Tourism boost for southeast with Aer Lingus Regional services to Waterford Airport

March 2012

Waterford Airport has welcomed the announcement that Aer Lingus Regional flights are to operate to and from Waterford as a major boost to tourism in the southeast region.

From March 25, the routes connecting London Luton; London Southend and Manchester to Waterford will carry the famous Aer Lingus shamrock and passengers are now able to book through www.aerlingus.com. This opens out the routes to a far larger pool of potential passengers in Ireland and, particularly, in the UK. The Aer Lingus Regional routes will be operated under a franchise agreement with Aer Arann.

Welcoming the development ahead of the peak 2012 summer season, Graham Doyle, CEO, Waterford Airport, said: “Aer Lingus is a powerful international airline brand which is very valuable in selling flights to and from the southeast. You get a sense of their scale with almost 600,000 passengers carried in February alone.

“There is huge traffic through www.aerlingus.com and it is great that, for instance, someone in the UK as they research flight options to Ireland will now be able to see the various routes available to bring them to Waterford and Ireland’s southeast from Luton, Southend or Manchester. Tourism is hugely important to the southeast and the industry now has the opportunity to promote easy access directly to the region from these huge catchment areas in Britain.

“The Aer Lingus website is their primary distribution channel and is supported by all of the airline’s marketing activity as well as in their partnership work with tourism agencies. The airline has also invested in mobile apps so that flights under the Aer Lingus Regional brand can be easily booked through mobile devices. In the coming months passengers will also benefit from increased frequency on the routes. ” he continued.

“This is a positive time for Waterford Airport as we mark 30 years since the first passenger flights here. In addition to the Aer Lingus Regional announcement, which gives the symbolic shamrock associated with St Patrick’s Day extra meaning for us this year, we are also counting down to our first route with Flybe connecting Ireland’s southeast with Birmingham daily. Also starting on March 25, the daily flights present a key tourism opportunity for Ireland’s southeast and open up a huge area of the British midlands for Irish holidaymakers, as well as offering a wide range of onward travel options including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dusseldorf and Paris Charles de Gaulle on the same booking.”

Graham Doyle added, “The Aer Lingus Regional flights starting on March 25 together with our other developments are a hugely exciting opportunity for Waterford Airport and the southeast. We’re looking forward to working with the airline and the industry in the region to make the partnership a huge success.”

Further information is available at www.waterfordairport.ie while Waterford Airport is also on Facebook www.facebook.com/WaterfordAirport and Twitter @WATairport.