Aer Lingus has increased capacity on its daily Manchester to New York JFK services, which now operate on an Airbus A330 for the first time, increasing available seats on each flight by 72% over the summer.

The move comes just over a year after the airline began its very first direct transatlantic flights to New York from its then new North of England hub, which initially operated on a single-aisle Airbus A321LR.

Replacing the A321LR with a larger twin-aisled Airbus A330s enables them to redeploy their A321LR aircraft onto its transatlantic routes from Dublin, including to Hartford, which launched last month, as well as Dublin to Cleveland, which takes off in May.

Previously, the A321LR offered 184 daily departing seats from Manchester to JFK, but from today, that number will rise to 317 – 71% more seats available in Economy, (up by 119 to 287) – and an 88% increase in fully lie-flat Business Class seats (up by 14 to 30).

This summer, Aer Lingus will fly daily and direct from Manchester to New York JFK and to Orlando in North America, with seasonal winter services to Barbados due to restart in November.

Its three transatlantic services complement the carrier’s daily services from Manchester to Dublin (up to six a day), with seamless onward connections to 13 transatlantic routes, via quick and easy pre-clearance facilities at their Dublin Hub.