Aer Lingus to open Gatwick hub

Aer Lingus are to invest £100m in setting up a new base at London's Gatwick Airport. The move which will involve basing four A320 airport will also create 120 jobs at the airport. From March next year the airline will serve Malaga, Vienna, Nice, Munich, Faro, Zurich, Dublin and Knock from the London airport. Aer Lingus plan to have 8 aircraft based there by the end of the first year's operation.

It is expected that an announcement on Shannon - Heathrow is expected in the coming days with some speculation that two services per day, one morning, one evening will be reinstated. With low load factors on the Belfast International - Heathrow route and demand dropping significantly on Dublin - Heathrow it is likely that both Belfast and Dublin will lose one slot each to accommodate the Shannon route. Dermot Mannion recently stated that short haul services from Shannon were likely following the acceptance by the SIPTU and IMPACT trades unions of the cost reduction program at the airline. In order to make a twice per day rotation viable on the Shannon - Heathrow route it is likely that a mid day service to a second airport may be included.