By Arturo Higueras
Aer Lingus to operate transatlantic flights from Manchester
From the 2021 summer, Aer Lingus is starting to operate transatlantic flights between Manchester and the United States. The Irish carrier has started a new subsidiary (Aer Lingus UK) based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in order to be granted permission to carry cargo and passengers between the United Kingdom and the United States. In that application, the new subsidiary has also asked to share code with Aer Lingus and British Airways. This is the first filling made under the new air service agreement signed by the two countries after the Brexit.
A few weeks back, the company was granted 1,500 slots for 2021 summer to operate transatlantic flights to and from Britain’s third busiest airport, Manchester. The carrier announced then that they will use one Airbus A330 and three Airbus A321LR. Nevertheless, it seems that those plans could have changed, and they will substitute one A321LR for one A330.
After some weeks of speculation, Aer Lingus announced it will be operating one summer daily flight to Boston, one all year daily to New York JFK and one summer daily (4x weekly rest of the year) to Orlando.
Manchester airport has seen a reduction of transatlantic flights since the disappearance of Thomas Cook in September 2019. With capacity freeing up, Virgin Atlantic announced it will operate five different transatlantic destinations from Manchester in 2021 summer: Atlanta, Barbados, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Orlando.
Right now, Aer Lingus operates transatlantic flights from its base airport, Dublin, to New York–JFK, Boston, Chicago and Toronto. Only a few of the 15 normal transatlantic flights of the company (13 to the United States and 2 to Canada).
For those Manchester routes, Aer Lingus will be operating its newest member of the fleet: the Airbus A321 Long Range. The Irish carrier received its first model in August 2019 and has 16 Business Class seats and 168 in the Economy Class. From the 10 total A321LR of its fleet, the company is only operating four of them in their routes to the United States. Also, Aer Lingus will operate two A330 that are currently flying to destinations such as New York, Chicago or London.
Arturo joined AirlineGeeks in 2020 as a writer. He is a Spanish Aerospace Engineer who recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has always been passionate about aviation and, in addition to his engineering knowledge, he is now completing a Master’s Degree in Air Transport Management at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Being passionate about journalism, he has been part of several online magazine projects, he will now be covering aviation news from Europe.
