Dublin Airport is expecting its busiest ever summer, with a total of 13 new routes/services, seven short-haul and six long-haul destinations being added to the flight schedule and providing almost two million extra seats, a 9% increase in capacity compared to last summer.
Aer Lingus will add long-haul direct services to Los Angeles (five weekly), Newark (daily) and a new daily route to Hartford, Connecticut, to its network, while Air Canada rouge will start direct services to Vancouver (three weekly). Thomson/Falcon will commence two new weekly charter services in June with direct flights to Montego Bay in Jamaica and Cancun in Mexico for a six-week period.
Vincent Harrison, Dublin Airport Managing Director, said: “We are delighted to add these exciting new destinations to our route network as well as significant increases in seat capacity and frequency on over 20 existing routes, giving our customers great choice, flexibility and more options whether they are travelling for business or leisure purposes this summer season.”
Extra security staff and customer care staff have been recruited to help cope with increased demand for this summer, and the airport will continue its focus on providing a quality experience for passengers. “Dublin Airport was rated the best airport in Europe among its peer group for quality and customer service last year and as passenger numbers increase we are continually working to improve our facilities and the product that we provide for our customers.”
The number of additional seats to and from North America is up 13%, with an extra 270,000 seats this summer. The peak summer months will see nine airlines flying 340 flights per week to and from 12 destinations in the USA and four destinations in Canada, which equates to an average of 48 flights daily to and from North America.
“Dublin Airport is now the fifth largest European airport for connectivity into North America, with only the major hubs of London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol having more routes and flights,” added Vincent.
Overall capacity on existing European routes is set to increase by 9% with almost 900,000 additional seats this summer. Customers have the option to choose from seven new short-haul routes to continental Europe. Ryanair has already launched services to Athens (three per week) and Vigo (two). Aer Lingus has launched a new service to Murcia (four weekly) and will add Montpellier (twice weekly) and Pisa (three weekly) in the coming weeks. Romanian airline Blue Air will start a new twice weekly route to Cluj, the capital of Translyvania, at the start of June and Dublin Airport will welcome a new airline this summer when Aegean Airlines launches twice weekly flights to Athens.
This year, passengers can choose from over 180 scheduled destinations from Dublin Airport to 16 destinations in North America, 23 destinations in the UK, 118 destinations in Continental Europe and two destinations in both Africa and the Middle East.
