Loganair has increased its global connectivity options for its passenger’s thanks to a new interline agreement with Aer Lingus.
The UK’s largest regional airline has partnered up with the Irish flag carrier, offering customers new access to North American routes via Dublin and Manchester.
Loganair currently flies direct to Dublin from Aberdeen and Inverness, meaning customers bound for America can now access Aer Lingus’ transatlantic destinations with the added advantage of clearing US Immigration at Dublin before departure, removing the requirement to be cleared upon arrival stateside. Additionally, Loganair passengers from the Isle of Man and Newquay can now also connect on to Aer Lingus’ North American routes via the airline’s Manchester hub, further increasing regional connectivity.
Likewise, the partnership means Aer Lingus customers can now travel to the above Scottish airports via Loganair, as well as Manchester, increasing Ireland’s connections with the UK and offering access to all of Loganair’s unique touchpoints across the country.
The expansion comes amid a summer of growth for Scotland’s airline with new routes and frequencies across key destinations, including Heathrow. This summer will also see Aer Lingus operate its largest-ever North American program with 2.25 million seats on sale across 19 transatlantic routes.
Aer Lingus now joins Loganair’s existing partnerships alongside carriers such as BA, Emirates and United Airlines, giving customers access to global onward travel from some of the UK’s most remote communities.
Aer Lingus today commences its inaugural service to Cleveland in Ohio, its first new transatlantic route since 2019, on cue with the surge in US demand for travel this summer.
With the start of its new service, Aer Lingus becomes the only airline to fly between Europe and Cleveland, opening a unique gateway to the Midwest for its customers.
Customer demand for the route has already taken off, with more than 90% of seats booked across the peak summer season, with general transatlantic bookings up more than 20% on 2019 levels this summer.
The bounce back in demand for premium leisure travel has fuelled the jump in demand from Aer Lingus’ UK and European customers connecting via Dublin, with bookings to Washington D.C. and Orlando increasing by 40% and 35% respectively, since 2019.
Since 2013, Aer Lingus has grown the number of transatlantic routes it serves from six to 19 in 2023 and the number of transatlantic passengers will have almost tripled in the same timeframe, from 1.1m in 2013 to an expected 3m in 2023.
The new four-times a week service from Dublin is operated with one of the airline’s state-of-the-art Airbus A321neoLRs, which is Aer Lingus’ most sustainable long-haul aircraft. It delivers up to a 20% reduction in fuel burn and CO2 emissions and almost reducing by half its noise footprint when compared to previous generation aircraft.
It accounts for over a third of Aer Lingus’ current fleet and from 2024/2025 it will boast this further with the planned delivery of six Airbus A321XLRs, which will open up further opportunities to expand Aer Lingus’ transatlantic network and deliver more new routes.
The inaugural service of flight EI87 departed the Irish capital at 3:30pm for its eight-hour 20-minute transatlantic crossing in time for its scheduled arrival at 6:50pm (local).
The returning EI86 will depart Cleveland every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 8:20pm, and will arrive back into Dublin at 4:55am the next day.
Top Copyright Photo: Aer Lingus Airbus A321-253NX WL EI-LRD (msn 9187) DUB (Michael Kelly). Image: 957058.
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.
Photo: Are Lingus
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.
Aer Lingus this weekend began a brand-new service connecting the West coast of Ireland to London Heathrow and recommenced direct flights to Hartford, Connecticut from Dublin.
Theinaugural Aer Lingus flight EI916, operated by an Airbus A320, departed from Ireland West Airport at Knock for Heathrow at 1.05pm on March 26.
Aer Lingus commences new daily service to London Heathrow with Seamless onward flight connections to 80+ destinations worldwide. Pictured at the commencement of the new daily service to London Heathrow from Ireland West Airport with Aer Lingus was Joe Gilmore CEO Ireland West Airport with the inaugural Aer Lingus flight EI916, Airbus A320, landing at the airport. Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Given the close proximity of Knock to the Wild Atlantic Way and the huge spotlight on the West of Ireland following the box-office hit ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, the new route will connect UK visitors, and those travelling via Heathrow, to one of Ireland’s most popular destinations.
Tourism Ireland figures indicate that the majority of visitors to Ireland are from Great Britain (42%), followed by the US (15%) which validates the new Aer Lingus route and highlights the importance of connectivity between Ireland and Great Britain.
In addition, according to Tourism Ireland, 4.78 million people from Great Britain visited the Island of Ireland in 2019, generating €1.4 billion in revenue and 28% of British holidaymakers were between the ages of 25 and 34.
For residents of the West of Ireland, who can use Aer Lingus’ 16 direct Aer Lingus North American routes from Dublin and Shannon airports this summer, the London Heathrow service will also enable them to connect to destinations right across the globe via the UK’s largest and busiest airport.
Return to Hartford – driving connectivity to North America
The weekend also marked the recommencement of Aer Lingus’ Dublin-Hartford service for the first time in over two years.
Aer Lingus flight EI131, which departed from Dublin for Hartford on March 26, is operated by an Airbus A321neo LR. This is the airline’s most sustainable long-haul aircraft delivering a 20% reduction in fuel burn and CO2 emissions and close to 50% reduction in noise footprint when compared to previous generation aircraft.
Aer Lingus operating the only service from Bradley to Europe
The return of daily service between Dublin and Hartford is a critical milestone for Bradley International Airport as Aer Lingus operates the only direct service from there to Europe.
Travelling with Aer Lingus, customers departing from Hartford will not only benefit from a direct flight to Dublin, they can also enjoy seamless onward connections via Dublin to 28 UK and European airports including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Prague, plus many more.
Hartford is one of 16 North American destinations which Aer Lingus will operate to this summer. With over 2.25 million transatlantic seats on sale, 2023 marks the airline’s largest ever North American summer schedule to date. As part of that Aer Lings will have a direct route to Cleveland, Ohio, starting in May.
