New transatlantic schedule for Aer Lingus announced
Aer Lingus will fly directly to San Francisco and Toronto on a year-round basis from next April, the airline announced today.
The carrier today announced significant expansion to its transatlantic route offering.
From April next it will operate five services per week between Dublin and San Francisco, with a daily direct service between Dublin and Toronto during the summer season, and up to four weekly services operating during the winter.
Meanwhile the airline also announced more frequent flights on its Boston and New York routes, wth year-round connections between Shannon Airport and the US east coast.
This expansion will directly support more than 200 new jobs within Aer Lingus and its partner airline ASL Aviation Group, from whom it will lease three Boeing aircraft.
"Our transatlantic capacity will increase by 24% in 2014, following on from the 13% additional capacity in our 2013 transatlantic schedule," said Chief Executive Christoph Mueller, making the announcement in Dublin today.
"Our operation of the San Francisco route will strengthen Ireland’s ties with Silicon Valley and encourage Ireland’s development as a technology hub for Europe."
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said the expansion was "fantastic news".
" More than 40% of Ireland’s total foreign direct investment comes from Silicon Valley alone," the minister added.
"The return of the direct air service to the US west coast is particularly important and I’m very happy to see the route being filled by an Irish airline.”
