Annual Report 1999 in PDF - Aer Lingus

AMSTERDAM…BRUSSELS…DUSSELDORF…FRANKFURT…HELSINKI…MADRID…MILAN…MUNICH…PARIS…RENNES…STOCKHOLMContinental EuropeAer Lingus continued to provide regular scheduled services to eleven cities in eight ContinentalEuropean countries. In addition, through our recently implemented agreement with BritishAirways, we also provide code-share access to a number of other important Europeandestinations.Aer Lingus has experienced strong growth in both tourist and business traffic on its ContinentalEuropean routes in recent years. Overall Aer Lingus passenger numbers grew by 18% to1.3 million.The Aer Lingus strategy on this route group is to build frequency and improve the schedule forour customers. As part of this strategy, capacity on Continental European routes is beingexpanded through the introduction of new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.New direct services to Munich and Stockholm were inaugurated in March 2000, serving eachcity with five flights per week. Overall European capacity is up 9% and has beencomplemented by code-sharing agreements with British Airways, providing our customers witheasier access to destinations such as Berlin, Nice, Venice and Vienna.The opening of the Munich gateway gives Aer Lingus a strong strategic position in the Germanmarket. It is intended to enhance this further by increasing capacity on the Frankfurt route andto increase capacity on the Dusseldorf route through the use of larger aircraft.The new Stockholm route enables Aer Lingus to serve this key destination in the growingScandinavian market. This new service is a code-share operation with our oneworld partnerFinnair and complements the existing co-operative agreement with Finnair which has operatedsince 1997.11