, 1960 when three Boeing 720s were delivered for use on the New York route, as well as for the newest Aer Lingus destination, Boston.

In 1968, flights from Belfast to New York were started.

The service proved successful in the beginning but it was soon suspended due to the beginning of the Troubles in the area.

1969 saw the introduction of Boeing 737s to the Aer Lingus fleet to cope with the high demand for flights between the cities of Dublin and London.

Aer Lingus later decided to extend the 737 flights to all of their European network.

In 1970, Aer Lingus took delivery of two Boeing 747s for use on the transatlantic routes. A third was later added to the fleet, however, one was leased out because it was not profitable, at first, for the company to fly 747s across the Atlantic.

In 1974, a new livery was unveiled and the word ‘International’ disappeared from the fuselage titles on Aer Lingus planes. The livery included two shades of blue and one green, plus the white shamrock on the tail/fin.

Aer Lingus operated Boeing 737 aircraft until 29 October 2005.

To promote online ticketing, some 737s were given the aerlingus.com livery.

In September 1979, Aer Lingus became the first airline other than Alitalia to be used by Pope John Paul II. The pontiff flew aboard a specially modified Boeing 747 (EI-ASI or St Patrick) from Rome to Dublin and later from Shannon to Boston. In the early 1980s, the 707s were phased out.

The Irish Government will be abolishing the Shannon stopover at the end of 2006 in stages, and Aer Lingus are planning to fly to more destinations in the US.

It currently flies to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

In late 2005, Aer Lingus were reported to be planning at least three new US routes from Dublin: destinations being considered reportedly included Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

On April 4, 2006, the Government gave the go-ahead to the privatisation of Aer Lingus.

The airline will float on the Irish and London stock exchanges in September 2006 when the company is expected to have a market capitalisation of close to €1 billion.