Surge in sun holidays sees Aer Lingus use larger aircraft on short-haul routes 

Aer Lingus usually uses its smaller Airbus 320 aircraft for European routes. Picture: David Creedon

A large spike in Irish holidaymakers seeking the sun this summer has led Aer Lingus to use its larger transatlantic aircraft on short-haul routes to Faro and Malaga.

The airline normally uses its smaller single-aisle Airbus 320 aircraft for European routes, which carry up to 174 passengers, but when demand is present, will use its American-focused aircraft, which can accommodate 320 travellers.

This summer, due to strong demand in the European short-haul market, Aer Lingus has decided to use its larger aircraft that have returned overnight from the US and before they head back over the Atlantic later in the day.

The company said that by operating a larger Airbus A330 aircraft on these routes, it can cater for the high demand for these destinations during peak season.

“Due to Ireland’s unique geographic position our A330 aircraft can arrive into Ireland from North America early morning, operate a return short-haul flight to Malaga or Faro and then an afternoon flight to North America,” the airline told the Irish Examiner.

The strong demand for flights comes after the airline suffered heavy losses and weaker demand since the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has expanded its routes offering in Europe as well as to North America for this summer.

Last year, the top five most popular European destinations for sun-seeking Irish holidaymakers  were Malaga, Lanzarote, Faro, Nice, and Naples.

Updated schedules also show that Irish holiday-makers are opting for short trips to the continent instead of Britain, with routes to regional airports in the UK disappearing.

According to travel expert Eoghan Corry, passenger traffic to and from Britain was 31% of the total in 2019 and is now down to 28%, Europe was 53% and is up to 57%. The pendulum is set to swing further in Europe’s direction in 2023, he said.

Ryanair flew just under 12m passengers in January, with the budget airline saying its passenger traffic continued to grow at the start of 2023.

Overall, Ryanair expects to carry 168m passengers in the 12 months through to March 2023, when its financial year ends, beating its pre-pandemic record by over 13%.

Furthermore, it expects that number to grow further to 185m passengers over the 12 months to March 2024.

However, despite the robust demand for Aer Lingus and Ryanair, in recent weeks, regional carrier Flybe went to the wall, thereby reducing the flights in and out of Belfast by 30% and Aer Lingus had already withdrawn its Belfast to Heathrow route.