Aer Lingus has just revealed its second new long haul route for 2026, after announcing flights to Raleigh-Durham (RDU). 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…
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Aer Lingus adding Dublin to Pittsburgh route
As of May 25, 2026, Aer Lingus will launch 4x weekly flights between Dublin (DUB) and Pittsburgh (PIT). The route will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with the following schedule:
EI81 Dublin to Pittsburgh departing 4:10PM arriving 7:10PM
EI80 Pittsburgh to Dublin departing 8:40PM arriving 8:40AM (+1 day)
The 3,444-mile flight is blocked at eight hours westbound and seven hours eastbound. Aer Lingus will operate this route with the Airbus A321LR/XLR, featuring 184 seats, including 16 business class seats and 168 economy class seats. Aer Lingus operates quite a few narrow body flights across the Atlantic, with the A321XLR being Aer Lingus’ newest long haul plane. I recently reviewed this experience in business class.
How this route fits into the competitive landscape
Pittsburgh is a market without much transatlantic service nowadays. British Airways is the only airline offering year-round transatlantic flights to the airport, out of London Heathrow (LHR). Meanwhile Icelandair operates a summer seasonal flight to the airport, out of Keflavik (KEF).
So it’s exciting to see a second year-round transatlantic route. Pittsburgh Airport has been offering major subsidies to airlines that are willing to launch transatlantic service to the airport, so I have to imagine that’s a major consideration there, as it’s something that Aer Lingus consistently chases with its new routes.
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). Furthermore, Raleigh Durham (RDU) service launches in April 2026.
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 May 2026, Aer Lingus will add flights between Dublin and Pittsburgh. This will be the airport’s second year-round transatlantic service, so it’s always nice to see growth like this. Hopefully Aer Lingus finds success here, as the airline has done a great job expanding to secondary markets in the United States.
What do you make of Aer Lingus launching Pittsburgh flights?
Now THAT is strange. There are many other second-tier cities begging for transatlantic capacity (Tampa, Charlotte, Louisville, etc, etc, etc), this just seems like a bit of an odd choice. Anyone have any insight?
They're being paid to fly there.
Pittsburgh and Dublin both have big Google offices, Ireland has a lot tech companies due to some pretty lax taxation rules. EI is owned by IAG and part of the JV so this will be down to them knowing the yields BA are getting.
It’s a small efficient plane, This will work.
And the rest of the plane will be filled with plastic paddy yinzers
Anyone seeing business class award space on this flight for the summer?
For those of us that are in the Pittsburgh market and are airport and flight enthusiasts we have been anticipating aer lingus to launch Pittsburgh flights for a while. Very excited to see our non hub airport get more trans Atlantic service and a new landslide terminal.
Pittsburgh is a pretty cool city. More people should visit
I agree that Pittsburgh is a cool city, though downtown is almost completely devoid of real retail shopping (Target doesn’t count). It’s sad that big-city downtowns no longer have a proper flagship department store. That aside, Pittsburgh can’t sustainably support transatlantic flights—it only gets them because of heavy subsidies. Pittsburgh is also close enough to Cleveland that budget-conscious passengers will drive if the airfare is significantly cheaper.
I would argue that with the exception of historical department stores, retail brings little to a city's downtown. Pittsburgh's coolness is defined by its history, culture/architecture, and sports franchises and major retail centers are not a priority for people looking for those things in a city
As to whether Pittsburgh can support transatlantic flights, I have an inkling whether it can or not also has to do with its tech sector. I'm skeptical as well...
I would argue that with the exception of historical department stores, retail brings little to a city's downtown. Pittsburgh's coolness is defined by its history, culture/architecture, and sports franchises and major retail centers are not a priority for people looking for those things in a city
As to whether Pittsburgh can support transatlantic flights, I have an inkling whether it can or not also has to do with its tech sector. I'm skeptical as well but there's at least the understanding that Europe flights at PIT are not new
Surprised BNA has to offer incentives to attract airlines. Figured they would focus their resources on Southwest, since they are already a focus city of the airline.
If only they honored the AA status partnership they have. Nobody that works at the airline seems to know about the benefits.
I will continue to book away from this airline until they FULLY join OneWorld and give members with status the benefits that American and British and Iberia, etc. give.
@Lucky you're missing a destination...Las Vegas. I flew this segment in Business Class just 2 days ago. Flight EI51, it was a good experience. The inflight crew was excellent, the catering was good enough. It was pleasure to fly back home and not have to connect via ORD, EWR, IAD, etc.
The only reason this route is launching is a HUGE subsidy. Just like Denver. Just like Indianapolis when Delta flew Indianapolis to Paris. In Nashville, Aer Lingus is getting $6.5 million to fly the route. That's nothing compared to Cleveland, which offered $12 million. https://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/girding-for-a-massive-aer-lingus-subsidy/
FWIW the BNA incentives are over 3 years, up to 2.75m but it's variable based upon passenger figures, and are primarily fee waivers rather than outright cash subsidies. BNA subsidizes for several reasons but one of which is that they push airlines to serve large portions of the year (i.e. you must serve over 156 days to receive the money). A portion of the EI subsidy is to actually help cover the costs of the pre-clearance facility at DUB
Not the 'lingus' I was looking for, but, sounds good for PIT, I guess.