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Amy Sancetta/AP/Press Association Images

New flights to run between Dublin and Washington, DC

United Airlines will operate the flight, the first time this company has flown out of Ireland.

A NEW ROUTE will open between Dublin and Dulles, Washington, DC, next summer.

In what is good news for Irish aviation this morning, Eoghan Corry, editor for Travel Extra, spoke on Morning Ireland about the route, which will be run by an American airline.

United Airlines, which has just merged with Continental Airlines, will look after the route.

This is the first time that this airline will fly from Ireland.

The route will launch on 22 May, said Corrie, who said that the aircraft used will hold around 180 passengers.

The news comes on the same day that Aer Arann begins its winter suspension of flights from Galway Airport.

Read: 47 staff cut at Galway Airport as Aer Arann suspends flights>

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21 Comments
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    Mute Marian Lenehan
    Favourite Marian Lenehan
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    Nov 1st 2011, 9:42 AM

    I was in Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport less than a year ago and it was a beautiful empty space. I was there again just a week ago and it was a thriving hub of people traveling from place to place. The dining areas were all very busy and there was a great atmosphere. The place is new, clean and friendly. I know Michael O Leary doesn’t like T2, but I think it was a good decision and this news from United Airlines is proof of that. In T1 you have to walk a mile just to get to the plane and there are definite signs of age in some parts despite the improvements.

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    Mute Gis Bayertz
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    Nov 1st 2011, 1:24 PM

    I agree Marian!

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    Mute Ultramann
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    Nov 1st 2011, 9:43 AM

    Good news for Irish aviation.

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    Mute Nikki Dunne
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    Nov 1st 2011, 9:52 AM

    Great news, more routes to US the better, just hope these routes can be sustained. Didn’t Aer Lingus reduce service on this route before? I agree that T2 is great….I turned up recently for a Aer Lingus flight due to depart from T2 and was directed out a long walkway which brought me back into T1… Thought that was bizarre!!!

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    Mute Colm Humphries
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    Nov 1st 2011, 10:22 AM

    That happened me too. I didn’t expect to get a morning jog in but it taught me to read gate numbers before i have coffee!

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    Mute Chris Mansfield
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    Nov 1st 2011, 10:29 AM

    Aer Lingus flew from Dublin to Baltimore-Washington, which is a bit like flying to Gatwick instead of Heathrow (i.e. not the main airport, but still an important airport for the city). That said, it would have offered fewer onward connections than Washington-Dulles, which can’t have helped with route loads. That service was terminated a few years ago when they started slashing transatlantic routes because of the downturn.

    They also, bizarrely, used to fly from Madrid to Washington.

    Aer Lingus have a problem in that they have no aircraft smaller than an A330 that can fly transatlantic and very few routes from Ireland need an aircraft that big. Most of the US carriers announcing routes are using 757s or 767s, which have somewhere between 60% and 80% of the capacity and are easier to fill.

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    Mute Donncha Ó Coileáin
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    Nov 1st 2011, 11:25 AM

    Aer Lingus still operate the Madrid to Washington-Dulles route. Kind of strange alright, but I think I remember reading that it was a trial route for them to decide whether or not to expand their transatlantic network from other parts of Europe. Recession finished that idea off, but Madrid-Washington is doing well so it stayed.

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    Mute Aonghus Collins
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    Nov 1st 2011, 12:01 PM

    Aer Lingus used to fly to Dulles alright, I used to make that trip regularly. Since they cancelled that service, I’ve been going via JFK or Boston – delighted that there may be a direct route again.

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    Mute Tony Stanley
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    Nov 1st 2011, 12:31 PM

    Aer Lingus did indeed fly to Dulles until about 2 years ago but the Dulles -Madrid flight is actually operated for United airlines in a business agreement much like a wet lease! United pay Aer Lingus for the use of its planes and crews!

