Emerald Airlines ATR 72-600, EI-HDI (c/n 1087) St Darerca/Darerca, was delivered to the airline in July 2022, on lease from Chorus Aviation
AVIATION IMAGE NETWORK/BAILEY
For many years, Irish flag
carrier Aer Lingus partnered
with Aer Arann (later Stobart
Air) to feed passengers onto
its transatlantic flights under
the Aer Lingus Regional brand. But, in November 2020, the airline announced that an unknown start-up called Emerald Airlines would take over the contract from 2023. Emerald was established by Irish aviation tycoon Conor McCarthy, who founded the maintenance, repair and overhaul provider Dublin Aerospace in 2009.
Stobart Air, already in a precarious financial position, collapsed in June 2021, leaving Aer Lingus without a regional partner. The airline, along with British Airways (BA) franchise BA CityFlyer, was brought in to operate several routes on a short-term basis, but many more were cancelled. Talks were immediately entered with Emerald management to see if the March 2023 start date could be brought forward. “We’ve had a solid relationship with Aer Lingus from the outset,” explained Ian Lough, Emerald’s head of commercial, in an exclusive interview with Airliner World at the carrier’s Dublin headquarters. “It’s a long-term arrangement, and there are lots of great synergies there.”