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If you sat me down and asked me to name as many transatlantic routes as I can (both existing and potential), I’m not sure that the Dublin to Cleveland route would appear in my first thousand guesses. That, however, is exactly the route that Aer Lingus has now announced that it plans to fly.
I love this news!
It has been far too long since we had a transatlantic route announcement that was a little bit different and that made me sit up in my chair and question whether I’d read the announcement correctly, so it’s great to see Aer Lingus bringing us something new.
Sure, a little part of me is wondering if the airline misread “Lake Erie” for “Lake Eire” and that it thinks that it’s launching a new route to a large population of Irish descent, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is a well thought out plan 😁
From what the Aer Lingus press release says, it looks like Dublin – Cleveland will be a seasonal route (it’s launching in summer 2023) and it will one of the group of routes that will be operated by the airline’s new A321LR aircraft.
The new route will operate 4x/week and according to ExpertFlyer, it will launch on 21 May 2023 on the following schedule:
EI87 DUB 15:30 – 18:50 CLE (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun)
EI86 CLE 20:20 – 08:50+1 day DUB (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun)
The A321LR comes equipped with 16 lie-flat Business Class seats and 168 standard Economy Class seats and the Business Class layout will look familiar to anyone who has flown in JetBlue’s A321 Mint Cabin because the two are very similar.
As the seat map above shows, the best solo traveler seats are the seats in rows 3 and 5 (this aircraft doesn’t have a “row 1″) while there’s not much to separate the pairs of seats elsewhere in the cabin.
The news in Economy Class is mixed. On the one hand, the A321 offers standard Economy Class seats that are 18″ wide (generous for transatlantic Economy Class), while on the other hand, most of the seats offer just 31” of legroom…which is tight.
Seat in Economy Class rows 14 and 15 are the ones to book (if you can) because these are the A321LR’s exit rows so the seats here will offer considerably more legroom than those in the rows around them.
Bottom line
Aer Lingus will launch a new seasonal route between Dublin and Cleveland on 21 May 2023 (I have no idea why) using its A321LR aircraft. Fares have already been loaded into the booking systems so if this is a route that interests you, yu can book right away.
Believe it or not, folks in Cleveland also enjoy the opportunity to travel to Europe on non-stop flights just like Chicagoans and New Yorkers. Thank you Aer Lingus for serving the residents of Northeast Ohio!
Oh, I believe it…what I’m surprised about is that Aer Lingus is facilitating it. People in all sorts of cities would enjoy the opportunity to travel to Europe, but we don’t see any airlines starting up non-stop flights from Columbus to Europe do we? And Columbus has a higher metro population than Cleveland by a significant margin.
The truth is there are government subsidies helping to make this happen in Cleveland. As for the comparison to the Columbus market, the northeast Ohio region has a population of about 4.5 million, while the central ohio region has a population of about 2.5 million.
Ahhh…subsidies. I should have guessed.
In a similar vein, there was talk a year or so ago about BA considering London-Indianapolis, which would also have been interesting. I’m not sure if it’s still being considered.
The truth is there are government subsidies helping to make this happen in Cleveland. As for the comparison to the Columbus market, the northeast Ohio region has a population of about 4.5 million, while the central ohio region has a population of about 2.5 million.