Seamless to Seattle – Announcing our newest direct route to North America

Our new route to Seattle brings our total number of transatlantic routes to 15.

Today we’re delighted to announce a brand new route from Dublin to Seattle – Ireland’s first ever direct service to the Emerald City. The Airbus A330 service will offer both business and economy classes, and will operate four times weekly from May 18th, 2018 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Seattle has strong business links to Ireland, boasting a vibrant technology sector. It’s home to technology giants Microsoft and Amazon, both of which have significant operations in Ireland. The Irish-based aircraft leasing sector will now be connected directly to the home of Boeing. And let’s not forget Starbucks, which started life as a small Seattle coffeehouse in 1971.

Seattle sits between Puget Sound and Lake Washington on the Pacific Northwest. Some of its must-sees are the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and the Museum of Pop Culture. And let’s not forget the city’s powerful musical legacy which includes Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, and Nirvana. For more on what to see and do, check out our Seven Reasons to Visit Seattle in 2018.

Since joining IAG in 2015, we have launched six new direct transatlantic services: Los Angeles, Newark, Hartford, Miami, Philadelphia and now Seattle. These past few years have seen our largest ever period of transatlantic expansion in our long history. Our Seattle service adds 50,000 additional seats to our transatlantic programme for summer 2018. Our total 2018 transatlantic capacity now reaches more than 2.75 million seats.

Strengthening our Dublin Airport base as a major European transatlantic gateway is a primary focus for us. This strategy delivers increased connectivity for Ireland, which supports international trade and economic development, as well as growth in tourism. It also highlights the gateway connections available at Dublin from North America, UK and Europe, with the convenience of US Customs and Border Protection preclearance services at Dublin Airport.

For guests travelling from Seattle, we will offer 24 seamless connections, via the Dublin Gateway, to UK and European cities such as London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. British travellers will enjoy connections via Dublin to Seattle from cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Source: Aer Lingus Blog on Aerlingus.com

Cracking add. An optimistic route choice perhaps, but nonetheless it is good for Ireland to have this link.

Well done. That US pre-clearence must be becoming a very busy experience.

Not the most obvious choice by Aer Lingus but a very welcome one! I'm sure many here would have put the likes of Dallas, Houston or even Las Vegas ahead of Seattle but came out on top for various reasons.

Denver and Montreal have also been singled out as potential new cities by the CEO this week.

I do wonder if the likes of Crystal or Topflight have plans to use Aer Lingus to access the local ski resorts. Aer Lingus could use all the help they can get to keep the flights full through the winter. Have thought about using Seattle to access Whistler, but could the resorts outside Seattle be worth serving?

Competition for Icelandair KEF - SEA. FI runs 1 daily 757-200 to Seattle. In summer twice daily. Sometimes the 757 or one 757-200 is replaced by a 767-300ER or one flight is doubled up. The bigger part of the KEF-SEA-KEF passengers are transfer passengers in KEF.

SEA has strong links to Scandinavia, in general, shame that EI has such a weak network to Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia.

Great news , Seattle has usually had high fares to Europe so hopefully the yield will be good .

At the end of the day , any North America destination Icelandajr/ wow can do , Aer Lingus can do better ....

Galwayman wrote:

Great news , Seattle has usually had high fares to Europe so hopefully the yield will be good .

At the end of the day , any North America destination Icelandajr/ wow can do , Aer Lingus can do better ....

At the end of the day, any destination in North America that Aer Lingus can do, Icelandair can do better if the end point of the Journey is in the Nordic countries. It is nice to see Aer Lingus copying the Icelandair system of routes.

Exciting route, and as they call out in their blog there are strong business ties between the two cities. I wonder how this will do for connections.

mjoelnir wrote:

Competition for Icelandair KEF - SEA. FI runs 1 daily 757-200 to Seattle. In summer twice daily. Sometimes the 757 or one 757-200 is replaced by a 767-300ER or one flight is doubled up. The bigger part of the KEF-SEA-KEF passengers are transfer passengers in KEF.

True, it is a gap in their network for sure.

Willie Walsh stated last week that every North American route EI have launched has been profitable from day 1. It will be interesting to see if this one keeps up that trend.

