Aer Arann cuts sole Belfast-Dublin air link
Irish regional airline Aer Arann underscored its willingness to challenge air transport convention over the summer when it opened the first direct air link

Irish regional airline Aer Arann underscored its willingness to challenge air transport convention over the summer when it opened the first direct air link between Belfast and Dublin in eight years. But a little more than two months later, economic pragmatism trumped any political or symbolic value the new route might have carried, when CEO Padraig O’Ceidigh ended the experiment almost as abruptly as it began.

Since Northern Ireland in recent years lost many links to long-haul routes previously available through major European hubs, the renewed service to the Republic of Ireland not only opened the door to Aer Arann’s internal domestic network; it also provided connections to international operations from Dublin. Given the historic tensions between the two cities, the new service assumed a high political profile.