Aer Lingus to bring nonstop flight to Dublin
After years of considering Denver, Aer Lingus, Ireland’s flagship airline, will launch its inaugural flight from Denver International Airport to Dublin on May 17.
A group of Aer Lingus representatives met and mingled Monday morning with local business and civic leaders, tourism officials and Ireland natives excited for the start of direct flights from the Mile High City to the Emerald Isle.
“It’s 116 days until heels up. Not that we’re counting,” said Yvonne Muldoon, director of sales for Aer Lingus.
Flights from Denver to Dublin will depart four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. To start, the service will be seasonal, running from May to Oct. 29. Jim Bochneak, the airline’s regional sales manager for the western U.S., said the season could be extended, depending on the kind of support there is in Denver.
After attending the Denver Travel Show at the Colorado
Convention Center over the weekend, Bochneak and Muldoon believe the support for Dublin service is strong.
“We are genuinely overwhelmed with the support,” Muldoon said.
Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles are the three Aer Lingus routes on the West Coast. In all, the airline offers 21 nonstop routes from the U.S. to Dublin. Some of the European cities Aer Lingus connects to are Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Aer Lingus will add Minneapolis-st. Paul to its routes beginning April 29.
Other European cities where passengers can travel nonstop from Denver are: London; Paris; Zurich; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Munich and Frankfurt, Germany.
Aer Lingus takes its time to make a business case for adding new routes, Muldoon said. “I believe Denver to Dublin has been under review for over six years.”
After the pandemic, Denver really started to rise on the list of opportunities,
Muldoon said. It is an untapped market where interest is high in traveling on to Europe. She said whether the service is extended past October will depend on the volume of business.
“I’m over from the head office. I wanted to get a feel for what the demand was on the ground, speak to the local community and just get a feel for what the support is like,” Muldoon said. “It’s been phenomenal.”
The first flight from Denver to Dublin, which will take 9.5 hours, is nearly full, Muldoon said. The airline will fly the Airbus A330, a wide-body aircraft.
Both business and tourism representatives said service from Denver to Dublin will be a big benefit.
“It’s a huge opportunity because a lot of U.S. companies have a corporate presence in Ireland and the Dublin area,” said Maggie Fouquet, resident and CEO of the International Business Circle in Denver.
All nonstop flights from Ireland to the U.S are precleared by U.S. Customs and Immigration Services at the Dublin and Shannon airports. “That’s a big timesaver,” Fouquet said.
A big benefit for Bill Graebel’s company, Denverbased Graebel’s Relocation Services Worldwide, is that one of their offices is about 40 miles north of the Dublin airport. Graebel said it will be much more efficient flying into Dublin, rather than going through Heathrow Airport in London or flying to New York, Boston or New York to New York on the return trip.
“I think it will be good for tourism in the area” as well, Graebel said.
And tourists from Ireland will likely appreciate direct flights to Colorado so they explore the West, Graebel added.
Muldoon said Aer Lingus will work with tourist boards in Colorado to pitch the state to people in Ireland. Tim Wolfe, director of the Colorado Tourism Office, said the state’s efforts to attract tourists from Ireland has been underway and the Denver-to-dublin air service will increase the momentum.