Flights have gone on sale today for the relaunch of Aer Lingus regional routes, which will be operated by Emerald Airlines from 17 March, 2022 – a full 10 months ahead of the original schedule.
Emerald Airlines will operate over 340 flights per week across 11 routes with fares starting at €29.99, with further route announcements to be made in the coming weeks.
High Frequency routes
High-frequency routes, including Dublin-Edinburgh and Dublin-Glasgow, will be served up to four times daily. The announcement sees the re-establishment of services to regional points across the UK, including Newquay Cornwall, Exeter, and Isle of Man – with Emerald the only carrier to offer those routes.
Critically, the announcement adds over 60 UK–US routes on the Aer Lingus network connecting via Dublin including connections from UK regional airports to New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle.
A return to full schedule
Aer Lingus recently announced an ambitious schedule for Summer 2022, which reflects the airline’s goal to build to pre-pandemic levels of flying and anticipates continued momentum in customer demand.
This commencement of the Aer Lingus Regional routes operated by Emerald Airlines will greatly increase connectivity between the UK, Ireland and the US, and accelerates Aer Lingus’s strategy to expand Dublin Airport as a hub airport.
Lynne Embleton, CEO of Aer Lingus said: “Today is about opportunities. Opportunities for our UK customers to connect with ease to Aer Lingus flights to North America and to take advantage of the US preclearance facility.
“Opportunities for customers across UK and Ireland as we develop the Aer Lingus regional network. And opportunities for the Irish economy and Irish aviation as we expand our hub at Dublin.
“It has been a pleasure to work with the team at Emerald Airlines to accelerate this partnership and start operations 10 months ahead of the original schedule. We are all looking forward to welcoming our customers on-board Aer Lingus Regional services, operated by Emerald Airlines.”
Conor McCarthy, CEO of Emerald Airlines said: “We’re delighted to be able to commence operations under our franchise agreement with Aer Lingus well ahead of plan in line with the recovering customer demand.
He added: “Our customer-focused schedules will offer choice, convenience and great value for both regional and transatlantic air travel. This announcement is a great boost for connectivity from Ireland to the UK, including cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Newcastle, Bristol, and Leeds.
Emerald Airlines will be offering a high-frequency schedule with convenient flight timings to facilitate both business and leisure passengers.
UK Operating License
Mr McCarthy also said that Emerald had established an airline company in Northern Ireland (Emerald Airlines UK Ltd) and has applied to the UK CAA for a UK AOC and Operating Licence.
“We have already reached a long-term commercial agreement with George Best Belfast City Airport and look forward to connecting Belfast to many cities in the UK as soon as possible in 2022,” he added.
“Further details, routes and launch dates in relation to the Belfast operation will be announced in the New Year.”
