Ireland’s latest airline start-up, Emerald Airlines has announced this week two new routes, connecting its main base in Dublin to Brest, in France, and Liverpool. The company, exclusive franchisee of the Aer Lingus Regional brand, will start both flights just in time for the next Summer season.
While the flight to Liverpool will count with 11 weekly frequencies and be a year-round service, starting from April 27, the flight to Brest will be seasonal, with two weekly frequencies from May 20. Tickets for both routes are available on Aer Lingus’ sales channels.
«Today’s announcement comes just in time for those planning their Summer trips away», stated Emerald’s Head of Commercial, Ciarán Smith, in a press release. «For customers looking for convenient travel options to and from Liverpool, or a direct, seamless route to the Northwest of France, Brest, we are happy to be providing you with more choice when planning your travels.»
Claude Arphexad, Brest Airport’s director, stated that «We are very happy to welcome [Emerald] to Brest airport and very proud to be their first destination in France. Dublin was a highly anticipated destination; we are delighted to be able to offer it to Bretons this summer.»
The Dublin-Brest route will be exclusively be operated by Aer Lingus through the Summer. The route to Liverpool, meanwhile, will count with stiff competition from Ryanair, which during the peak travel season flies up to seven times daily between both cities, with lower costs and larger aircraft driving even more pricing power.
Aer Lingus expects to counter this by providing connections, through its Dublin hub, from Liverpool to its Transatlantic flights.
Emerald Airlines is selling, according to the press release, 2.5 million seats for the Summer season, being an important part of Aer Lingus’ network across the Irish Sea, providing the company additional capacity — and frequency — in the routes it serves by using smaller aircraft. The airline currently operates a fleet of 15 ATR 72-600, according to Planespotters.net.
