Aer Lingus has launched its biggest winter programme for the forthcoming season complete with 138,000 additional seats from the UK to Ireland.
Increases on routes making the short hop over the Irish Sea include an additional peak morning route between Heathrow and Dublin, giving an extra 56,000 seats.
Meanwhile, a further 50,000 seats will be made available on the Birmingham-Dublin route thanks to the aircraft operating it being upgraded to an A320.
The other additional seats come from marginal aircraft increases across various mainline routes, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester, across the winter.
Once they have arrived in Dublin, they can then take advantage of the airport’s pre-clearance facilities before flying to the US with Aer Lingus, which has grown its transatlantic offering by 13% for the forthcoming winter.
The traffic has been boosted by a new three-times-weekly flight to Miami starting on September 1 while the Dublin Washington service will receive a 44% increase in capacity during peak months.
Meanwhile the Dublin Toronto route is seeing a 96% increase in capacity.
Aer Lingus chief operating officer Mike Rutter said: “This winter is our biggest yet with considerable expansion of our long-haul and European networks.
“The increasing recognition that the Aer Lingus Dublin Hub is the fastest, cheapest and least hassle way to visit North America is underpinned by a further 13% increase in transatlantic seats from Dublin this winter.”