Aer Lingus may introduce transatlantic flights from Cork - VIDEO

Long haul flights are performing well, says CEO

DARA KELLY,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, November 25, 2012, 9:23 AM

Updated Sunday, November 25, 2012, 9:23 AM

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Aer Lingus

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Aer Lingus has indicated that it may introduce a transatlantic route from Cork airport.

The Irish airline’s CEO, Christoph Mueller has said the company is considering introducing a an all year round service from Cork, Shannon, and Belfast to New York.

“Long-haul is performing extremely well,” Mueller told Aviation Week.

According to the magazinet the airline is considering bolstering it’s transatlantic fleet with a new aircraft Airbus’s A321neo.

The report states that Aer Lingus plans to add another aircraft to it’s long haul fleet by next year, by leasing an Airbus A330-200 from United Airlines. This would bring the airline’s long haul fleet to 11 aircrafts.

The additional aircraft would allow the airline to up frequencies on routes from Dublin to Boston and Chicago.

Aviation Week states: “with its lower capacity, the aircraft could enable the carrier to operate year-round services from Cork, Shannon and Belfast, Ireland, to New York.”

Earlier this week the Irish airline announced it was introducing four new services.

The new routes are from Dublin to Corfu, Dublin to Copenhagen, Shannon to Faro and Belfast to Palma.

The airlines also said it plans to add an additional 112,000 seats to its transatlantic schedule for next summer.

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STEVENSTAR | Dec 16, 2012, 11:10 PM EST

NO WONDER AIR LINGUS IS LOSING SO MUCH MONEY THE MARKET FOR AIR TRAVEL FROM IRELAND IS NOT THERE ANYMORE AND LIKEWISE VERY FEW AMERICANS COMING OVER HERE... RYANAIR ON THE OTHER HAND ARE MAKING MILLIONS IN EUROPEAN TRAVEL AND TO THE UK

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WoundedKnee | Nov 28, 2012, 02:36 AM EST

Two things occur to me. First, my impression is that Cork is often fog-bound. Is that true? Second, can we assume that US ICE would NOT open a preclearance facility in Cork? Very unlikely that they would. Cork would always be a second rate option in that case. Still, I hope they go ahead, choice is good.

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Dscott | Nov 25, 2012, 10:11 PM EST

You miss the point my friend. It is all talk. Ireland is filled with "build it and they will come" unwarranted exuberance. I recall the promise of Shannon Insustrial Estate eventually employing 75,000 people. It could have happened if we had true visionaries. But we think big and act small. Aer Lingus could have been the RyanAir of the Transatlantic forty years ago, when Shannon airport had some strategic significance. Since then, two genrations of young people have abandoned hope of any sense of reality among politicians and planners and made their own dreams a reality abroad. I left in 1987, along with 50,000 others, after waiting a decade for the economy to improve. So let the idle snake oil salesmen promise great things, and watch Ryanair or United gobble up the last remaining remnants of a national flagship carrier. Ireland is still a place where some souls suffer for a time before going to America. D

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gobdawpaddy | Nov 25, 2012, 11:07 AM EST

I am not in the airline business but this suggestion makes little business sense to me. The republic of Ireland has a population that is half the size of the CITY of New York, yet it may now have flights to US destinations from three international airports? The tri-stae region has two international airports, JFK and Newark, with LaGuardia serving mostly domestic destinations. Look at the catchment area and population size these two international airports cover. Perhaps I am missing something, but this proposal doesn't appear at the outset to be viable.

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