Maximising Dublin’s connectivity potential is the focus for Ireland’s two largest carriers. Speaking at the Phocuswright Europe conference in the Irish capital this week, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, has hinted that flight connections with Aer Lingus could be a reality within the next 12 months.
Dublin Airport officials are working closely with airline partners to build Dublin Airport as a gateway and a significant growth in transatlantic capacity in particular is helping to provide significant transfer opportunities.
Dublin Airport is investing in the region of €320 million in this multi-faceted project which will comprise multiple contracts and packages of works. It received planning permission in August 2007 to build a new runway, but the plans were put on hold due to the economic downturn and subsequent fall in passenger numbers.
Aer Lingus is understood to be wet-leasing at least one aircraft for mainly Saturday operations from Dublin between the end of May and early September this year. The aircraft will operate weekly flights from Dublin to Bilbao, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, Perpignan and Santiago de Compostela, our Airline Route blog has revealed.
The growth in passenger numbers is expected to continue in 2016, as eleven new scheduled services have already been announced for this year, including new direct transatlantic services to Hartford Connecticut, Los Angeles, Newark and Vancouver. There are also new long-haul charter services to Cancun in Mexico and Montego Bay in Jamaica.
The air service development team at Dublin Airport have identified a number of unserved markets in Asia that can sustain regular scheduled flights to the Republic of Ireland’s capital city and are attending Routes Asia in Manila, Philippines to fill these network gaps. It particularly sees a notable role for Asia’s Star Alliance members at Dublin Airport having grown the number of airline members using the airport from this summer.
Ryanair will launch flights from the city from November 1, 2016 with a twice daily link to the Spanish capital, Madrid, a daily service to Brussels Charleroi and London Stansted, a four times weekly link to Berlin and twice weekly flights to Fez, Malta and Warsaw Modlin.
Extra capacity has helped to grow passenger demand between Dublin and London by 9% over the last calendar year, with almost 4.5 million people flying between the two capital cities in 2015.
Air Canada continues to strategically grow its international network at Vancouver. This new seasonal route follows the recent announcement of several enhancements at the airline's Vancouver International Airport hub for 2016, including new Transborder services to Chicago, San Jose and San Diego, double daily flights to London Heathrow, and the only flights linking Canada to Brisbane, Australia.
Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus, a recent addition to the IAG portfolio, is to launch flights between Dublin and Los Angeles, Newark, and Hartford during the summer 2016 schedule, while British Airways will relaunch its New York operation from London Gatwick after a seven-year hiatus.
If the speculation is true, Aer Lingus will be the only airline offering a direct flight between Europe and Hartford Bradley International Airport, branded as the ‘Gateway to New England’. In fact the airline will be the sole carrier to serve the facility from outside North America with existing links limited to just domestic services in the US and flights into Canada.
Europe Airpost has been operating at Dublin Airport since 2010 and is the only charter airline that has an aircraft based year-round in Ireland. The scheduled service to Nova Scotia will again operate weekly from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Dublin and then continue to Halifax, Nova Scotia with a 130-seat Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Dublin Airport’s significant growth in transatlantic connectivity has been a major factor in the growing number of passengers who are choosing to ‘hub at DUB'. Between 2010 and 2014, Dublin Airport’s transatlantic traffic has grown by 42 per cent.
The move is a major expansion for the route, which went year-round for the first time last winter and should bring a further boost to German visitor numbers to Ireland. Germany is now the third largest market for overseas visitors to Ireland, with visitor numbers increasing by 32 per cent to 560,000 between 2011 and 2014.
The Government said that having carefully considered all elements of the offer, it considered that a sale of the State’s minority shareholding to IAG, on the basis of the terms offered, would be “the best means of securing and enhancing Ireland’s connectivity with the rest of the world and maintaining a vibrant and competitive air transport industry in Ireland”. And it would also “best serve the interests of the travelling public, Aer Lingus and its employees, the Irish tourism industry and the Irish economy as a whole”.
From October 23, 2015, the Irish carrier will commence 16 weekly flights between Liverpool and Dublin on a 174 seat Airbus A320, offering ideal connections onto Aer Lingus flights to North America via Dublin.
Falcon Holidays and Thomson Holidays will operate its new charter programme from Dublin with a Thomson Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which includes Premium Club. The new service to Montego Bay will begin on June 12, 2016, while the new Cancun link will begins on June 13, 2016.
The significant increase in business from Northern Ireland residents during 2014 was a result of the airport’s route network growth and operator daa investing further in promoting Dublin Airport directly to consumers in Northern Ireland.
Ethiopian Airlines is moving its European hub to Dublin Airport from next month which will see the airline transit 10 transatlantic flights per week through the airport to destinations in the US and Canada.
This year the airport will welcome six new airlines and 23 new destinations and has already seen an extra 670,000 passengers fly in and out of the airport during the first quarter of the year, up 17 per cent on 2014. As it celebrates its 75th anniversary it has boosted transatlantic capacity to North America to 328 flights per week by ten airlines serving eleven destinations in the US and four in Canada.
The airline announced it would resume flights to Dublin last September when it also revealed summer 2015 network plans to reintroduce links between Helsinki and Athens and Malta. The Irish market was last served by the carrier in summer 2007 and it is now offering a six times weekly link through to the end of October 2015 using a 100-seat Embraer E190.
This new year-round service to Geneva will provide additional choice and flexibility or passengers travelling between Ireland and Switzerland and will continue a growth in air links into the Irish capital hub from members of the Star Alliance airline grouping.
The latest development builds on Flybe's growing network of bases, including Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton, showing the airline's commitment to improving connectivity across and from the UK.
