Aer Lingus has announced plans to axe all transatlantic flights from Manchester Airport, halting ticket sales on three major tourist routes.
As of March 31, the budget airline will no longer travel from its UK base to any US or Caribbean destinations, with up to 60 weekly flights being cut.
This will see long-haul flights to New York JFK, Barbados and Orlando in Florida dropped from Aer Lingus’s schedule, but those to Dublin and Belfast will continue – at least for now.
‘There is no impact on Aer Lingus or Aer Lingus Regional flights between Manchester and Ireland,’ the Irish carrier said in a statement. ‘We appreciate our customers’ patience and cooperation during this time and we are contacting customers directly regarding their flights.’
Sparking speculation further cancellations may be on the cards, it added that the decision was made amid ‘a period of uncertainty on transatlantic services’ from Manchester, and was intended to ‘minimise customer disruption in the event of a closure’.
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According to an internal email published in The Irish Times, Aer Lingus told staff that while operations at the air travel hub – the UK’s fourth busiest – were profitable, it was underperforming compared to the rest of its business.
And despite having ‘explored various options’ to improve margins as part of an ongoing consultation process, measures looked at so far ‘do not appear to be viable’.
Five years on from its first Manchester Airport flight, the firm’s future there now appears uncertain, with 200 staff potentially facing redundancy or transfer to other roles within Aer Lingus, or its parent group, IAG (which also owns Iberia and British Airways).
This news follows continued industrial action at the airline’s northern England base. Cabin crew belonging to trade union, Unite, went on strike for several days in October and November due to a dispute over pay, impacting thousands of travellers.
Aer Lingus then clashed with the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), when a captain was suspended for refusing to move non-union crew from economy to empty business class seats on a repositioning flight from Barbados to Manchester, citing the aircraft’s weight balance.
Although there has been no confirmation of plans to cease operating out of Manchester entirely, it’s been a rumoured possibility for some time. In a November briefing, bosses then officially announced that ‘the long-term viability’ of further investment was being considered.
Commenting on what the move could mean for the industry, Anton Radchenko, aviation expert and founder of AirAdvisor, tells Metro: ‘Aer Lingus’s Manchester closure is not just about one airline pulling out of one city. It is a warning signal that regional long‑haul aviation in the UK is far more fragile than most passengers realise.
‘When an airline like Aer Lingus, which had a profitable operation, decides the margins are not high enough, it tells you that the economics of running transatlantic flights from secondary UK bases are becoming unsustainable under current cost pressures, industrial relations challenges and the strategic pull back to main hubs.
‘This is part of a broader pattern: airlines are consolidating their networks, retreating to core hubs where they can fill planes more reliably and avoid the higher operating costs of UK airports. For UK travellers, that means the convenient direct flight you booked because it saved you a trip to London could disappear with barely a month’s notice, as we have just seen.’
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