After years of considering Denver, Aer Lingus, Ireland’s flagship airline, will launch its inaugural flight from Denver International Airport to Dublin on May 17.
A group of Aer Lingus representatives met and mingled Monday morning with local business and civic leaders, tourism officials and Ireland natives excited for the start of direct flights from the Mile High City to the Emerald Isle.
“It’s 116 days until heels up. Not that we’re counting,” said Yvonne Muldoon, director of sales for Aer Lingus.
Flights from Denver to Dublin will depart four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. To start, the service will be seasonal, running from May to Oct. 29. Jim Bochneak, the airline’s regional sales manager for the western U.S., said the season could be extended, depending on the kind of support there is in Denver.
After attending the Denver Travel Show at the Colorado Convention Center over the weekend, Bochneak and Muldoon believe the support for service to Dublin is strong.
“We are genuinely overwhelmed with the support,” Muldoon said.
Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles are the three Aer Lingus routes on the West Coast. In all, the airline offers 21 nonstop routes from the U.S. to Dublin. Some of the European cities Aer Lingus connects to are Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Aer Lingus will add Minneapolis-St. Paul to its routes beginning April 29.
Other European cities where passengers can travel nonstop from Denver are: London; Paris; Zurich; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Munich and Frankfurt, Germany.
Aer Lingus takes its time to make a business case for adding new routes, Muldoon said. “I believe Denver to Dublin has been under review for over six years.”
After the pandemic, Denver really started to rise on the list of opportunities, Muldoon said. It is an untapped market where interest is high in traveling on to Europe. She said whether the service is extended past October will depend on the volume of business.
“I’m over from the head office. I wanted to get a feel for what the demand was on the ground, speak to the local community and just get a feel for what the support is like,” Muldoon said. “It’s been phenomenal.”
The first flight from Denver to Dublin, which will take 9.5 hours, is nearly full, Muldoon said. The airline will fly the Airbus A330, a wide-body aircraft.
Both business and tourism representatives said service from Denver to Dublin will be a big benefit.
“It’s a huge opportunity because a lot of U.S. companies have a corporate presence in Ireland and the Dublin area,” said Maggie Fouquet, president and CEO of the International Business Circle in Denver.
All nonstop flights from Ireland to the U.S are pre-cleared by U.S. Customs and Immigration Services at the Dublin and Shannon airports. “That’s a big time-saver,” Fouquet said.
A big benefit for Bill Graebel’s company, Denver-based Graebel’s Relocation Services Worldwide, is that one of its offices is about 40 miles north of the Dublin airport. Graebel said it will be much more efficient flying into Dublin, rather than going through Heathrow Airport in London or flying to New York, Boston or Chicago to return to Denver.
“I think it will be good for tourism in the area” as well, Graebel said.
And tourists from Ireland will likely appreciate direct flights to Colorado so they explore the West, Graebel added.
Muldoon said Aer Lingus will work with tourist boards in Colorado to pitch the state to people in Ireland. Tim Wolfe, director of the Colorado Tourism Office, said the state’s efforts to attract tourists from Ireland has been underway and the Denver-to-Dublin air service will increase the momentum.
“Any time that you add a link to an international destination, that’s huge for both our residents but also for guests and visitors that come to Colorado,” Wolfe said.
Susan Morrice is part of the Irish diaspora in Colorado that Aer Lingus hopes to tap. She has lived in the Denver area for 40 years and travels four or five times a year back to her home country, but she can’t wait to fly nonstop to Dublin. Patricia Fitzpatrick, who lives in Ireland, works with Morrice and flies to Denver seven or eight times a year, is likewise eager for the new service.
“I don’t like going to London. It’s another day’s travel,” Fitzpatrick said. “This is perfect.”
Fitzpatrick and Morrice think Colorado should sell its skiing to lure more Irish tourists. “They need to tell the Irish that the skiing here is actually better than in Europe,” Morrice said.
“And it lasts longer,” Fitzpatrick said.
Will the two be on the inaugural flight?
“We need to look into it,” Morrice said. “If we’re not on that first one, which we could be, we’ll be on the second.”
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