Aer Lingus Announces its 2017 Summer Schedule

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) -

• Further Long-Haul Expansion for 2017
• Addition of new U.S. route from Miami to Dublin, Ireland and extra flights on existing routes from Los Angeles, Chicago and Orlando to Dublin come on the foot of a year of growth as part of IAG.
• Largest ever transatlantic schedule with 2.5 million seats in the market for 2017
• Transatlantic seat capacity to grow by 21% in 2017
• Number of Transatlantic routes grows from twelve to thirteen
• Miami to Dublin to start 1^st September, 2017
• Los Angeles to Dublin service to operate daily during the peak summer months
• Orlando to Dublin service to increase to four times weekly
• Chicago to Dublin service to increase to twice daily

Aer Lingus today announced its 2017 summer schedule, including further expansion of its Long Haul network with a new Miami to Dublin route, operating three times per week from September 2017.

The new Miami route is in addition to Aer Lingus' existing transatlantic routes Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Washington and Toronto to Dublin and Boston and New York to Shannon, as well as the new routes from Los Angeles, Newark, and Hartford, which commenced this year.

The airline will also increase its Los Angeles flight to a daily service for summer 2017, Orlando to Dublin will increase to four times per week, and Chicago will also increase to a double daily service in the same period.

The growth plan underpins Aer Lingus' successful strategy of expanding its Dublin Airport base into a major European gateway. The convenience of U.S. Customs and Border Protection services at Dublin has enhanced the continued growth of Aer Lingus' Dublin operation as a connecting gateway. Dublin Airport's connectivity from North America has grown rapidly over the past six years seeing it move from eleventh position in 2010 to fifth position in 2016 on the league table of European transatlantic airports.

The expansion also comes after a successful year as part of International Airlines Group (IAG), which also saw Aer Lingus awarded a 4-Star rating from Skytrax, the international air transport rating organization, making it Ireland's only airline with such an award and placing it among the top 40 airlines in the world for quality and service.

Aer Lingus Chief Executive, Stephen Kavanagh made the announcement at a briefing in Dublin today. The expansion comes off the back of International Airlines Group's commitment to expand the Aer Lingus transatlantic business, grow Ireland's connectivity and create high quality jobs across the airline.

Speaking at the announcement today, Aer Lingus Chief Executive Stephen Kavanagh said:

"We are delighted to announce the further expansion of our transatlantic network with the addition of Miami to Dublin and increased frequency from Los Angeles, Orlando and Chicago improving connectivity from North America. The new route from Miami will continue to the offer choice, service and value that delivered our Skytrax 4-Star accreditation and we look forward to welcoming guests on board this new service in 2017."

Flights go on sale today on aerlingus.com.