Aer Lingus announced a new transatlantic sale that will see will see one-way flights between Ireland and North America starting from $649.
Round trip rates from North America start from:
- New York to Shannon: $699
- New York to Dublin: $719
- Boston to Dublin: $799
- Chicago to Dublin: $899
- San Francisco to Dublin: $1,099
- Toronto to Dublin: $649
Sale fares apply for travel between April 13 and June 15, 2015 and must be booked before 7:00pm ET on March 3, 2015.
The Aer Lingus flights are still considerably more expensive than the $350 return flights announced by Icelandic airline WOW in early February. Beginning in October, WOW Air will fly from Boston and Washington DC to Dublin, although these initial prices are the airline’s lead-in rate and will include a two-hour stop-over in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.
Aer Lingus also announced the addition of new flights on the Chicago route that will see Aer Lingus operate up to ten flights a week between Dublin and Chicago during November and December. The twice-daily flights will add a further 13,000 seats to the route over Thanksgiving and Christmas following strong demand for seats during this period in 2014.
Last year was massive for transatlantic travel with an increase of 14% in the number of passengers arriving in Dublin from North America. That growth thrend is expected to continue in 2015. Data from the period November 2014 through January 2015 show that the number of passengers traveling on Aer Lingus' north Atlantic routes rose by 9.1% compared to the same period in 2013/14. This summer there will be 158 weekly departures from Dublin Airport to North America.
Further additions to Aer Lingus’s transatlantic model this year will include additional flights from Dublin to San Francisco, Orlando and New York as well as the establishment of a new service to Washington-Dulles. These additional flights will represent an 18% expansion in the airline’s long-haul capacity this summer.
The airline will also introduce its new business model across its transatlantic fleet next month. Lie-flat seats, 16-inch HD screens and "on-demand" dining will all be introduced in the business class seats of direct flights to North America.
The sale announcement comes as Aer Lingus is the subject of a takeover bid from IAG.
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