Aer Lingus adds Washington DC to its network, boosts Transatlantic network

Aer Lingus is continuing to plug away at it – working to boost its international network. This can be seen with the announcement of a boost of its Transatlantic network.

Aer Lingus Boeing 757-200 at Dublin Airport. Image, Economy Class and Beyond

Aer Lingus will add Washington DC to its network, whilst boosting capacity on departures from Dublin to New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Orlando.

The details:

• Dublin to Washington – IAD will be a four times a week service, operated by an Airbus A330-200 as EI119/EI118 from 1st May 2015
• Dublin to San Francisco will go from 5 times a week to daily operation, operated by an Airbus A330-200 as EI147/E146 from 1st May 2015
• Dublin to Toronto (Canada) will go remain  to daily operation, with four flights a week using an Airbus A330-200, three flights a week using Boeing 757-200 from the 2nd May 2015.
• Dublin to New York – JFK will go three times daily over the summer season for 2015, adding EI103/EI102 from 8th June 2015 to 29th August 2015 using a Boeing 757-200
• Dublin to Orlando will go from three times a week to four times a week using an Airbus A330-200.

Aer Lingus will operate 24 flights a day from Dublin on a Transatlantic flight path to the United States of America and Canada in the summer 2015 season – mounting its own challenge to the established airlines as it attempts to feed its long haul network to the US from its European network.

In addition, a lot of the flights that will operate from Dublin to the USA will qualify for Pre-Clearance – a useful timesaver as you clear US immigration and customs in Dublin (as opposed to waiting for hours on end once you get off the plane in the USA).

Lead in prices on the new Dublin to Washington – IAD route start at €299 each way.

Alternatively, for those who collect Avios, this could be a really good use of Avios to burn through – as taxes and fees on Aer Lingus flights are tiddly compared to British Airways or American Airlines.

Still, its great to see Aer Lingus having the guts to try a decent expansion.

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