Aer Lingus will add three new summer holiday destinations next year while boosting the number of seats available to North America and Europe, the airline has said.
The news came as Shannon confirmed that Ryanair planned a Liverpool service from the mid-western airport from March, bringing to 27 the number of routes that the carrier will fly from there next year.
Aer Lingus said it would fly to 53 European destinations from the Republic next year, including three new sunspots – Kos in Greece, Olbia in Sardinia and Brindisi in Italy.
The airline will have 2.25 million seats on its North American routes next summer, its biggest schedule to date and 20 per cent more than in 2019.
That will include flights to Cleveland, Ohio for the first time plus the return of the Hartford, Connecticut route.
Aer Lingus will also add extra flights on Dublin to Washington DC, Orlando, Florida and Seattle, Washington. It will use a larger aircraft on its service to Los Angeles from the capital.
Demand for European sun destinations is at an all-time post-pandemic high, according to Susanne Carberry, Aer Lingus’s chief customer officer.
“So Aer Lingus is delighted to announce increases across our European schedule to the most sought-after, trendsetting destinations this summer,” she said.
Meanwhile, Shannon Group said Ryanair would fly twice a week to Liverpool beginning in the last week of March 2023.
The new route comes in addition to planned services to Naples in Italy and Porto in Portugal.
