Dublin Airport

Ryanair has said there will be “few route closures” from Dublin despite cutting its fleet at the airport by 20 percent this winter.

We speak to Vantage's Jeremy Pennington to understand how the Hamilton International Airport secured Norwegian's first service to Canada.

Hainan Airlines is to operate the first ever direct route to mainland China from Ireland and Scotland.

Hainan Airlines looks set to increase the number of services it operates to the UK and Ireland following a series of new route applications.

This week: Aer Lingus is launching is 11th destination in the US and 'millennial' airline Joon's market entry.

This week: Cathay Pacific launches Dublin-Hong Kong service and Interjet adds Vancouver to its network.

Dublin has secured its first direct route to the Asia-Pacific region with Cathay Pacific.

The shortlist of the annual route development awards is revealed

Irish airport in bullish mood as new runway project starts

As widely expected, European low-cost carrier Norwegian will introduce its new Boeing 737MAX fleet into operation on flights between the UK and Ireland and the United States of America. The budget airline will offer 38 new weekly transatlantic flights this summer from Edinburgh, Belfast, Cork, Shannon and Dublin serving ten routes.

During the peak summer season in 2016, Dublin Airport had 48 flights per day to and from 12 cities in the United States and five Canadian destinations. Last year Aer Lingus launched three new transatlantic services - to Los Angeles, Hartford, Connecticut and Newark and Air Canada Rouge launched a new Vancouver service.

With a long transatlantic pedigree, Ireland’s flag carrier Aer Lingus is well positioned to ‘push the boundaries’ in terms of growth.

The eight ‘new’ markets comprise Canberra, the airline’s fifth destination in Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Las Vegas, the airline’s eleventh destination in the United States; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport, the airline’s third destination in Indonesia; and Tabuk and Yanbu, its ninth and tenth destinations in Saudi Arabia.

Air Canada has their sights set on the European market with their latest route announcements, which will mean connections from Vancouver to some of the most important airports in the continent.

Ireland’s flag carrier has announced yet another American link. From September 2017, Miami will be served from the carrier’s Dublin hub three times a week.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways is to reduce the frequency of its flights between Abu Dhabi and San Francisco from early next year in a move that will help facilitate the growth of its flights into Dallas.

In our regular Routes News series we take a look at the people that attend Routes events and find out more about them, their jobs and the current industry issues impacting them.

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.