Nice add for EI and for SEA. I know that there's quite a bit of Microsoft presence in Ireland so I'm sure that will help bolster the flight. Let's hope that AS adds EI as a partner.

Partnering with AS wouldn't surprise me....much like AS they seem to take their own road when it comes to choosing partners.

Galwayman wrote:

Great news , Seattle has usually had high fares to Europe so hopefully the yield will be good .

At the end of the day , any North America destination Icelandajr/ wow can do , Aer Lingus can do better ....

Don't forget that some of those fares will come down due to Norwegian.

Jambost wrote:

I do wonder if the likes of Crystal or Topflight have plans to use Aer Lingus to access the local ski resorts. Aer Lingus could use all the help they can get to keep the flights full through the winter. Have thought about using Seattle to access Whistler, but could the resorts outside Seattle be worth serving?

Don't fly to Seattle to ski. If skiing was part of the decision making they would have better off flying to Vancouver. Whistler is one of the best skiing areas on the planet, but the ski areas outside of Seattle are OK, but frequently there are issues with fog and rain (especially at Snoqualmie, less so at Stevens Pass and Crystal Mountain).

I think Seattle's incredible growth and the international industries (Microsoft and Boeing first and foremost) were big parts of the equation, especially with companies putting up work centers in Ireland due to favorable taxation (for corporations).
Also the greater Seattle are is now 4 million people. Portland and Vancouver aren't too far away. If you take these three cities you're looking at close to 10 million people.

Seattle is also a great summer destination. Probably one of the top 2-3 cities to visit in the summer.In the winter you'd better like grayness and dampness (just like Ireland!!)

flyoregon wrote:

Awesome news for Seattle! Hopefully they partner with Alaska!

I do have to ask though, and I'm not saying this from a slightly jealous point of view, but at what point does the international air service bubble at SEA burst?

There just seems to be a lot of capacity TATL and TPAC for a city the size of Seattle...and I don't mean it's small by any means, it just seems like a lot. Plus the airport itself is bursting at the seams. I personally try to avoid going through SeaTac anymore for that reason.

Anyway, wishing the best for AerLingus on this new route!

International industry plays a big part of it. A growing city with the 12th or 13th largest metro area in the US is a fairly big population. Also a well-off and educated population.
Also, while SEA is the main hub for AS, as we all know AS is not much of an international airline. SEA needs other airlines to fly to SEA since AS doesn't (at least not now)

BA operates 10-14 weekly LHR-SEA flights. I think that gives IAG pretty good insight into demand and almost certainly means that DUB-SEA is not a huge risk. It will be interesting to see if LHR-SEA is scaled back with the launch of DUB-SEA, allowing growth from LHR to another destination.

Is this route 100% new or has it been tried before?

flybynight wrote:

Don't fly to Seattle to ski. If skiing was part of the decision making they would have better off flying to Vancouver. Whistler is one of the best skiing areas on the planet, but the ski areas outside of Seattle are OK, but frequently there are issues with fog and rain (especially at Snoqualmie, less so at Stevens Pass and Crystal Mountain).

Having learned to ski outside Seattle, I agree.

But there are no direct flights to YVR, DEN, or SLC from DUB. SEA has great connections to all 3, so it could be a relevant gateway for the snow-inclined.

There is a direct service to YVR since 2016 from DUB, summer only though.

sxf24 wrote:

BA operates 10-14 weekly LHR-SEA flights. I think that gives IAG pretty good insight into demand and almost certainly means that DUB-SEA is not a huge risk. It will be interesting to see if LHR-SEA is scaled back with the launch of DUB-SEA, allowing growth from LHR to another destination.

Somehow I doubt it. BA has been playing with flying resources throughout the year with 777-200ER's, 777-300ER's and 747-400's. But I don't think the DUB-SEA flights will mean less LHR flights. Even recently, other European carriers are upping their equipment like LH with the 747-8i's and Virgin with the A340-600's. You also have Norwegian to LGW with the 789's. I imagine Eurofly will be back next year. Norwegian will begin CDG (I think) next summer. Who else? Level to BCN?

