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ICELANDIC LOW-COST carrier Wow Air is to start its services from Dublin to Los Angeles and San Francisco in June, the company has confirmed.
The airline, which already offers Dublin-Boston and Dublin-Washington flights (both via Reykjavik), announced last year that it would begin ‘ultra-low-cost’ trips to the US west coast.
It confirmed today that the first San Francisco flights would begin on 9 June, and the first services to LA on 15 June.
They’ll operate five days a week and four days a week respectively.
The carrier’s return price of €398 shaves between €50 and €70 off the current cost of a return flight to Los Angeles from Dublin, based on an online flight comparison of current fares.
Wow Air’s California routes will be serviced by three new Airbus A330-300 aircraft, each of which carry 340 people. There’ll be no class divisions on the planes.
LA flight duration
San Francisco flight duration
The airline’s Dublin-Iceland-Boston service launched with return flights priced around €300. However, the fare’s since increased to over €500.
To fly to Boston in April with Wow Air, for instance, it would cost €518 – with a stopover in Iceland.
Aer Lingus is also beginning direct flights to Los Angeles from May of this year.
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I’d rather pay the extra €50 and fly direct
As you’re not flying directly from Ireland, would you then have to clear US security again when you get there?
You would just clear customs in the US if flying via reykjavik. You wouldn’t be passing US customs in Dublin unless flying direct to the US
What he said
Its also flight dependant. For example if you fly to LA with Ethiopia airways direct from Dublin you do customs in LA!
West Coast Immigration has to be in the U.S. But you can go through Dublin or Shannon for the East Coast airports.
Aer Lingus flights to San Francisco clear US Immigration in Dublin. The plane lands at the SFO International Terminal however it is treated as a domestic US arrival with a separate (and very efficient) Baggage Claim area. This allows for a swift exit from the airport or easy access to flight connections.
I’d rather pay an extra €100 and fly direct.
Their prices are about comparable to what is on the market once this little marketing gimmick drops off but the more options on the route the better for the customer. There really is a huge range of choices to get to the US now, it would be nice to see a few routes to Eastern locations launched from Dublin, Abu Dhabi and Dubai seem to be the only locations reachable beyond Turkey at the moment.
Be nice to see more routes from Shannon. Why does it have to be Dublin all the time.
With a bit of creative connectivity you could manage it, Turkish airlines with a stop in Istanbul, or Etihad with a stop-over in Abu-dhabi for example. Although, given how close Heathrow is, its probably easiest go through their and the world is your oyster.
hmm, maybe because of supply and demand?
Yeah I take your point Kian but direct flights really do make a big difference to connectivity, especially for business routes as if it is only a short trip a stop over can add significantly to travel time.
Dublin has a vastly greater demand than Shannon Gravy Train, I’m not sure there’s any requirement for further long haul routes there.
Shannon is the reason we don’t have more routes out of Dublin. Back in the 90s, Air Canada explored moving their European hub from London to Dublin but when the government of the time wouldn’t scrap the Shannon stop-over (in exchange for serious cash and undoubtedly increased tourist revenues (a lot of which might well have been in the west anyway!) they dropped it. That was discussed on the Late Late back in the day and is the only example we know of, but it’s hard to imagine there weren’t other airlines looking at doing the same.
Istanbul!!?? Abu dhabi?? are you mad?? Iceland is on the way. those two are definitely not.
Range Rover…we were discussing flights going east.
also…I now hate myself a little for using “their” instead of “there”…
All the people on in dublin gave thumbs down fools always not in favor of the west !
If the numbers were there for Shannon, there’d be more flights. Simple as. People need to stop ignoring the fact that the population density is much higher in the east than west.
I live just over 100km from Shannon and just over 200km from Dublin airport and would much rather fly from Dublin. I have a motorway all the way to Dublin so the time spent getting to each place is almost the same and the road to Shannon, from where I am is shocking – windy country roads, grid-locked towns etc. Another big advantage of Dublin is public transport. It’s accessible to the entire country with buses running throughout the night to many destinations
Declan….believe it or not most dubs love the rest of Ireland but a good percentage of the population is based around greater Dublin so the flights tend to leave from here
A quarter of the population is based in Dublin and the area around it. The rest of the population isn’t however. There is a large population in the midlands and the west coast that would use extra services in Shannon. Plenty of international companies in the likes of Limerick, Galway and Cork too that need to get to the US etc.
