Aer Lingus is a popular choice for transatlantic travel and especially for travellers departing the UK regions, judging by the reader comments on the Business Traveller forum.
US pre-clearance at Dublin allows passengers to avoid the queues on arrival. And for those of you using separate tickets, it's possible to avoid the UK's costly air passenger duty.
However, there is one minus point when flying business class — Aer Lingus' seat product, by today's standards, is outdated.
But now I have some good news. Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller has revealed that his airline will install proper lie-flat seats in business class starting in 2015.
Details were disclosed yesterday during an interview in Germany's Aerotelegraph.
Mueller also talks about the growing popularity of UK regional passengers flying Aer Lingus across the Atlantic.
He also admits, to his credit, that "the Irish population [in the past] suffered under monopoly of Aer Lingus. Since then Ryanair has been something like a liberator." (In the early days of Business Traveller and before Ryanair's arrival on the scene, I well remember when Aer Lingus prices were high and its flights were few in number).
At the end of last month, Ryanair was ordered to cut its stake Aer Lingus to just 5 per cent (see news, August 28).
Alex McWhirter
