13th February  2010

Aer Lingus Regional services

Aer Arann has announced it is to operate flights on behalf of fellow Irish carrier Aer Lingus from Dublin and Cork to 12 destinations. The new franchise service will be branded as Aer Lingus Regional.

The agreement will increase Aer Lingus’ presence in the UK market, as Aer Arann will operate several of its routes from Dublin and Cork under the new Aer Lingus Regional brand, to cities including Bristol, Cardiff, Blackpool, Doncaster/Sheffield and Durham.

It will also result in an increase in Aer Lingus’ passenger capacity on routes from Dublin to Glasgow and Edinburgh, as its own existing routes between the cities will be added to those of Aer Arann under the new regional agreement.

There is strong demand from Scotland to Southern Ireland and these new flights will allow greater flexibilty when passengers are able to fly out and return. This will undoutedly attract customers from all over Scotland many of whom will need to travel to the airport by car and they should look to reserve their Edinburgh airport parking or Glasgow airport parking before travelling to keep down the costs, otherwise they could be faced with a nasty shock  which will defeat the object of getting a cheap flight.

New routes from Cork will be added under the Aer Lingus Regional brand, to Glasgow, Jersey and La Rochelle.The services will be operated using Aer Arann crew and the carrier’s ATR 72-500 aircraft, with Aer Lingus receiving a franchise fee.

Aer Arann will continue to offer its own services on other routes within Ireland and to UK and French destinations, as well as flights between the Isle of Man and London/Paris.

A company spokesman commented that the new franchise agreement was welcome news  for all stakeholders in Aer Lingus as it would allow the airline to serve  key regional destinations, linking them with the Dublin transatlantic network as well as offering existing business and leisure passengers a much improved timetable and extra choice of destinations.