Portal:Ireland/Selected article archive/38





Aer Lingus is the flag carrier airline of Ireland founded in April 1936. Based at Dublin Airport, but originally operating out of Baldonnel Airfield, it operates 47 Airbus aircraft serving Europe, Africa and North America. The name, Aer Lingus is an anglicisation of the Irish form Aer Loingeas.

The airline is 29.4% owned by Ryanair and 25.4% owned by the Government of Ireland. It was floated on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges on 2 October 2006, following prior government approval (the government previously owned 85% of the airline). Aer Lingus is a former member of the Oneworld airline alliance, which it left on 31 March 2007.

While Aer Lingus is not in an alliance it has codeshares with Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam members, as well as interline agreements with Aer Arann and JetBlue Airways in the United States. The company employs 4,000 people and in 2008 had revenues of €1.4 billion. Aer Lingus transferred 10 million passengers in 2008. It has a mixed business model, operating a low fare service on its European and North African routes and full service, two-class flights on transatlantic routes. Read more...