Aer Lingus announces new Dublin to Washington route

Aer Lingus has announced a new Dublin to Washington route and is to expand capacity on its exisiting transatlatic routes from Dublin to San Francisco, New York and Orlando and from Shannon to Boston.

The four-times weekly summer service from Dublin to Washington-Dulles gets underway from May 1st, 2015. Fares start at €299 each way.

"We will continue to grow our transatlantic business with the introduction of direct service to Washington. The success of our customer proposition and the development of Dublin as a gateway between Europe and North America will see us operate 24 daily departures across the Atlantic next summer," said Aer Lingus chief strategy and planning officer Stephen Kavanagh.

Aer Lingus is also to run a daily flight to San Francisco from the summer, up from five a week currently. It is to introduce a third daily flight to New York from June through to August, departing at 7.50am and returning from New York at 12 noon daily.

In addition, the airline is to increase frequency on the Dublin to Orlando route from three to four flights a week and increase capacity on its Shannon to Boston route by 20 per ent over the summer months.

Short haul capacity will also increase in the summer with new routes to Agadir and Nantes and increased frequency on popular holiday routes such as Palma, Fuerteventura, Bordeaux, Venice and Bilbao.

The frequency of flights from Dublin to key family destinations such as Faro, Palma and Paris is also to rise, Aer Lingus said.