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.
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?
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