Who is next from Asia? TG seems serious to fly 789's to SEA from BKK (nonstop)...it was on a different thread. In the past, there had been threads about PR and maybe even JL and CI starting SEA. Of course, TG and JL would be restarts. PR would be the new player.

Very busy times at SEA!!

Nice. If I can call it though and say I dont think it will last. Just a hunch nothing more.

Also Seatlle is the jumping off point for cruises to Alaska in the summer so that is another attraction.

by738 wrote:

Nice. If I can call it though and say I dont think it will last. Just a hunch nothing more.

For as long as Microsoft and Amazon are in Ireland there'll be decent numbers in the back of the bus + some J from bought upgrades/senior staff and the aviation leasing firms go for the front it should work.

Jambost wrote:

I do wonder if the likes of Crystal or Topflight have plans to use Aer Lingus to access the local ski resorts. Aer Lingus could use all the help they can get to keep the flights full through the winter. Have thought about using Seattle to access Whistler, but could the resorts outside Seattle be worth serving?

I very much doubt we will see anything worth talking about to be honest. While they may do the odd amount it will be a very small %. Should DEN launch then we may see a different story.

My fingers are crossed that AS will tie-in with EI and that will give me access to try out EI’s business class which looks nice. I’ve always been so attracted by EI and have always wanted to see their Irish hospitality.

wedgetail737 wrote:

sxf24 wrote:

BA operates 10-14 weekly LHR-SEA flights. I think that gives IAG pretty good insight into demand and almost certainly means that DUB-SEA is not a huge risk. It will be interesting to see if LHR-SEA is scaled back with the launch of DUB-SEA, allowing growth from LHR to another destination.

Somehow I doubt it. BA has been playing with flying resources throughout the year with 777-200ER's, 777-300ER's and 747-400's. But I don't think the DUB-SEA flights will mean less LHR flights. Even recently, other European carriers are upping their equipment like LH with the 747-8i's and Virgin with the A340-600's. You also have Norwegian to LGW with the 789's. I imagine Eurofly will be back next year. Norwegian will begin CDG (I think) next summer. Who else? Level to BCN?

Who is next from Asia? TG seems serious to fly 789's to SEA from BKK (nonstop)...it was on a different thread. In the past, there had been threads about PR and maybe even JL and CI starting SEA. Of course, TG and JL would be restarts. PR would be the new player.

Very busy times at SEA!!

Is Virgin using 346's? I only have seen 789's coming into SEA. A 346 would be neat.

The rich get richer. SEA has an insane amount of European service for its seize and economy. At some point that bubble has to start leaking.

flybynight wrote:

wedgetail737 wrote:

sxf24 wrote:

BA operates 10-14 weekly LHR-SEA flights. I think that gives IAG pretty good insight into demand and almost certainly means that DUB-SEA is not a huge risk. It will be interesting to see if LHR-SEA is scaled back with the launch of DUB-SEA, allowing growth from LHR to another destination.

Somehow I doubt it. BA has been playing with flying resources throughout the year with 777-200ER's, 777-300ER's and 747-400's. But I don't think the DUB-SEA flights will mean less LHR flights. Even recently, other European carriers are upping their equipment like LH with the 747-8i's and Virgin with the A340-600's. You also have Norwegian to LGW with the 789's. I imagine Eurofly will be back next year. Norwegian will begin CDG (I think) next summer. Who else? Level to BCN?

Who is next from Asia? TG seems serious to fly 789's to SEA from BKK (nonstop)...it was on a different thread. In the past, there had been threads about PR and maybe even JL and CI starting SEA. Of course, TG and JL would be restarts. PR would be the new player.

Very busy times at SEA!!

Is Virgin using 346's? I only have seen 789's coming into SEA. A 346 would be neat.

I saw a VS 346 parked st the south satellite a few days ago. Don't know if it is now regularly scheduled or just a one off substitution.

obelau24 wrote:

My fingers are crossed that AS will tie-in with EI and that will give me access to try out EI’s business class which looks nice. I’ve always been so attracted by EI and have always wanted to see their Irish hospitality.

