Ahead of the annual US Thanksgiving celebrations, later this week, Aer Lingus has said its flight volumes have surged by 236% since the US reopened its borders, post-Covid lockdown, 12 months ago.
This month last year, Aer Lingus only had six US routes operating – namely; New York/JFK, Orlando, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston and Newark.
Now, 12 months later, the airline has resumed numerous dormant routes and currently has 15 transatlantic US routes operating.
Aer Lingus is now operating 473 flights to the US, compared to just 141 a year ago. In terms of seat numbers, these have also obviously surged, by nearly 90,000 year-on-year.
It means Aer Lingus’ US services have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
As well as from its traditional transatlantic hubs of Dublin and Shannon, Aer Lingus has also been operating direct US-bound flights from Manchester for the past 12 months.
Aer Lingus resumed its Dublin-Miami route – after a two and a half year Covid break – in October; and also last month announced the recommencement of its daily service from Dublin to Hartford, Connecticut. That route formally resumes next March.
In September, the airline announced a new direct route – Dublin-Cleveland – which will begin flying next summer.
Aer Lingus is also back flying to the west coast destinations of San Francisco and Seattle.
