It seems that adding more lines is the thing Aer Lingus want to do, and is planning to spin up a six times a day service between Dublin and London City Airport.
The airline will operate the service with CityJet from the 28th October, with six services a day during the week, and a reduced frequency during the weekend.
CityJet Avro RJ85 at Dublin Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The service maps over the existing CityJet services. The following timings have been released by Aer Lingus:
Monday to Friday (full six services a day):
Saturday (one service)
From Dublin: 07:45
From LCY: 09:45
Sunday (5 services)
The reason for restricted services on Saturday and Sunday are down to the noise abatement restrictions at London City airport, which closes traffic from Saturday Midday through to Sunday Midday.
The airline will utilise two CityJet Avro RJ-85’s (which according to sources, will be painted into Aer Lingus colours).
With this, Aer Lingus will operate a massive 50 services a day between the London Airports (London Heathrow, London Gatwick and London City) to Dublin.
Lead in pricing for the new service starts at . Fares start from €44.99 one way from Dublin and £49.99 each way from London City Airport.
Aer Lingus will compete with fellow IAG company British Airways CityFlyer on this route – with CityJet bookings transferring over. If you are a CityJet customer – you need to catch up on the FAQ’s on the route launch.
The move isn’t that bold to be honest – Aer Lingus are merely taking over the marketing and the revenue risk of operating the service, and let CityJet focus on provisioning leased planes (a task it excels in).
Whilst the use of Avro RJ-85s is appropriate, there are better aircraft for the mission profile (The Embraer E-Jet family come to mind, as well as the SuperJet 100 once it gets its “Saberlet” upgrade). But for a route start-up, it’s the right choice.
For passengers, there’s a lot more choice of how you get to London, and where in London you need to connect to.
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