Aer Lingus is in talks with Ryanair about a deal that would see it take connecting passengers from its rival onto its North American routes.
The airline confirmed the discussions on Wednesday as it announced that it is adding LA, Newark New Jersey and Hartford, Connecticut to its existing roster of flights from Dublin to North American next year.
Ryanair recently signalled that it was considering feeding travellers from its European services onto long-haul routes offered by flag carriers such as Aer Lingus, Air France-KLM and others.
Aer Lingus chief executive, Stephen Kavanagh, confirmed yesterday that the airline is in talks with Ryanair about a deal that would see it tapping its rival's European network for long-haul passengers. "But we will only do it if the price is right," he added.
Already 500,000 people a year connect to Aer Lingus’s transatlantic flights at Dublin from the airline’s own European and British services. Mr Kavanagh indicated that it saw the proposed agreement with Ryanair as an extension of that.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of Aer Lingus's parent, International Consolidated Airlines' Group (IAG) said that it is not in talks with Ryanair. He pointed out that this would be an issue for individual carriers.
Aer Lingus will begin flying year-round from Dublin to LA from next May and will launch services to Newark and Hartford, Connecticut from the following September.
The airline predicted that the routes will create more than 200 new jobs for pilots and cabin crew at the airline. It will bring to nine the number of North American routes that Aer Lingus operates.
Mr Kavanagh, signalled the airline intends to continue expanding the airline’s transatlantic business. “It may be that we will add new routes, like we have today, or increase frequencies on existing gateways,” he said.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of Aer Lingus's parent, International Consolidated Airlines' Group (IAG), said that it would back the Irish carrier in flying to the Far East or South America if it emerges that there is demand for such services.
He pointed out that, if traffic through IAG's other hubs provides strong evidence of underlying demand from Ireland for flights to these regions, then the group would support the launch of direct services.
“If there is an opportunity to serve those destinations directly, then we are going to to do it, that’s the business we’re in,” he said.
