The Ireland rugby squad jetted off to France yesterday on a specially chartered Aer Lingus flight to compete against the best rugby nations in the world.
The specially branded Airbus A320, Green Spirit, departed Dublin at 12 noon and was flown by Captain Caolan Flanagan, who attended the same school as Ireland rugby captain, Johnny Sexton.
It is the first of what will be a squadron of planes taking upwards of tens of thousands of fans from Ireland to France over the coming weeks.
Aer Lingus first became the official airline sponsor of Irish Rugby in 2015. Since then, the men’s team has departed from Ireland with Aer Lingus to all key tournaments including the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cup Finals in England and Japan, supporting travel to away games for Guinness Six Nations tournaments as well as supporting the women’s team with travel to the Tik Tok Women’s Six Nations and training camps.
“Our partnership with the Ireland Rugby team is one that we are immensely proud of and today is a day of excitement and anticipation as we bring the team to France to compete on the world stage,” said Susanne Carberry, Aer Lingus Chief Customer Officer.
“A World Cup, and especially one as close to home as this one, brings a special kind of energy to everyone in Aer Lingus and I know that our flights to France throughout September and October will be filled with a sense of optimism and belief as we fly home advantage to France.”
“There is great excitement across Irish rugby ahead of the Rugby World Cup and we are delighted to partner with our long-standing official airline Aer Lingus in helping the team get there safely,” added Jessica Long, IRFU Head of Commercial.
“On behalf of the IRFU we thank Aer Lingus for their great support and wish all of our travelling supporters a ‘Bon Voyage’ in the weeks ahead.”
Aer Lingus will operate up to 140 flights weekly to France throughout September and October across 13 routes. Additional flights have been added to destinations including Nantes, Bordeaux and Paris and given the demand among Irish fans to travel to France, some flights will be operated by a larger A330 aircraft which would typically fly to North America.
The airline also recently announced it will be operating flights to Paris from both Shannon and Cork airport from September 22nd boosting regional connectivity for travelling fans.
