Luxair Luxembourg Airlines has revealed it will extend its new Luxembourg – Dublin route through the winter season after seeing strong passenger demand for the relaunched route. The carrier returned to the Republic of Ireland in March this year with a four times weekly service having suspended its operations on the route just a couple of years earlier in January 2012.

"We were convinced there was a market for a direct service between Luxembourg and Dublin and had been in contact with Luxair regularly over the past two years to show them the benefits of operating to and from Ireland," said Vincent Harrison, managing director, Dublin Airport.

When Luxair resumed the flight on March 30, 2014 it was indicated that the route would operate on a summer only basis. However, demand has exceeded expectations with the carrier confirming the route had been “widely used by business passengers, notably in the financial sector and fund industry” and was also popular with leisure passengers and Irish citizens living in Luxembourg.

A reason for this could be the deployment of a larger 76-seat Dash 8-Q400 on the route rather than the smaller 49-seat ERJ-145 that it had used previously. This has enabled Luxair to offer more competitive pricing and better appeal to the leisure market, supplementing the business demand.

“We are delighted to see Luxair extend this service into the winter season,” said Harrison. “It provides a vital direct link for both business and leisure passengers, offering choice and convenience to our customers.”

Alongside the resumption of flights to Dublin, Luxair has also returned to the Lisbon and Stockholm markets and has been offering three and four weekly flights, respectively, to these destinations from its Luxembourg base since March 30, 2014. Both routes have not been served by the carrier for almost ten years with flights previously ending in June 2004.

In our analysis, below, we look in greater detail at Luxair’s network capacity over the past five years and the aircraft types it utilises on its flights. Across this period the airline’s network capacity has risen by almost a quarter (23.6 per cent) with annual rises each year. In 2010 a 12.9 per cent growth was recorded but since then it has been a much more modest growth of 1.9 per cent in 2011, 3.9 per cent in 2012 and 3.4 per cent in 2013.