Aer Lingus has announced significant increases in its transatlantic flights this summer, adding around 185,000 extra seats on these routes this year.
The move steps up the competition between the State-owned carrier and Delta Air Lines, which earlier this week said it would operate rival flights from Dublin and Shannon to New York.
The two airlines currently operate a code share agreement, which sees Delta block book seats on Aer Lingus lights to the United States and sell them to its own customers. The code share contract is up for renewal in March; industry sources say the direct competition between the two carriers make a continuation of the agreement unlikely, but not impossible. An Aer Lingus spokesman said that the code-share agreement was "under immediate review".
Aer Lingus said yesterday that its Summer schedule for transatlantic routes provided for 1.2 million seats, an increase of 14 per cent on 1998. The move would mean 46 flights a week, 8 more than last summer and compared to just 15 in 1993. From May 28th it will offer three flights each week to Los Angeles.
The airline said return fares would start at £319 (#405) to New York's JFK airport, Newark and Boston, and £449 (#570) to Los Angeles.
Industry sources said last night that Aer Lingus' concentration on its transatlantic routes made commercial sense. In recent years much of the airline's growth and profitability has come from this part of its business.
It will also boosts the airline's presence in the United States, where Aer Lingus is concentrating its search for a strategic partner. Sources within the company said last night Aer Lingus was "in play", and talking to seven or eight different carriers about a possible merger. The State-owned airline has set itself a deadline of March to tell the Government which is its favoured suitor.
Delta's general manager for Ireland, Ms Joanne Richardson, said last night both her company and Aer Lingus would be sitting down over the next few weeks to decide whether or not to end the code share arrangement.
