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In the past month, we’ve seen Aer Lingus confirm that it’s adding more flights to Denver and Minneapolis/St Paul next year and that it will launch a new route to Nashville from April 2025. Now we have confirmation that the Irish flag carrier will add yet another US destination to its route map in 2025 – Indianapolis.
The Aer Lingus Indianapolis route
Aer Lingus has said that on 3 May 2025, it will launch a new transatlantic route connecting Dublin and Indianapolis which will be served 4x/week.
As things stand, this is the schedule that has been loaded into the airline’s booking systems:
EI83 DUB 14:50 – 18:25 BNA (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun)
EI82 BNA 19:55 – 08:50+1 day DUB (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun)
The route is set to be operated by an Aer Lingus A321XLR and Indianapolis will be the airline’s 19th North American destination served out of Dublin.
Passengers flying westwards across the Atlantic will clear US immigration in Dublin’s preclearance facility meaning that the westbound flights will be treated in the same way as domestic arrivals when they land in Indianapolis.
Just as with the new Nashville route, it’s currently unclear if this new route is intended to run for the summer season only or if it will run year-round but given how transatlantic demand can slow significantly during the Northern Hemisphere winter, it’s likely that this will be a summer season only route.
The aircraft
As Aer Lingus still hasn’t taken delivery of its first A321XLR and as the airline has been reluctant to give out any information about its new aircraft, we don’t officially know very much about what the inside of the Aer Lingus A321XLR will look like.
Unofficially, however, the general consensus seems to be that it’s likely that Aer Lingus will equip its A321XLRs with the same the cabins that it employs on the A321neo LR aircraft (which already operate on some transatlantic routes), and that means that we’re likely to see a Business Class cabin with Thompson Aero Vantage seats …
… and an Economy Class cabin set out with six Collins Aerospace Meridian seats in every row arranged in a 3-3 layout and offering a little under 18″ of width, 31″ of pitch, and just 3″ of recline.
Aer Lingus doesn’t offer a Premium Economy cabin on any of its existing aircraft and as we’re not expecting that to change, this will almost certainly remain the case with its newest narrow-body long haul aircraft.
Fares
Bookings are already open on this route with fares originating in Dublin starting at ~€499 for Economy Class and ~€1,800 for Business Class, and with fares originating in Indianapolis starting at ~$499 for Economy Class and ~$4,090 for Business Class.
At the time of writing, the Aer Lingus award booking engine isn’t aware of the existence of Indianapolis and keeps suggesting that I try Brindisi Airport in southern Italy, so I can’t see what award availability looks like on the new route …
… but if/when awards become available, this is how many Avios should be needed to book:
- Economy Class (off-peak season) – 13,000 Avios + taxes & surcharges
- Economy Class (peak season) – 20,000 Avios + taxes & surcharges
- Business Class (off-peak season) – 50,000 Avios + taxes & surcharges
- Business Class (peak season) – 60,000 Avios + taxes & surcharges
That’s the same number of Avios needed to book flights to/from New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Montreal, as at just over 3,700 miles, the Indianapolis route falls into Aer Lingus Zone 5.
Based on the taxes and surcharges applied to other Zone 5 routes, it’s likely that round trip Economy Class redemptions will come with taxes and surcharges of between $265 & $295.
Bottom line
Aer Lingus has confirmed that on 3 May 2025, it will launch a new transatlantic route between Dublin and Indianapolis which will be served 4x/week using a A321XLR aircraft. Bookings on this route are already open with roundtrip fares starting at ~€499 from Dublin and ~$499 from Indianapolis.