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    Mute Niall Carson
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    Nov 1st 2011, 10:01 AM

    Just expect to be groped,radiated and fingerprinted when you land. In the land of the free.

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    Mute Aonghus Collins
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    Nov 1st 2011, 12:06 PM

    Going through the backscatter machine is reported to provide 0.05 – 0.09 μSv of radiation. For contract, eating the average banana gives you .1μSv. Hell, due to cosmic radiation, the fucking flight will net you about 20μSv (for a 6 hour flight)

    Also, they only do a pat down if you object to a backscatter, or the machine is too busy and you’ve been randomly tagged for increased testing. And it’s not a “grope”, it’s a very thorough and professional pat down (or at least it was when i got it done)

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    Mute Martin Mc Cormack
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    Nov 1st 2011, 5:35 PM

    You could always fly to tehran instead

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    Mute Graham Keogh
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    Nov 1st 2011, 6:39 PM

    I’m a fan of secondary scanning. Its happened twice to me now and each time I got to skip the quite outrageous queues in O’Hare airport and go right up the from for my scanning. I don’t care that they x-ray me if it means I don’t have to wait in line for 30mins…

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    Mute Paddy Rooney
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    Nov 1st 2011, 10:31 AM

    Didn’t Aer Lingus previously operate that route? Maybe Aer Lingus are too quick to drop long-haul routes, Dubai is another example of a former Aer Lingus route operated by a foreign carrier.

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    Mute Martin Mc Cormack
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    Nov 1st 2011, 4:36 PM

    there was a flight from shannon to dulles operated by aeroflot,

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    Mute Dave
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    Nov 1st 2011, 6:43 PM

    The sad thing is that Aer Lingus did fly to Dulles but as usual with the poor management of the company they dropped the route only to see someone else pick it up and most likely be successfull with it. The same applied when they tried to operate 3 times a week into Dubai which the cancelled only to see Ethiad fly 10 times a week to Abu Dhabi and now Emirates are coming into Dublin. Likewise they cancelled their routes to the West coast of the U.S. and no doubt some carrier will pick up those routes in time for Aer Lingus management to look back and realise they made mistake there as well. Think of the jobs and revenue that could’ve been created both within the former state owned carrier and ancillary businesses if A.L. management could get their act together!!

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    Mute Martin Mc Cormack
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    Nov 1st 2011, 7:12 PM

    the problem is that aer lingus is too small, the airlines above have networks out of destinations such as dubai and Abu dhabi. It needs huge investment, unlikely, or to be taken over by a major operator

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    Mute Rory Jefferies
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    Nov 1st 2011, 2:28 PM

    and there is talks of Air China now too!

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    Mute Andrew Telford
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    Nov 1st 2011, 10:57 PM

    Lol… Niall clearly never flies Transatlantic, you get groped, searched and irradiated prior to boarding for the USA when you fly from Dublin.

    As someone’s who’s clocked 62.5k old continental miles I’m very happy with this news

    It says united plane 150 passengers, that means an A321… But that’s a 3,390 mile flight and the max range on the A320s used domestically is 3,300 and neither united or continental has no orders for an A321 with an extended range. So I’m betting one of the new continental 737-900ERs configured with businessFirst seats.

    Or they may go all out on it and fit it 3 class cabin. I doubt they would miss out on premium passengers using a misplaced domestic jet.

    As for the west coast united has San Francisco and Los Angles hubs so it’s easy to see an expansion, cargo was the profit driver on the old Aer Lingus route to SFO they lost out on passengers because there just wasn’t enough and Rynair destroyed the business model of offering connections to Europe

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    Mute Andrew Telford
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    Nov 1st 2011, 11:07 PM

    Sorry I misread… 180 pax, United 767 in three class configuration

    Second 3 class cabin out of Dublin after Emirates, good news indeed, signs of a recovering economy if they can fill $10,000 seats across the Atlantic

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    Mute damian
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    Nov 1st 2011, 1:32 PM

    Great to have this route option again!

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