Aer Lingus Regional continued to roll out its network of flights from Dublin (DUB) to the UK with the start of service to Newcastle (NCL) in northeast England.

Newcomer Emerald Airlines will operate the DUB-NCL route 5X-weekly under the Aer Lingus Regional brand.

UK regional centers are important feeder airports for Aer Lingus’s transatlantic services; some UK passengers are opting for DUB as their starting point for flights to the US and Canada rather than transiting London Heathrow (LHR).

Dublin Airport also has the attraction of a US Immigration pre-clearance facility, where passengers can clear US passport control formalities pre-flight. This means they effectively arrive in the US as domestic passengers, avoiding the frequently lengthy customs queues at major US airports.

Aer Lingus is steadily reestablishing its pre-pandemic network of transatlantic services. At present, it serves Boston (BOS), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), New York Kennedy (JFK), Philadelphia (PHL), Toronto (YYZ) and Washington Dulles (IAD) from the Irish capital.

The new Newcastle route is being opened “right in time for the pent-up summer demand,” Emerald commercial head Ciarán Smith said. “This new route will increase connectivity between the two regions and allow customers to travel seamlessly to Dublin and onwards to North America.”