AFAIK EI/AS do not even have an interline agreement unless it’s changed in the last 8 months. Through ticketing was not possible.

Didn't expect Aer Lingus to annouce Seattle, but it does make sense considering the technology connections in the Seattle area. Hopefully it will be a success.

Otherwise, are all EI flights operating at T2? T2 is pretty busy and not all jet bridges can be used at once. I have also seen on google maps A320's and A330's of EI at T1 which doesn't have US Pre-clearance I believe.

by738 wrote:

Nice. If I can call it though and say I dont think it will last. Just a hunch nothing more.

Do remember that Aer Lingus has decent portion of their transatlantic flights filled with connecting passengers from the UK regions and Europe. They are very successful at this which is partly why they are doing so well. It's not all going to be Irish traffic.

MSPNWA wrote:

The rich get richer. SEA has an insane amount of European service for its seize and economy. At some point that bubble has to start leaking.

Why? As of 2015, Seattle was the 12th largest economy in the US and has been growing rapidly. They have ~9 European destinations (including the seasonal-only and planned flights). I'd hardly call that "insane".

EDIT: By contrast, LAX has 21 by my count (including a lot more destinations with multiple carriers)

Thanks everyone for your opinions and advice.

I can only hope Air Canada/Rouge will respond with year round flights to YVR, or maybe should try summer skiing in Whistler... who needs snow anyway!

I do wish Aer Lingus the best for Seattle, and also for AC up in Vancouver

Jambost wrote:

Thanks everyone for your opinions and advice.

I can only hope Air Canada/Rouge will respond with year round flights to YVR, or maybe should try summer skiing in Whistler... who needs snow anyway!

I do wish Aer Lingus the best for Seattle, and also for AC up in Vancouver

It’s called mountain biking!

I don’t think the skiers would be much of a market, the vast majority of Irish people on a ski holiday would prefer a short skip over to the French/Swiss/Italian/Austrian alps in the winter.

MSPNWA wrote:

The rich get richer. SEA has an insane amount of European service for its seize and economy. At some point that bubble has to start leaking.

What is this based on?
Per my previous post, Seattle metro is just under 4 million people. Ireland's total population, by the way is about 4.7 million.
Some of the biggest international businesses are located in Seattle - Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon come to mind.
Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC are nearby. Tourism is big in the summer.

Airlines do their research before selecting cities and while AS' main hub is SEA, please remember AS doesn't fly internationally (beyond a few flights in Canada, Mexico and Costa Rico). Seattle depends on airliners to fly here. DL, of course, has a hub now here and that limits certain airlines from flying here (like KLM or AF).

Did you know that Seattle has more construction cranes than all of CA and NYC combined right now? This place is growing like a weed.

masgniw wrote:

MSPNWA wrote:

The rich get richer. SEA has an insane amount of European service for its seize and economy. At some point that bubble has to start leaking.

Why? As of 2015, Seattle was the 12th largest economy in the US and has been growing rapidly. They have ~9 European destinations (including the seasonal-only and planned flights). I'd hardly call that "insane".

EDIT: By contrast, LAX has 21 by my count (including a lot more destinations with multiple carriers)

Compare SEA service to cities/economies of similar or larger size (DFW, IAH, WSH, PHL, MIA, ATL, SFO, DTW, MSP, DEN, etc.) . And then also negatively adjust for competitor's better hub structures and SEA's poor geography for European connections. The quick conclusion is that SEA is extremely well-served. One can make a very strong argument that its the most over-served airport in the country on a relative basis. The addition of DUB adds to to it. DFW, IAH, DTW, and MSP don't have DUB service, and ATL is only seasonal. If we cross the border, YVR also only has seasonal service, and only next year is YUL getting service. SEA-DUB is a big outlier.

The fact that SEA is only 9 destinations short of LAX is further evidence of how well-served it is. That's crazy.

flybynight wrote:

What is this based on?
Per my previous post, Seattle metro is just under 4 million people. Ireland's total population, by the way is about 4.7 million.
Some of the biggest international businesses are located in Seattle - Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon come to mind.
Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC are nearby. Tourism is big in the summer.

