Aer Lingus dismisses rumours of San Francisco direct flights as just speculation

2 Apr 2013

Aer Lingus has dismissed rumours that it plans to resume its schedule to San Francisco as speculation. It had been rumoured the airliner would later today reveal plans to re-introduce direct flights to San Francisco by the autumn.

“Our transatlantic schedule for 2014 will not be finalised until June of this year, at the earliest,” a spokesman told Siliconrepublic.com.

“No decision has been made at this point in time.”

San Francisco is home to Silicon Valley, where the majority of tech companies that have invested heavily in Ireland, including Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook and many others have their headquarters.

Rumours started flitting around Facebook and Twitter this morning that Aer Lingus would later today announced the resumption of a direct route linking Dublin with San Francisco.

Aer Lingus ended its direct flights to the west coast of the US in 2009 as Ireland’s recession raged.

Various groups, such as the ITLG and tech industry leaders, have been calling for Aer Lingus to restore the direct routes, particularly to help bolster inward investment goals.

Since early last year, some 11,000 technology jobs have been created in the Irish economy, mainly by US tech companies.

It seems the tech industry will have to wait until June to find out if the much-desired routes are re-opened.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com