Dublin Airport will welcome a total of 23 new routes and four new airlines in the coming weeks, making this the busiest summer in the airport’s 79-year history.
More than 1.3 million extra seats have been added across the airport’s route network, which is a 6% increase in capacity when compared to last summer.
Four new airlines, airBaltic, Great Dane Airlines, SunExpress and TAP Air Portugal are joining Dublin Airport’s growing list of airline customers.
Six long-haul routes and 17 short-haul destinations are being added to Dublin Airport’s flight schedule this summer.
Of the six new long-haul routes, Hainan Airlines and Norwegian have already launched new services to Shenzhen and Hamilton Toronto respectively. WestJet will start a new service to Halifax, Nova Scotia in April and a new route to Calgary in June. American Airlines will launch a new service to Dallas-Fort Worth in June and Aer Lingus will operate flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul from July.
Dublin Airport Managing Director, Vincent Harrison said the airport is preparing for another busy summer and will have extra staff on duty in key areas. “We have a fantastic range of new destinations for passengers to choose from this summer connecting Dublin Airport to even more locations across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Harrison said.
“Additional capacity and frequency have also been added on over 14 existing routes giving our customers much greater choice, flexibility and more options, whether they are travelling for business or leisure purposes this summer season.”
The number of seats to and from North America is up 3% this summer, with an extra 91,000 seats this year. The peak summer months will see 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.
Total capacity on existing short-haul routes is set to increase by 6% with almost 1.2 million additional seats this summer.
Dublin Airport has 17 new short-haul services to choose from this summer. Ryanair will operate services to Bordeaux, Bodrum, Bournemouth, Cagliari, Dubrovnik, Gothenburg, Kyiv, London-Southend, Lourdes, Milan/Malpensa, Thessaloniki, and Split. airBaltic recently launched a new service to the Latvian capital Riga, TAP Air Portugal will commence services to Lisbon, SunExpress will fly to Izmir, Great Dane Airlines will operate a new service to Aalborg in Denmark and Loganair will fly to Carlisle close to the Lake District in the UK.
Last month, Airports Council International (ACI) named Dublin Airport as the joint best airport in Europe in its size category for 2018. Dublin Airport won the award alongside Oslo Gardermoen and Zurich airports, having achieved the joint highest customer service score among European airports welcoming 25-40 million passengers per year. Each airport’s score is based on a passenger survey that measures the key elements of the airport experience.
Last year Dublin Airport welcomed 31.5 million passengers, which was a 6% increase on the previous 12 months. Passenger numbers are up 9% in the first two months of this year, as more than 4 million passengers have used the airport in January and February.
Dublin Airport has flights to almost 200 destinations in 43 countries, operated by 53 airlines and is the 11th busiest airport in the European Union. It one of Ireland’s key economic assets, as it generates or facilitates 117,300 jobs and €8.3 billion worth of economic activity.
New routes launching this summer at Dublin Airport
| Destination | Airline | Frequency | Start |
| Shenzhen | Hainan | 2 per week | February |
| Toronto-Hamilton | Norwegian | 4 per week | March |
| Riga | airBaltic | 4 per week | March |
| Lisbon | TAP Air Portugal | 14 per week | March |
| Lourdes | Ryanair | 2 per week | April |
| London-Southend | Ryanair | 12 per week | April |
| Bournemouth | Ryanair | 4 per week | April |
| Bourdeaux | Ryanair | 2 per week | April |
| Halifax, Nova Scotia | Westjet | 7 per week | April |
| Kjiv | Ryanair | 2 per week | May |
| Thessaloniki | Ryanair | 2 per week | May |
| Izmir | SunExpress | 1 per week | May |
| Gothenburg | Ryanair | 2 per week | May |
| Bodrum | Ryanair | 2 per week | May |
| Split | Ryanair | 4 per week | June |
| Cagliari | Ryanair | 2 per week | June |
| Dubrovnik | Ryanair | 4 per week | June |
| Calgary | Westjet | 3 per week | June |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 7 per week | June |
| Aalborg | Great Dane Airlines | 2 per week | June |
| Minneapolis-St Paul | Aer Lingus | 7 per week | July |
| Milan Malpensa | Ryanair | 7 per week | July |
| Carlisle | Loganair | 5 per week | July |
Image above: Jamie Goodhart and Audrey Chew launching Dublin Airport's summer schedule in Terminal 1.
