Aer Lingus has unveiled new seasonal services to the United States as it posted its strongest third-quarter results since the economic crisis began.
Aer Lingus will launch a seasonal service between Dublin and Washington DC from next May. It will operate four times a week.
It will also boost its Dublin-San Francisco service to a daily frequency. That route was only relaunched by the airline this year.
The airline is also adding a seasonal third daily flight between Dublin and New York, departing the capital just before 8am. Aer Lingus will use a smaller Boeing 757 on the early service.
Chief executive Christoph Mueller said the early departure would enable passengers to visit New York for just a day if they needed to, departing early and leaving on the last flight from New York.
The airline is also increasing capacity on its Shannon-Boston service next summer by 20pc. Its Dublin-Orlando route will operate four times a week for the summer compared to three times weekly this summer.
Long-haul capacity will jump 18.4pc a week during the peak 2015 summer season.
The carrier’s chief strategy and planning officer, Stephen Kavanagh, said that the new early morning New York service is an “exciting development”.
“We’re offering significant schedule advantage relative to the competition,” he said. He said the extra summer service is targeted at local Irish traffic.
“We will continue to use European and UK flows to supplement on the balance of the capacity,” he added. Aer Lingus generates significant connecting passenger traffic to its US-bound flights from the Aer Lingus Regional service, which is operated by Stobart Air.
He said Washington DC has been on the Aer Lingus radar “for some time” due to the changing economic environment and the airline’s evolving business model. Aer Lingus will also add an extra Airbus A330 and a Boeing 767 to its fleet for next summer.
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