Emerald Airlines – the operator of the Aer Lingus Regional services – has announced a new route out of Belfast City Airport to the Isle of Man, as well as a route from Cork – Bristol.
The Belfast City – Isle of Man route will commence on 24th April, operating four times per week, increasing to six weekly for the peak Summer season.
The Cork-Bristol service will commence on 28th April, operating six times per week, daily except Saturday.
Emerald Airways have been progressively bolstering its 2023 schedule, with over 2.5 million seats on sale, across 28 routes and 17 destinations in Ireland, the UK, and the Channel Islands, taking advantage of a certain other airline going under.
As usual, the route will be operated by an ATR72-600
In Quotes
Commenting on the announcement, Conor McCarthy, Executive Chairman at Emerald Airlines said
“We are delighted to be bolstering our Belfast City schedule by adding a new link between Belfast and the Isle of Man. We look forward to continuing to grow our services, providing more options for those travelling to and from Belfast.”
“Today’s announcement is a much-anticipated one and will no doubt be warmly welcomed by passengers travelling for both business and travel pleasure purposes. We are delighted to be providing increased connectivity from Cork, while also bolstering our Belfast schedule.
Katy Best, Commercial Director at Belfast City Airport, said:
“This new service to Isle of Man will be the 13th Aer Lingus route from Belfast City Airport providing excellent choice for passengers this summer.
“The airline will also operate new routes to East Midlands, Jersey, Newcastle and Newquay. This is in addition to its existing services to Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Southampton.
“The first Aer Lingus flights operated by Emerald took off in March last year and we are very pleased with the performance and growth of the routes since then.”
Filling the gaps
Emerald Airlines was busy even before FlyBe went under -hoovering profitable routes out of Belfast, then concentrating on the connectivity routes – this being one of the latter.
Connectivity remains an important part of the Aer Lingus Regional remit – as it serves those destinations that can’t justify a larger aircraft, but would suffer without the connectivity.
It’s welcoming to see the Isle of Man get at least a majority-week service (as well as scaling up through the summer), for connectivity between Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, as well as Cork having a regional service to Belfast.
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