Airlines do their research before selecting cities and while AS' main hub is SEA, please remember AS doesn't fly internationally (beyond a few flights in Canada, Mexico and Costa Rico). Seattle depends on airliners to fly here. DL, of course, has a hub now here and that limits certain airlines from flying here (like KLM or AF).

Did you know that Seattle has more construction cranes than all of CA and NYC combined right now? This place is growing like a weed.

See above. And the SEA economy is not particularly special to Europe. In one significant metric - the number of Fortune 500 companies - the state of WA (and OR too) are below average. In growth rates, the DFW, IAH, PHX, and DEN areas, among others, are growing at an even faster rate than SEA. None of them are getting DUB. So not only are DFW and IAH much larger, growing faster, and have superior economies, they see DUB getting a flight first. So yes, SEA is insanely well-served.

This Aer Lingus announcement makes perfect sense. SEA airport can't take much more international traffic due to both the immigration facility limitations and lack of space at the South Satellite during the window when flights to Europe would want to arrive/leave. By having CBP pre-clearance, the airline is able to work around this and use any gate with enough space for the A330. Smart move to take advantage of the constrained market and build up their brand while the airport builds out their new immigration facility over the next few years.

Great news. Will this be seasonal or year-round?

MSPNWA wrote:

masgniw wrote:

MSPNWA wrote:

The rich get richer. SEA has an insane amount of European service for its seize and economy. At some point that bubble has to start leaking.

Why? As of 2015, Seattle was the 12th largest economy in the US and has been growing rapidly. They have ~9 European destinations (including the seasonal-only and planned flights). I'd hardly call that "insane".

EDIT: By contrast, LAX has 21 by my count (including a lot more destinations with multiple carriers)

Compare SEA service to cities/economies of similar or larger size (DFW, IAH, WSH, PHL, MIA, ATL, SFO, DTW, MSP, DEN, etc.) . And then also negatively adjust for competitor's better hub structures and SEA's poor geography for European connections. The quick conclusion is that SEA is extremely well-served. One can make a very strong argument that its the most over-served airport in the country on a relative basis. The addition of DUB adds to to it. DFW, IAH, DTW, and MSP don't have DUB service, and ATL is only seasonal. If we cross the border, YVR also only has seasonal service, and only next year is YUL getting service. SEA-DUB is a big outlier.

The fact that SEA is only 9 destinations short of LAX is further evidence of how well-served it is. That's crazy.

flybynight wrote:

What is this based on?
Per my previous post, Seattle metro is just under 4 million people. Ireland's total population, by the way is about 4.7 million.
Some of the biggest international businesses are located in Seattle - Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon come to mind.
Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC are nearby. Tourism is big in the summer.

Airlines do their research before selecting cities and while AS' main hub is SEA, please remember AS doesn't fly internationally (beyond a few flights in Canada, Mexico and Costa Rico). Seattle depends on airliners to fly here. DL, of course, has a hub now here and that limits certain airlines from flying here (like KLM or AF).

Did you know that Seattle has more construction cranes than all of CA and NYC combined right now? This place is growing like a weed.

See above. And the SEA economy is not particularly special to Europe. In one significant metric - the number of Fortune 500 companies - the state of WA (and OR too) are below average. In growth rates, the DFW, IAH, PHX, and DEN areas, among others, are growing at an even faster rate than SEA. None of them are getting DUB. So not only are DFW and IAH much larger, growing faster, and have superior economies, they see DUB getting a flight first. So yes, SEA is insanely well-served.

SEA is much larger than MSP or DEN, and the state of Washington has 1.5m+ more people than either Minnesota or Colorado. It also has a much larger business base and one that is more apt towards international travel. Best Buy and Target aren't flying people to Europe and Asia to the level that Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and Starbucks are. Texas is very far south and neither Dallas nor Houston are tourist destinations. In fact, of your list, only SEA and DEN could be considered international tourist destinations with a pull of leisure pax from Europe.

