Aer Lingus (U.K.) Limited is a British

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

and a sister company of the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish , meaning "air fleet" compare Welsh 'llynges awyr') is the flag carrier of Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 2015 and it is now a wholly owned subsidiary ...

. It is headquartered in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

with its operations based at

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

. The airline's operations launched on 20 October 2021, with its inaugural flight from Manchester to Barbados.

History

Aer Lingus UK was established during 2020 and headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland as a United Kingdom-based airline. By November 2020, plans for the airline involved launching the operation of

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

s from the UK to the United States, with the initial planned destinations consisting of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

New York JFK John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

, and

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

from a base at

. The airline's initial fleet plans consisted of two

Airbus A321LR The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (''neo'' for "new engine option") is based on the previous A319, A320 and A321 ( enhanced variant), which was then ren ...

s and two

Airbus A330-300 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A34 ...

s, all to be transferred from parent company

. The airline would conceptually compete with

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...

, another British airline operating transatlantic flights from Manchester, as well as fill in part of the void left by Manchester-based and headquartered

Thomas Cook Airlines Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It ...

, which ceased operations in September 2019. In December 2020, the airline applied with the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

(USDOT) for a foreign air carrier permit, which was approved in March 2021. Parent company

subsequently announced on 24 March 2021 that Manchester-based flights operated by Aer Lingus UK would launch to New York JFK and Orlando on 29 July 2021, to

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

on 20 October 2021, and to Boston during summer 2022. In June 2021, the airline announced that the launch of routes to New York JFK and Orlando would be delayed to 30 September 2021, in anticipation of international borders between Europe and the United States reopening later than expected. On 8 July 2021, Aer Lingus UK was granted its

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in pla ...

(AOC) by the

UK CAA The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the United Kingdom. Its areas of responsibility include: * Supervising the issuing of pilots' licences, testing of e ...

. The airline also submitted its AOC to the USDOT for the approval of its application. In the days prior to receiving its AOC, the airline officially transferred one Airbus A330-300 from parent company Aer Lingus, with the transfer of one Airbus A321LR and a further Airbus A330-300 following. On 25 August 2021, the airline's services to the United States were again postponed, with their launch delayed to December 2021. Aer Lingus UK's scheduled flights to Barbados were unaffected, and the airline's operations began with the route's launch on 20 October 2021.

Destinations

Aer Lingus UK operates to the following destinations :

Fleet

, Aer Lingus UK operates the following aircraft:

References

{{International Airlines Group Aer Lingus Airlines of the United Kingdom Airlines established in 2020 British companies established in 2020 British subsidiaries of foreign companies 2020 establishments in Northern Ireland Companies based in Belfast