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United Airlines to announce Washington DC service to Dublin

New service from Dulles Airport set to start in May 2012


United Airlines to fly out of Washington to Ireland
United Airlines to fly out of Washington to Ireland
Photo by Nic Summers / www.jetphotos.com

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United Airlines will shortly announce a new flight between Dublin and Washington starting on May 22nd in 2012.

The news is a major boost for Irish tourism from the US and reopens the nation’s capital to flights to and from ireland.

The flights will depart from Dulles Airport, not Reagan International according to reports.

The aircraft will hold 180 passengers and will have a premium economy section of fifty seats, the first airline flying to Ireland to offer the in-between category between economy and first class.

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Eoghan Corry, editor of Travel Extra, broke the story on Morning Ireland radio program that United, who have not previously flown to Ireland will be the new airline.

United have recently merged with Continental Airlines which already have flights to Ireland from Newark.

The United news came on a day when there was bad news about Galway Airport where Aer Aran have pulled all their flgihts.

The local airport may now have to effectively become just a private airport with no scheduled services.
The new and improved motorway  between Galway and Dublin is seen as a major factor.


Nster.com


5 Comments

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I agree with you George - continental have also got more expensive in the last two years. I used to get my flights home for about $359 return - now I'm lucky if its under $800 but still find Aer Lingus were about another $200 on top of that. Continental did upgrade their plane between Newark and Shannon though so I have found that to be a lot better - the planes to Dublin suck - its like 1970 models but the Shannon ones I've been on were the newer planes. United domestically in the USA are okay but their proving a lot less organized than Continental - might have been better if it was Continental was staying as the main brand and taking in United - at least the service experience i've been lucky to get with CO is a whole lot better than with United but time will tell - so far every United flight I've been on in the last 6 months (and i travel a lot) has either been cancelled, delayed, diverted or just had some other issue. Aer Lingus missed the boat on taking a great share of the transatlantic market open to them and they move from Dulles to BWI to get better deals yet never adjust their pricing - it does make you wonder was RyanAir's Michael far off when he said he could use the AL planes to the USA for $59 each way and still give the same level of service as AL... who knows! The more competition across to Ireland from here the better - tends to smarten them all up!!
How about a non-stop flight from Toronto to Belfast and additional non-stop flights to Dublin and Shannon :)
irishcoffeekid: I won't argue with you on prices, except to say I am finding Continental very expensive in the last year or two. But what I will maintain to all and sundry is that Continental is the worst carrier to Ireland. Extremely uncomfortable planes, pokey and old-fashioned. Really horrible seats in economy. Crap food, and not much of it. Unlike delta, they don't even throw in a free glass of wine, instead I think they charge $7. Rip off. Unfortunately for work-related reasons I am a CO frequent flyer, so I always check them first when making a trip to Ireland. I don't have much experience of United, though I do remember they lost a bag of mine a couple years back. In any case all additions to the list of available routes and carriers are welcome.
This isnt really a new service - its the same service Aer Lingus have been operating out of Dulles between May and September but as AL have codeshare with United, they're letting United run it. Its still cheaper to fly with Continental from Reagan to Newark to Shannon/Dublin - I do it several times a year and Aer Lingus have NEVER been anywhere near as good on price as Continental. Maybe the big difference will be United bring down the overpriced Aer Lingus fares!!!
This is great news! Now if more airlines would follow suit. Would love a non-stop from DC to Shannon.
 




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