As someone else pointed out, SEA may have a lot of destinations but the frequencies are lower than on trunk hub-to-hub routes like AMS/DTW-MSP or DFW-LHR. SEA has the benefit of not being dominated by a single carrier that forces everyone through a hub on the other side of the pond. And as others have mentioned, PDX and YVR also feed SEA to a certain extent. Living in PDX, I would connect at SEA in a heartbeat over any other domestic airport, and certainly won't fly through the midwest or east coast if there is any other option. It adds hours to the routing and means more time on some crappy domestic narrowbody plane.

readytotaxi wrote:

Well done. That US pre-clearence must be becoming a very busy experience.

I flew DUB-BOS in July and from check in through security and pre-check to the business class lounge in the pre-clearence terminal took around 30 minutes. The experience overall was very easy compared to my nightmare the week before flying AMS-DUB, that security checkpoint was jammed back out the terminal doors. Took around 1.5 hours from check in through security to my gate at AMS.

obelau24 wrote:

My fingers are crossed that AS will tie-in with EI and that will give me access to try out EI’s business class which looks nice. I’ve always been so attracted by EI and have always wanted to see their Irish hospitality.

I flew Aer Lingus J class from BDL-DUB-BOS and was very pleased with the service, food, and seats on their 757 and A330. On par with most of the other European carriers and a step above BA world business class.

rwsea wrote:

MSPNWA wrote:

masgniw wrote:

Why? As of 2015, Seattle was the 12th largest economy in the US and has been growing rapidly. They have ~9 European destinations (including the seasonal-only and planned flights). I'd hardly call that "insane".

EDIT: By contrast, LAX has 21 by my count (including a lot more destinations with multiple carriers)

Compare SEA service to cities/economies of similar or larger size (DFW, IAH, WSH, PHL, MIA, ATL, SFO, DTW, MSP, DEN, etc.) . And then also negatively adjust for competitor's better hub structures and SEA's poor geography for European connections. The quick conclusion is that SEA is extremely well-served. One can make a very strong argument that its the most over-served airport in the country on a relative basis. The addition of DUB adds to to it. DFW, IAH, DTW, and MSP don't have DUB service, and ATL is only seasonal. If we cross the border, YVR also only has seasonal service, and only next year is YUL getting service. SEA-DUB is a big outlier.

The fact that SEA is only 9 destinations short of LAX is further evidence of how well-served it is. That's crazy.

flybynight wrote:

What is this based on?
Per my previous post, Seattle metro is just under 4 million people. Ireland's total population, by the way is about 4.7 million.
Some of the biggest international businesses are located in Seattle - Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon come to mind.
Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC are nearby. Tourism is big in the summer.

Airlines do their research before selecting cities and while AS' main hub is SEA, please remember AS doesn't fly internationally (beyond a few flights in Canada, Mexico and Costa Rico). Seattle depends on airliners to fly here. DL, of course, has a hub now here and that limits certain airlines from flying here (like KLM or AF).

Did you know that Seattle has more construction cranes than all of CA and NYC combined right now? This place is growing like a weed.

See above. And the SEA economy is not particularly special to Europe. In one significant metric - the number of Fortune 500 companies - the state of WA (and OR too) are below average. In growth rates, the DFW, IAH, PHX, and DEN areas, among others, are growing at an even faster rate than SEA. None of them are getting DUB. So not only are DFW and IAH much larger, growing faster, and have superior economies, they see DUB getting a flight first. So yes, SEA is insanely well-served.

SEA is much larger than MSP or DEN, and the state of Washington has 1.5m+ more people than either Minnesota or Colorado. It also has a much larger business base and one that is more apt towards international travel. Best Buy and Target aren't flying people to Europe and Asia to the level that Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and Starbucks are. Texas is very far south and neither Dallas nor Houston are tourist destinations. In fact, of your list, only SEA and DEN could be considered international tourist destinations with a pull of leisure pax from Europe.

As someone else pointed out, SEA may have a lot of destinations but the frequencies are lower than on trunk hub-to-hub routes like AMS/DTW-MSP or DFW-LHR. SEA has the benefit of not being dominated by a single carrier that forces everyone through a hub on the other side of the pond. And as others have mentioned, PDX and YVR also feed SEA to a certain extent. Living in PDX, I would connect at SEA in a heartbeat over any other domestic airport, and certainly won't fly through the midwest or east coast if there is any other option. It adds hours to the routing and means more time on some crappy domestic narrowbody plane.

