Aer Lingus seems to have quite the nice transatlantic growth plans for next summer. Just recently the airline announced it would expand to Nashville, and now it’s adding another destination in the United States, as reported by @IshrionA.
In this post:
Aer Lingus adding Dublin to Indianapolis route
As of May 3, 2025, Aer Lingus will launch 4x weekly flights between Dublin (DUB) and Indianapolis (IND). The route will operate on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays, and Saturdays, with the following schedule:
EI83 Dublin to Indianapolis departing 2:50PM arriving 6:25PM
EI82 Indianapolis to Dublin departing 7:55PM arriving 8:50AM (+1 day)
The 3,718-mile flight is blocked at 8hr35min westbound and 7hr55min eastbound. As of now, Aer Lingus is showing the route as being operated by an Airbus A321LR, featuring 184 seats, including 16 business class seats and 168 economy class seats. However, I suspect this route will end up being operated by the Airbus A321XLR, which Aer Lingus should start taking delivery of in the coming months.
How this route fits into the competitive landscape
Aer Lingus adding flights to Indianapolis is pretty awesome, as this will be the airport’s first transatlantic link in years. Before the pandemic, Delta briefly operated a route from the airport to Paris (CDG), though that was cut given the pandemic, and never returned.
Now, as you’d expect, the airline is being given significant incentives from the local community to launch this flight. It’s not unusual to see airports that are targeting new service to offer subsidies to carriers for launching service, so Aer Lingus will potentially be getting millions of dollars this way.
For example, when Delta launched Indianapolis to Paris flights, the airline got up to $5.5 million from the local community. The airline got $55 per passenger each way for the first year (up to $3.5 million), and $35 per passenger each way for the second year (up to $2 million).
So while those incentives alone don’t make the economics of a flight work, they sure do help, especially when we’re talking about a narrow body flight.
As far as Aer Lingus’ destinations in the United States go, the airline otherwise serves Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Cleveland (CLE), Denver (DEN), Hartford (BDL), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Minneapolis (MSP), New York (JFK), Nashville (BNA), Newark (EWR), Orlando (MCO), Philadelphia (PHL), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), and Washington (IAD). Aer Lingus has done quite the job expanding to secondary markets, as you can tell.
What’s funny about Aer Lingus is that the airline belongs to the oneworld transatlantic joint venture, with American, British Airways, Finnair, and Iberia. Despite that, the airline very much seems to do its own thing, and doesn’t have nearly the level of coordination you’ll find among the other airlines. I’m still puzzled by Aer Lingus’ integration into that joint venture, but regardless, it’s always cool to see flights launched in otherwise unserved markets.
Bottom line
As of May 2025, Aer Lingus will add flight between Dublin and Indianapolis. This will be the airport’s first transatlantic link in years, since Delta discontinued its Paris flight. It’s always fun to see flights like this added, though as you’d expect, it comes with some incentives.
What do you make of Aer Lingus launching Indianapolis flights?
We are ready to book our flights !!!
Well, did you?!
$17 million a year. SEVENTEEN Million a year from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is the subsidy. Plus $2 million a year in airport charge offsets and marketing money.
Clearly the high bidder here versus other cities in the running.... Might as well have had the announcement at the Indiana Lottery office and handed EI a big cardboard check.
The ability to use the US Pre-Clearance facility at DUB is a real selling point for non GE passengers.
So excited to see this!! Indy is a great airport. Can't wait for this one!
It's a pitty we can't get these flight out of Shannon Airport we have to do a stop over which can be anywhere between 2/4 hours it's a pitty Aer lingus don't look at the airports outside of Dublin Shannon is a very friendly airport to travel through and also has US pre clearance
Shannon doesn't have 2 million + people within an hours drive of the airport.
To me, this is the greatest news I’ve heard in so long. I live in Dublin, Ireland and I’m in a long distance relationship with my fiancé who lives just outside of Indianapolis. We’ve been hoping for direct flights for so long and this has just made our whole year.
Yawn. Take the two year incentive and bail on the route.
Aer Lingus doesn't have a history on that. 16th US city, Hartford still here.
Eli Lilly had a lot to do with this
I'd think launching to St Louis which has about 40% more passenger traffic but no transatlantic service would be a better candidate for this experiment
Indy probably pumped a lot of subsidy to make this happen.
Lufthansa flies to St. Louis.
Yes, because a number of German companies have U.S. headquarters there.
True, but they could still use more transatlantic routes to make up for their long term decline as a hub since TWA ceased to exist.
