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.
One of Ireland’s three primary airports, Shannon Airport, will see a new Lufthansa service that will give passengers a whole heap of connecting options. The German carrier will serve Shannon once a week next summer.
Around 14 million annual seats are available between Ireland and the UK with this year’s offering the largest this decade and up 4.8 per cent on last year. Ryanair is the dominant carrier with a 53.7 per cent capacity share, ahead of Aer Lingus (including its Aer Lingus Regional operation) with a 32.4 per cent share.
The new route to Paris will commence in May 2016 and will supplement the existing London route operated by rival carrier, American Airlines. The daily flight will launch on May 12, 2016 and will be operated using a 164-seat Boeing 757-200ER in conjunction with the airline's joint venture partners Air France, KLM and Alitalia.
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”.
Turkish Airlines has been granted permission to carry air cargo from Shannon to Chicago, starting immediately, and will become Ireland’s only direct all-cargo service to North America.
In partnership with our Airline Route blog, Routesonline is launching a new weekly 'Historic Airline Schedule Snapshot' as part of our Throwback Thursday series, where we look back at the historic flight operations of a current or defunct airline.
The Swedish government has announced its decision to look into the possibility of introducing US preclearance at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, meaning that Sweden could become the second country in Europe, after Ireland to offer the service.
The expansion will be made possible by the introduction of an additional Airbus A330-200 into the Aer Lingus fleet from May 2015 on a five year lease. This additional capacity will enable the carrier to resume summer links from Dublin to Washington Dulles from May 1, 2015 on a four times weekly basis and to boost its current Dublin – Orlando route from three to four times weekly and Dublin – San Francisco link from five times weekly to a daily schedule.
Brussels Airport were announced as the overall winner of the World Routes Awards 2014 which were formally announced this evening during the spectacular Chicago Networking Evening which took place at the Field Museum of Natural History.
Shannon’s head of aviation development, Declan Power, has been attending World Routes for the past 20 years and says the event is a “must” for every airport.