Great points, RWSEA.

I think another point is that similar cities cited with no DUB service (DFW, IAH, DTW, ATL and MSP) don't have the same tourist draw as SEA.

VCEflyboy wrote:

Great news. Will this be seasonal or year-round?

Year round, 4 weekly Dublin-Seattle

- "At the end of the day, any destination in North America that Aer Lingus can do, Icelandair can do better if the end point of the Journey is in the Nordic countries. It is nice to see Aer Lingus copying the Icelandair system of routes" -

The Icelandair service is pretty inefficient , the aircraft timings don't work and theyre just chasing the low yield SAS abandoned years ago

The front end corporate contracts with Microsoft and Amazon are low hanging fruit for EI - the unparalleled transit traffic via the forthcoming FR deal means this will be very very successful . Nothing can match Dublin ...

Galwayman wrote:

The Icelandair service is pretty inefficient

How do you figure? I fly Icelandair about 5-6 times a year from Seattle to Europe (mostly Paris) for work. The connections are seamless - around 55 minutes with no issues. I take this flight rather than the DL nonstop flight to Paris so that I can accrue AS miles. It's definitely a great option to get to Europe. It will be great having EI as an option, but without a tie-up with AS or DL, I can't imagine it being very compelling for the Seattle base.

by738 wrote:

Nice. If I can call it though and say I dont think it will last. Just a hunch nothing more.

Can you expand or give any factual reason?
When WestJet announced St. John’s to Dublin - it was doomed according to the a.net messiahs.
When Air Canada Rouge announcer Vancouver - Dublin ....similarly doomed.
When Aer Lingus announced Hartford - Dublin, it was also destined for failure.... yet every single Transatlantic route from Dublin has remained, not 1 has been scrapped entirely.
So I’m very curious to understand your “hunch”.
Hell...Even AA from Charlotte and Chicago to Dublin has remained and UA from IAD whilst other European routes have been scrapped. Dublin is the 5th busiest European Airport for US traffic with 16 US and 5 Canadian destinations from DUB. US traffic ex DUB is up 14% yoy. Furthermore Microsoft European Headquarters is in Dublin which will no doubt aid the Seattle route with corporate traffic.

NichCage wrote:

Didn't expect Aer Lingus to annouce Seattle, but it does make sense considering the technology connections in the Seattle area. Hopefully it will be a success.

Otherwise, are all EI flights operating at T2? T2 is pretty busy and not all jet bridges can be used at once. I have also seen on google maps A320's and A330's of EI at T1 which doesn't have US Pre-clearance I believe.

Some of the EI 330 flights are used to serve EU markets, esp in the high season, like AGP or TFN.

A lot of us tech folks in Seattle don't care for the LHR connection to DUB (in addition to the indifferent and dated BA product), so this is a welcome alternative. Creative thinking on Aer Lingus' part, best of luck to them!

Galwayman wrote:

- "At the end of the day, any destination in North America that Aer Lingus can do, Icelandair can do better if the end point of the Journey is in the Nordic countries. It is nice to see Aer Lingus copying the Icelandair system of routes" -

The Icelandair service is pretty inefficient , the aircraft timings don't work and theyre just chasing the low yield SAS abandoned years ago

The front end corporate contracts with Microsoft and Amazon are low hanging fruit for EI - the unparalleled transit traffic via the forthcoming FR deal means this will be very very successful . Nothing can match Dublin ...

In what way are the Icelandair connections inefficient? They lead to the passengers being offered a broad range off connections to a big part of Europe, in summer 28 different cities, 30 different airports, when they arrive in Iceland, with less than two hours connection time. Same on the way to SEA from Europe. For further connections in Seattle, Icelandair has an agreement with AS. SAS abandoned this flights because their system was not working to the satisfaction of their passengers.
It is also a misunderstanding that Icelandair does not get the business traveller on this route, the connections, especially to the Nordic countries are just to convenient. I have on my last flight to SEA been sitting beside a manager from Microsoft, who told me that he uses connection often on business trips.