British regulators clear Aer Lingus for UK-US flights

British regulators have cleared Aer Lingus to begin flying to the United States from Manchester Airport in England. The news comes as global industry statistics confirm that tough Government travel bans sent traffic at the Republic’s airports into the steepest decline anywhere in Europe. The Irish airline plans to fly to the US and Barbados from this autumn using four aircrafts originally destined for the Republic. The UK Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that it has granted an operating licence to Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier’s British subsidiary. “This allows the company to undertake transatlantic scheduled passenger services between the UK and the US,” said the authority. Aer Lingus is due to begin flying to New York JFK and Orlando in Florida from September 30th. The carrier had originally hoped to launch the services at the end of last month, but said in June it would delay this until September due to ongoing travel restrictions. Aer Lingus plans to launch the Barbados service on October 20th. The airline hopes to exploit opportunities left by rival Thomas Cook’s failure in 2019.<br/>