TRAVEL NEWS:MANY AER Lingus flights to Europe will operate today, the airline said last night.
In a statement, Aer Lingus said “all flights from Dublin, Cork and Belfast to Spain, Portugal and Italy with a scheduled departure time up to 1pm will operate as scheduled”. The airline hopes to operate most of its European schedule after 1pm.
A “full transatlantic schedule between Ireland and the US” will operate but all flights from Dublin, Cork, Knock, Shannon and Belfast to London Heathrow and Gatwick with a scheduled departure time up to 1pm have been cancelled.
“Operations on these services post 1pm remain under review. However, we hope to operate the majority of the schedule between Ireland and London for the remainder of the day,” the airline said, advising passengers to check aerlingus.com for updates.
Regional flights from Dublin and Cork will operate as scheduled with the exception of flights to and from Cardiff, the airline said.
“Only customers who hold confirmed reservations for flights scheduled to operate on Tuesday, April 20th, should present at the airport. Customers whose flights have been cancelled may change their booking free of charge on aerlingus.com or avail of a full refund via the refund request facility.”
Ferry operators said yesterday they were experiencing record demand on their Irish Sea routes but places remained on most of their boats.
In the last five days Stena Line has carried 55,000 passengers on five routes, compared to the 25,000 it would expect at this time of the year. The new service operated by Fastnet Line Ferries in Cork reported a record 500 bookings on Sunday from passengers travelling to the UK.
Bus Éireann said it has put on extra coaches to the UK to meet demand. Two additional coaches will run from Cork to London (via Rosslare) today, in addition to the normal Tuesday coach.
More than 800 Irish passengers stranded abroad have sought help from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ consular crisis service. The Government’s emergency taskforce said 500 people had contacted an emergency hotline yesterday morning alone.
There are still no official estimates on the total number of Irish travellers stranded overseas.
The Health Service Executive said there was no issue with stocks of drugs at home being dangerously depleted. However, there would be an “inevitable impact” on fresh food flown into Ireland in the coming days, said Maurice Mullen, assistant secretary at the Department of Transport.