Aer Lingus has just revealed its first new long haul route for 2026. I’m a big fan of how Aer Lingus keeps expanding to secondary markets in the United States, since that’s great in terms of connectivity…
Aer Lingus adding Dublin to Raleigh Durham route
As of April 13, 2026, Aer Lingus will launch 5x weekly flights between Dublin (DUB) and Raleigh Durham (RDU). The route will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with the following schedule:
EI85 Dublin to Raleigh Durham departing 3:25PM arriving 6:55PM
EI84 Raleigh Durham to Dublin departing 8:25PM arriving 8:45AM (+1 day)
The 3,601-mile flight is blocked at 8hr30min westbound and 7hr20min eastbound. Aer Lingus will operate this route with the Airbus A321XLR, featuring 184 seats, including 16 business class seats and 168 economy class seats. This is Aer Lingus’ newest long haul plane, and I recently reviewed this experience in business class.
How this route fits into the competitive landscape
Raleigh Durham has seen a fair bit of transatlantic growth in recent years. Currently, the airport has flights on Air France to Paris (CDG), on American to London (LHR), on Icelandair to Keflavik (KEF), and on Lufthansa to Frankfurt (FRA).
It’s not surprising to see Aer Lingus add service as well, and I have to imagine that the airport is offering significant incentives to the airline for adding these flights. Taking advantage of those subsidies seems to be a major part of Aer Lingus’ strategy with its transatlantic growth.
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), Indianapolis (IND), 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 markets like this.
Bottom line
As of April 2026, Aer Lingus will add flights between Dublin and Raleigh Durham. This will be the airport’s fifth transatlantic service, so it’s always nice to see growth like this. Hopefully Aer Lingus finds success here, as it’ll be the second oneworld transatlantic joint venture airline operating long haul flights from the airport.
What do you make of Aer Lingus launching Raleigh Durham flights?
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