Dublin Airport has announced the introduction of a new direct service to Minneapolis-St. Paul in Minnesota.
The new Dublin-Minneapolis route will be operated by Aer Lingus using a Boeing 757 aircraft. The new route will initially operate six times weekly, increasing to a daily, year-round service from this August.
Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison said, ‘This is Aer Lingus’ 14th transatlantic route from Dublin Airport and its 11th new transatlantic route in the past five years.
‘We have been working closely with Aer Lingus since 2014 to grow its North American business and build a substantial transfer business. The new route offers customers significant onward connections in both directions.’
Aer Lingus’ Chief Executive Stephen Doyle, added: ‘We are delighted to commence Ireland’s first and only direct service to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota State. The Minneapolis-St. Paul region holds great promise for Aer Lingus particularly in terms of the connections we can offer to UK and European guests as well as those travelling from North America and onwards to Europe.’
Passengers travelling to Minneapolis-St. Paul on the Aer Lingus’ service can make use of the US Pre Clearance facilities at Dublin Airport, as they will be able to arrive in the US by completing all the necessary immigration and customs checks prior to departure.
This new route means that Dublin Airport now has nine airlines flying 464 flights per week to and from 18 destinations in the US and six destinations in Canada, which equates to an average of 66 flights daily to and from North America.
Dublin Airport has flights to nearly 200 destinations in 43 countries, operated by 53 airlines. So far this year, more than 12.3 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport, a seven percent increase compared to the first five months of last year. An additional 764,000 passengers travelled through Dublin Airport between January and May.