STL already has TATL service with LH to FRA on an A330/A340
The Delta IND-CDG flight seemed to always be full in Business Class (with Eli Lilly and Rolls-Royce business travelers) while economy had many seats open so flying a narrow-body doesn't solve this problem.
Actually very surprised by this as I think LHR, CDG, and maybe FRA will perform significantly better than DUB knowing the local Indy population.
When the Delta CDG flight existed many people preferred to connect in CDG to go to other European destinations instead of connecting in the US. Also helped provide 1 stop connections to India, Africa, and the Middle East. This Dublin flight will still enable connections in Europe but Dublin is...
Actually very surprised by this as I think LHR, CDG, and maybe FRA will perform significantly better than DUB knowing the local Indy population.
When the Delta CDG flight existed many people preferred to connect in CDG to go to other European destinations instead of connecting in the US. Also helped provide 1 stop connections to India, Africa, and the Middle East. This Dublin flight will still enable connections in Europe but Dublin is a pain to connect through and still doesn't help with traffic going to India, ME, or Africa.
What on earth would you be surprised for?
Indianapolis is not a compelling market for any business-oriented longhaul carrier. British Airways will put a 787 into any U.S. city with a strip of pavement longer than a driveway, if it sees demand that can be developed, yet has never shown much interest in IND. Yet it calculated that putting a second flight into Austin, and growing frequency at Pittsburgh, would be more lucrative endeavors. And...
What on earth would you be surprised for?
Indianapolis is not a compelling market for any business-oriented longhaul carrier. British Airways will put a 787 into any U.S. city with a strip of pavement longer than a driveway, if it sees demand that can be developed, yet has never shown much interest in IND. Yet it calculated that putting a second flight into Austin, and growing frequency at Pittsburgh, would be more lucrative endeavors. And those are tertiary destinations; it's not like they're adding another JFK or LAX frequency. IND is just that unimportant.
@immortalSynn
I would tend to argue that idea of IND. It is a rapidly growing city with a significant wealth base within - and in a two hour radius. No, it is not a destination in itself, but it has compelling traffic, significant universities nearby, and home to a number of important companies.
European carriers are starting to see the potential in what have long been considered fly-over regions in the U.S.. Why? Because...
@immortalSynn
I would tend to argue that idea of IND. It is a rapidly growing city with a significant wealth base within - and in a two hour radius. No, it is not a destination in itself, but it has compelling traffic, significant universities nearby, and home to a number of important companies.
European carriers are starting to see the potential in what have long been considered fly-over regions in the U.S.. Why? Because the reality is that they harbor huge wealth in many of these secondary markets. I mean, Mississippi alone has a larger GDP than the UK as just one example.
I say this as a labeled elitist that lives in DC. European airlines are clearly ahead of the game in seeing the potential in these markets even before U.S carriers do. Point to point from secondary U.S. cities to Europe is the wide open opportunity that's waiting to happen, especially with the narrow body long range aircrafts coming to acceptance.
"but it has compelling traffic"
Compelling to who? Like I said, BA has no hesitation putting a widebody into smaller US destinations that ACTUALLY have compelling traffic. Indianapolis has not proven itself to be one of those. Maybe someday it will, but not yet.
"I mean, Mississippi alone has a larger GDP than the UK"
What kind of drugs are YOU on, lol?
The UK has a GDP 22 times larger than Mississippi's.
Mississippi?? It’s one of the poorest states in the US. A larger GDP than the U.K. ?? Seriously?
UK GDP over $2trillion and MS not even 10 percent of that.
MS has a higher PER CAPITA GDP than UK. Conflated total and PC.
BA requested slots for LHR-IND last year or two years ago so they have been considering it. Pretty sure lack of lounge space for BA is one of the reasons. Keep in mind DL increased IND-CDG to daily during Summer 2019 so they were clearly getting enough traffic (and flight attendants say that flight was full during the summer). DL just does not have planes right now to re-launch it instead of another lucrative route
"BA requested slots for LHR-IND last year or two years ago so they have been considering it. Pretty sure lack of lounge space for BA is one of the reasons"
BA does not need to "request slots" for a specific US route, and no airline bases long haul inter-continental service on lounge space. BA already flies to places like Vegas, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, etc that don't have a dedicated or partner lounge.
https://onemileatatime.com/news/british-airways-indianapolis-flights/
My source for BA requesting slots. I think they have to file for slots at Heathrow since its slot controlled
Vegas, New Orleans, CVG, PIT all have a 3rd party contract lounge (The Club and/or Escape Lounge). IND only has a crowded Delta Sky Club so no way BA could send their passengers anywhere
"Vegas, New Orleans, CVG, PIT all have a 3rd party contract lounge (The Club and/or Escape Lounge)."
