By Business & Finance 
Pictured inside the Aer Lingus A320 training simulator are co-pilots Claire Cronin and Lisa Cusack who have recently completed flight school in Jerez, Spain as part of the Cadet Pilot training programme
Aer Lingus today announced an expansion of its transatlantic route offering for 2016 with three new routes from Dublin to North America.
In addition to its nine existing routes to Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Washington and Toronto from Dublin and Boston and New York from Shannon,
The airline will commence a year-round direct service between Dublin and Los Angeles from May of next year.
Direct daily flights will start in early September from Dublin to Newark in New Jersey and a daily service from Dublin to Hartford, Connecticut.
This is the single largest expansion of Aer Lingus’ transatlantic network since the airline commenced transatlantic flying in 1958.
The expansion will create more than 200 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and ground services staff.
Stephen Kavanagh, chief executive, Aer Lingus, said: “We are delighted to be delivering on the growth opportunities that being part of International Airlines Group presents and to be creating over 200 new jobs in the process. The introduction of these three routes will open up new tourism and business opportunities with improved connectivity through our Dublin Gateway. We look forward to welcoming guests on board our new services in 2016.”
Willie Walsh, chief executive, IAG, said: “Ireland’s geographic location and US immigration pre-clearance provides IAG with the natural gateway to build our business between Europe and North America through Aer Lingus. This is the first step in our plans to add North American destinations, bring new aircraft into the fleet, increase passenger numbers and create new jobs. This shows also our keenness to develop Dublin as another key hub within the Group.”
Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, also welcomed the announcement. “Foremost in the Government’s mind when considering the disposal of the State’s share in Aer Lingus was the benefits that would be delivered for the company as part of IAG. The airline’s ability to enhance connectivity, grow jobs and secure its future was significantly improved under IAG. Today’s announcement of three new routes, the creation of 200 new jobs and transatlantic capacity growth to more than two million seats for the first time ever demonstrates the strength of Aer Lingus as part of the Group.”
Aer Lingus has also begun recruitment for its 2016 Cadet Pilot training programme. The airline is currently inviting applications for 12 new cadet pilots to join the 2016 training programme in January, 2016. This brings the number of new cadet pilot positions created at Aer Lingus to 60 over the last four years.
The newly trained cadet pilots are required by Aer Lingus to meet the demand for increased long and short-haul flights, in line with the increase in routes and passenger numbers.
