Aer Lingus Regional will commence a five-times weekly service between Southampton and Cork in March.
The route will be operated on behalf of Aer Lingus by Stobart Air.
Earlier this month, KLM announced it will connect Southampton with Amsterdam Schiphol (see news, December 8).
But whereas the KLM service is aimed as much at global connections via Amsterdam as it is for end-to-end traffic, this new Aer Lingus route to Cork is primarily for the point-to-point business and leisure market.
It will open up the whole of the southern region of Ireland.
Alex McWhirter