New Aer Lingus Shannon-Boston timetable begins today

The Aer Lingus chief executive says he is confident they will be able to fill the new flight schedule being rolled out at Shannon airport.

The enhanced Boston and New York services will see Aer Lingus this year operate 13 weekly transatlantic flights compared to seven last year, a 24% increase in capacity.

Aer Lingus chief executive, Christoph Mueller said: “This is a significant day for Aer Lingus and for our team at Shannon Airport.

“Today’s flight marks the beginning of our major transatlantic expansion in 2014. We are confident that the increased number of flights from Shannon to New York and Boston will bring additional tourists to the Western region and further support the strong international trade links between the region and the United States.

“Our transatlantic capacity will increase by 24% in 2014, following on from a very strong year of growth in 2013.

“Crucially, this expansion will directly support more than 200 jobs in Ireland within Aer Lingus and our partner airline ASL Aviation Group.”

Neil Pakey, CEO Shannon Airport added, “Today is a very important day for us and our passengers as we see not just the return of year-round Aer Lingus transatlantic services for the first time since 2009 at Shannon but also the near doubling of frequencies to Boston and New York.

“This new daily Boston service is very much driven by the market, with significant demand, in particular, from the business community due to the very significant presence in the West and South of Ireland of Massachusetts based US multi-nationals such as Boston Scientific and EMC.

“This is supplemented by a very strong inbound and outbound tourism market thanks to the incredible ties between this region and both Boston and New York.”