Aer Lingus announces new routes

Aer Lingus today announced plans to add 3 new aircraft to its short-haul fleet for 2008 and operate a total of 86 routes, 59 from Dublin, 18 from Cork and 9 from its new Belfast base.

Services from Dublin to London Gatwick, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Bucharest and Lanzarote and from Cork to Munich will now be operated on a year round basis. Furthermore, services from Dublin to Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Naples, Krakow, Rome and Zurich and from Cork to Malaga, Rome and Berlin will see increases in weekly frequency. The new Belfast base will be strengthened further by the addition of a twice-weekly service to Nice while new services will be introduced from Dublin to Ibiza and from Cork to Jersey.

This expansion brings to 25 the number of new routes introduced already in 2007 from Dublin, Cork and Belfast and represents a 10% increase in short haul capacity supporting the airline's growing European operation both to and from Ireland.

For its Long Haul operation, Aer Lingus took delivery of two new long haul A330 aircraft earlier this year, which has significantly increased capacity on its current long haul network, enabling the airline access three new gateways in North America under the new Open Skies agreement brokered earlier this year.

Aer Lingus will further cement its strong position in the North American market by increasing services to daily flights from Dublin to San Francisco, three flights a week to Orlando and four flights a week to Washington Dulles. Aer Lingus has reconfirmed its commitment to Shannon Airport operating daily direct flights from Shannon to Boston, daily direct flights from Shannon to New York and daily flights to Chicago via Dublin.

Due to the significant demand for both existing and new US destinations in the busy summer season, all long haul capacity has been redeployed to the US resulting in the suspension of the Dubai service from the end of March 2008. Potential operations to Dubai on a seasonal basis remain under review.

Announcing the expansion, Chief Executive, Dermot Mannion said, " Today's announcement marks the continued development of Aer Lingus with a focus on growing both our long haul and short haul network. Moreover, it reaffirms Aer Lingus' commitment to providing direct, low fares access for Irish customers to new destinations as well as providing real growth opportunities in inbound tourism from emerging markets.

“This development is testament to the fact that Aer Lingus' service is second to none both at home and abroad and we will continue to deliver on our proposition of low fares and greater choice of new destinations to convenient city airports for our customers".

Special introductory one- way fares excluding taxes and charges are as follows:

Dublin to Ibiza €45
Cork to Jersey €19