Cooper. …around 2 million in the Dublin metro area is not a quarter of the population unless fractions have changed
Your right, I googled and its 1.8 million according to 2011 census. My point on the west still stands whether the population is 25% or 39%
Because there are only 4 people in Shannon
The schedules are crap to SFO and LAX, at least with Aer Lingus you can sleep during the night, with Wow you are kicked off a plan at 5am in the morning!
All the airlines operating from Dublin to the USA including Wow Air are nearly identical on their prices.. What’s needed is Ryanair is start flying transatlantic and only then will we see prices come down. Around ten years ago I flew return to JFK with Aerlingus for under €400, now you’d be lucky to get the same flight for under €700 and fuel prices are nearly at an all time low..
In the 30 seconds the cheapest I could find with 1 stop were €408 and the cheapest direct were €488 (AL), that’s Saturday to Saturday in March. I could both earn myself and save you a fortune as your travel agent if we just split the difference between your own thoughts on airline prices and the actual prices.
Bagd 399 and 425 fares to NY earlier this year for travel in November and February
Ryanair will not be as cheap as most thing as long haul requires more staff and less work, more planes less work etc for them and Ryanair is based on little staff, maximum work for aircraft.
Bagged €430 return flights from cork to SFO (via Amsterdam) a few years ago myself, the offers are out there if you look hard enough
But don’t you just want to kill yourself on the way home when you watch your plane fly over Dublin on your monitor and onwards to Schippol for another what seems like an eternity! I did it once via Paris and swore I’d never do it again, definitely not worth the €100 or so saving in my opinion!
It would want to be at least half the price of current carriers to be going to Iceland for an extra two hours and then having to clear customs at the US city when you land.
Darach ,spot on,clearing customs in Dublin makes a world of difference,remember being stuck for what seemed like an eternity waiting to be cleared,horrible after a very long flight..
2 of the nicest places in the world Iceland & LA #BlueLagoon
LA really? Probably my least favourite city in the US.
more like a giant mess than a city.
Still change from €200 to buy a flower for your hair….
Bit silly with all the other more convenient and comfortable ways of going to these cities. ….why not open a route to Las Vegas or miami which are not served from Dublin at present?
The idea for this was that they could use existing short-haul aircraft, like Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 and wouldn’t need to buy expensive single-purpose transcontinental aircraft.
They also wouldn’t need to rely on airports with long-distance capability and could use smaller airports with less charges like Cork, Knock, Waterford, Farranfore etc.
Ryan Air’s 737-800′s would most likely not have the range to make the East Coast of the States without stopping if they had a full lad of passengers and baggage which transatlantic passengers generally bring when they fly across the ocean.
Too, in order to carry the fuel required to get to North America, the runways you are suggesting wouldn’t have the length required for the weights Ryan Air 737′s would be. Also, Ryan Air would need to get their 737′s ETOPS certified before being allowed to cross the Atlantic on the track system and as that is expensive most likely it won’t happen. It would mean having to fly well to the north over Iceland and Greenland and down through Canada which again means more fuel and longer flight times so a guaranteed stop for fuel on the way which is the same as WOW.
There is a lot involved in flying across the Atlantic, and Ryan Air just don’t have the expertise or equipment to do it.
All Ryanairs 737-800 next gen are 180 min ETOPS certified, they come out of the Seattle field like that. How do you think they make it non stop across the pond on delivery flights.
The aircraft is certified but the operator is not. Also, when they are delivered from Seattle, something I have actually done, you have to fly non ETOPS and non MNPS routings well to the North and generally below 28000 feet staying within 60Mins of landfall.
Norwegian air do cheap enough flights to the states from London gatwick. Tack on the 20/30 quid flight to London and it works out the same if not better
Then have to do customs and immigration in states no thanks… Prefer to get that done a d dusted in IRL.
Clearing immigration and customs in the US isn’t that big of a deal… Just like Dublin, sometimes it’s busy and other times you breeze through…
Wow the wing fell off!!!
Did a random check for August 4th to 11th 2016. SFO to DUB return for 2 people.
Wow: $2468 (you had to pay for bags and I chose pre booking seats)
Aer Lingus: $2791.
Only saving $160 per head by stopping over. Direct in this case would be the better option, but off season flights, I’ll be checking them again to see if they have any bargains…
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