Aer Lingus resumes MSP-Dublin nonstop flight after pandemic; Delta adds same route

Irish eyes are smiling on Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as Aer Lingus plans to resume flights to Dublin next spring while Delta Air Lines will add that nonstop route from MSP around the same time.

Once the Aer Lingus flight resumes, MSP will once again travel to all the international destinations it did before the pandemic, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The Irish carrier hit pause on these trips at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"With Dublin's geographic position as the gateway to Europe, pre-clearance facilities at the airport and the strong, long established Irish-American ties, Aer Lingus is ideally placed to connect people and places across the Atlantic," Aer Lingus Chief Executive Lynne Embleton said in a news release.

Later Thursday, Atlanta-based Delta, the dominant carrier at MSP, also announced its new international route from MSP to Dublin, operating five times a week starting May 9, 2024.

Aer Lingus will resume year-round service between MSP and Dublin beginning April 29, 2024, operating Airbus A330 aircraft four days per week (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays). Aer Lingus will transition to daily flights on the MSP-DUB route in late fall 2024, when new Airbus A321XLR aircraft go into service.

Before the pandemic pause, the service launched in 2019, giving Minnesotans a new international airline and a new nonstop European destination, with the added bonus of a free stopover in Dublin.

MSP's full recovery of international destinations in 2024 highlights the increasing demand for overseas travel, particularly to Europe.

"In its first year of operations, Aer Lingus experienced strong demand and established quite a following in Minnesota and the greater Midwest," Metropolitan Airports Commission Chair Rick King said in the release. "We're pleased we can share the news of Aer Lingus' return with our loyal travelers who will have more options to visit Europe next summer."

Aer Lingus, a member of International Airlines Group, is the Irish flag carrier. The carrier operates more than 100 routes from Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock to Europe, the U.K. and North America.

Re-affirming its commitment to its North American expansion, the airline, founded in 1936, will operate 18 transatlantic routes in 2024 from Dublin and Shannon and a further three transatlantic routes from Manchester, U.K. to North America and the Caribbean.