Europe Airports -

Through our research we have identified the 50 airlines in the lefthand menu having flights from the UK or Ireland to the rest Europe.

For each airline, where possible we give a
- Brief history
- Their aircraft fleet
- List their UK and Ireland departure airports
- List of destination countries from each airport
- Resent news items
- Link to their booking page

Todays featured airline - Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus, the national airline of Ireland, based in Dublin, started operations in 1936 with a 6 seater biplane flying from Dublin to Bristol.

Apart from the war years, the airline saw steady expansion under the ownership of the Irish government, mostly with flights to the UK and the United States.

The events of 9/11 had a serious effect on Aer Lingus, resulting in a cut back of staff and planes.

The airline now has 46 planes, all Airbus A319 - 330 (the larger aircraft used on long haul) and concentrates more on European flights than it used to, competing with the low cost airlines.

Aer Lingus was floated on the stock market in late 2006, with the Irish goevernment retaining 28% at the time.

Ryanair promptly bought a stake in the airline but failed in its two attempts at a takeover, the first in 2006 and the second in 2008.
A further takeover bid by Ryanair in 2012 was rejected.

In 2010, flights commenced under the Aer Lingus Regional brand, operated by Aer Arann.

In 2015, Aer Lingus was taken over by IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, and is expected to remain as a separate brand.

Aer Lingus transported 10.4 million passengers in 2016, a 3% increase from the previous year.

More details here