US AIRLINE United Continental says it will begin flying from Dublin to Washington DC next year, while Scandinavian airline SAS is to boost capacity on its three Irish routes in 2012.
United Continental plans to start flying between the two capitals from June 8th.
The airline currently flies twice daily from Dublin to Newark airport in New Jersey during the summer.
From next June, however, one of these flights will operate to Washington DC, one of six hubs the carrier operates in the United States.
"This route has been warmed by Aer Lingus in the past," Bob Schumacher, United Continental's managing director of Ireland and Britain told The Irish Timesyesterday.
“The difference for us is that we expect a significant amount of transit traffic going beyond [Washington DC] with us.”
United Continental currently flies from Dublin, Shannon and Belfast to Newark.
Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar said the route would provide a “stimulus for tourism from the US” and would be included in the Government’s €9 million winter marketing programme.
“It will help us to build on the strong performance in visitor numbers from North America, which are up over 12 per cent so far in 2011,” Mr Varadkar added.
SAS, meanwhile, will add capacity next year from Dublin to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo.
Its Stockholm service will go daily next summer while larger aircraft will be deployed on the Copenhagen and Oslo routes.
“2011 has so far shown a positive result for SAS in Ireland, with a 6 per cent increase in passenger numbers,” Alan Sparling, Ireland manager at SAS, said yesterday.
“We anticipate the increase in leisure travel from Ireland to Scandinavia to continue in 2012, hence why we’re putting more seats into the market.”
Separately, Dubai-based Emirates will today unveil “early bird” fares for a number of destinations that it will be offering from Ireland from January 9th.
The airline will offer economy-class return fares, including taxes, to Dubai from €505, Durban from €689, Perth from €905 and Mumbai from €445.