Irish carrier Aer Arann has been forced to suspend routes from Cork to Belfast and Dublin, due to the return of an ATR-42 aircraft following the end of a lease agreement.
The daily services (except Saturdays) will be suspended from August 31, due to the carrier’s “temporary reduction in overall fleet size by one aircraft”. Aer Arann director of corporate affairs Andrew Kelly said,
“We sincerely regret having to suspend these services and the inconvenience that it will cause our loyal customers on both routes. Unfortunately however we have an aircraft leaving the fleet and this has an obvious but regrettable impact on our schedule”.
“We intend to develop our fleet with an emphasis on reducing the cost per seat so that we can offer lower fares and better value to our customers in the longer term. As part of this process we will continue to look at opportunities for new and additional services from Cork as our fleet expands over time and the potential to restart services on the Dublin and Belfast routes will be kept under consideration.”
Earlier this year Aer Arann announced a franchise agreement with fellow Irish carrier Aer Lingus, to operate services from Dublin and Cork to 12 destinations under the branding Aer Lingus Regional (see online news January 27).
For more information visit aerarann.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
