Let me tell you straight away – I am no uniform designer. My experience with fashion is limited to appreciating the look of beautiful clothing and making an attempt to buy clothes that suit me.

Naturally those qualifications give me full rights to pass remark on the Aer Lingus uniform. I am not a fan of this uniform and never have been. Recently I was flying the airline and realised how hideous it really is.

A Tired Old Uniform

It is excellent that Aer Lingus have become a Skytrax 4 star rated airline. Clearly the people there care about cabin service, seat comfort and all of that kind of thing. Lucky, because the current uniform is eye watering in its hideousness.

Even I can see that the male uniform is plain ugly. The jacket is an unfashionable 1990s cut which is not really tailored in any way to highlight a person’s shape.


For the ladies, it is not much better. They look strangled by their scarves and what is with the collar? The shape is terrible and it looks weak and unprofessional.

While the length of the skirts are fine, again the entire uniform is a shapeless monstrosity. That coupled with a generally unflattering shade make it a nose wrinkling experience when viewed.

Ireland Has Changed

Ireland is a vastly more cosmopolitan place than it was when this uniform arrived in the late 1990s. The country is no longer the staid, poor, boring, Catholic country it once was. To drive that point home, other airlines in Ireland have recently brought in new uniforms.


CityJet’s new clothes look fabulous and contemporary, it’s just a shame that the airline is so small that not many will get to see it. Contemporary Irish designers are doing a great job kitting people out. Even cheap old Ryanair introduced some lovely new uniforms recently!

Overall Thoughts

Aer Lingus represent Ireland on the world stage in aviation and Irish people have the airline firmly in their hearts. The great service provided by the crew is a wonderful selling point for the airline. Everything is let down by a tired old uniform that should be replaced. On board last week I made a note to write this post because it really doesn’t reflect how good the airline actually is.

Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Images by Aer Lingus and CityJet.