Irish airline Aer Lingus will reinstate its Liverpool to Dublin route later this month offering onward connections to New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. Tony McDonough reports
Aer Lingus will return to Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) for the first time since 2016 with a new route to Dublin.
Starting on Thursday, April 27, Emerald Airlines, which operate Are Lingus’s regional services, will offer 11 departures a week to the Irish capital. It will operate on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays using a 72-seat ATR72-600 aircraft.
This will give LJLA its third global hub link. German carrier Lufthansa began its hub link between Liverpool and Frankfurt in May 2022 and has since increased frequency. It offers onward flights to multiple global destinations.
And in October Icelandic airline PLAY launched its new route offering ‘seamless’ onward connections to US cities Washington, Boston and New York via Reykjavik.
Now passengers travelling from LJLA to Dublin with Aer Lingus will be able to seamlessly connect onto flights to New York JFK, Washington, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.
Dublin Airport is one of only a few airports outside North America that offers a US Preclearance facility that allows US-bound passengers to undertake all US immigration and customs inspections at Dublin Airport prior to departure.
This means that passengers arriving in the US are treated as domestic arrivals, allowing them to avoid immigration queues upon arrival and pick up their bags and go.
Aer Lingus did previously provide this link for passengers from Liverpool but the route was terminated in 2016.
In recent days LJL has kicked off what is set to be its busiest summer season since before the pandemic with bookings up 14% on last year so far. This week it said more than 64,000 passengers would pass through over Easter – 40% up on 2022.
Popular destinations this weekend include Alicante, Malaga and Palma. Other popular routes include Faro, Tenerife, Dalaman, Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Jersey, Paris and Amsterdam.
Robin Tudor, head of PR at the airport, said: “We don’t expect lengthy queues for our passengers, however travellers should remember that security restrictions regarding items in hand luggage including liquids, are still in force at the majority of UK airports.”