Except The Club at MSY didn't even stay open long enough for BA's passengers to use, until earlier this summer. The flight was launched 7 years ago.
BA's solution was to give meal vouchers to Club World passengers, for restaurants in the airport still open. And once again, no one launches longhaul flights based on lounges. At all. Ever. It's not a thing.
No response to why Delta started the route 3 times weekly in 2018 and increased to daily Summer 2019 if demand was as low as you think?
No. Too busy focusing on Delta having zilch apparent desire to bring it back, to have any concern for that. ;)
Just as I predicted. It was only a question of time until EI launched service to some other mid size airports. Nice to see more of the American heartland gaining international flights. Indianapolis is a pretty highly ranked mid size airport, and the state has universities like IU, Purdue, among other schools. Previously, folks in Indianapolis would have had to drive to Chicago or catch a connecting flight to head to Europe. This should simplify...
Just as I predicted. It was only a question of time until EI launched service to some other mid size airports. Nice to see more of the American heartland gaining international flights. Indianapolis is a pretty highly ranked mid size airport, and the state has universities like IU, Purdue, among other schools. Previously, folks in Indianapolis would have had to drive to Chicago or catch a connecting flight to head to Europe. This should simplify that, to some extent.
I suspect Raleigh is probably another shoo in for Aer Lingus, due to the massive industries for health, science, IT, etc. Maybe even a Texas destination or some other unserved markets like Kansas City would be nice.
MCI would be neat, but airlines seem to be slowly slinking away from it. The distance from the nearest airport with “decent” international service (aka not only to resort cities in Mexico and a Jazz flight to Toronto) is significant from MCI - ~7 hours drive to Chicago, 8+ hours to Denver or Dallas. Avoiding a connection in the winter months is always a win. KC has a pretty sizeable population of Irish-Americans that will...
MCI would be neat, but airlines seem to be slowly slinking away from it. The distance from the nearest airport with “decent” international service (aka not only to resort cities in Mexico and a Jazz flight to Toronto) is significant from MCI - ~7 hours drive to Chicago, 8+ hours to Denver or Dallas. Avoiding a connection in the winter months is always a win. KC has a pretty sizeable population of Irish-Americans that will drive a little bit of VFR traffic but I don’t imagine it’s enough to sustain the service on its own.
Perfect city for the A321XLR though, well within range and that is a textbook definition of a “long and thin” route.
I meant to say textbook “example” - not definition.
This route makes sense. IND just isn't a big enough market to warrant a wide body flight to Europe daily. DUB is LHR's third runway and the 321 is the plane for a route like this.
Aer Lingus will also fly to Las Vegas starting on 10/25.
And BNA next year.
Delta decided to walk away from IND because it’s not a premium destination.
As opposed to the very premium SLC/MSP/DTW
XDDDD
Atl ain’t that premium either ;)
Actually Business class was always full whenever I took IND-CDG on Delta. Economy used to sometimes be kind of full and other times pretty empty. Lots of business travelers flying to Europe from IND from Rolls-Royce and Eli Lilly
How many times were you actually onboard the DL IND-CDG-IND? I was onboard for seven round trips.
Perhaps not a premium destination for DL on CDG, but possibly for EI and IND Ireland links. IND and DUB/IE host commonality for medtech and pharma corporates like Eli Lilly (Cork), Cook Medical (Limerick), Novartis (Dublin), Wright Medical (Cork), Medtronic (Galway/Athlone), Boston Scientific (Galway) Zimmer (Shannon) and several more plus support companies of the industry. Not to mention 1 stop connectivity (with a hub that isn't crippled with missed connections) and US preclearance IND clients...
Perhaps not a premium destination for DL on CDG, but possibly for EI and IND Ireland links. IND and DUB/IE host commonality for medtech and pharma corporates like Eli Lilly (Cork), Cook Medical (Limerick), Novartis (Dublin), Wright Medical (Cork), Medtronic (Galway/Athlone), Boston Scientific (Galway) Zimmer (Shannon) and several more plus support companies of the industry. Not to mention 1 stop connectivity (with a hub that isn't crippled with missed connections) and US preclearance IND clients need.