This article is from page 3 of the 2006-11-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
A DAILY service between Shannon and New York is being planned as part of a number of new routes announced this week by Aer Lingus.
The airline will be taking delivery of two new Airbus A330 long range jets next year and it is planning to expand capacity on existing routes to the US and the Middle East with the aircraft. From next summer, the airline’s long haul flights will number 120, an increase of 26.
The Dublin-New York service will operate twice daily and the DublinBoston route will increase from 11 flights per week to two per day with one non-stop service from Dublin and another from Dublin via Shannon.
The Dublin-Los Angeles service will also increase from five flights a week to a daily flight and the Dublin-Dubai service will increase from three flights per week to four.
Making the announcement, Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion said that taking delivery of the new aircraft would mark the first phase of the company’s long haul expansion plans.
He said it gave the airline “the opportunity to develop our presence in the US market and we look forward to a timely decision on the bilateral agreement, which will allow us to take full advantage of open skies.”
Meanwhile, Shannon-based charter, Eirjet, has failed to attract new investment as is to be wound up with multi-million euro debts.
In the last three weeks, management have been trying to get fresh finance for the company, which ran into difficulty earlier this year when an Indonesian leasing deal collapsed.
The deal would have been worth €20 million over three years to the airline. A liquidator is expected to be appointed early this week.
Eirjet was established in 2004 and operated charter services out of Shannon, Dublin, Belfast and Cork.
Their clients included Ryanair and Aer Lingus, but the main business was providing charter services for travel agencies such as Abbey Travel, Falcon, Stein Travel, JWT and Topflight.
The company contacted the Commission for Aviation Regulation in the middle of last month to say that it was unable to fulfil its obligations to the tour operators due to financial difficulties.
The company could not be contacted for comment. But their Website is advising that alternative travel arrangements have been put in place with all tour operators and customers should contact their travel agency for details.