The Aer Lingus College Football Classic is impossible to miss around Dublin this week, with 24,000 international visitors touring the streets of the capital and proudly wearing their alumni colours.

From lunches and pep rallies to gatherings of friends and family, it is a big thing for fans of the two teams to build a lifetime trip to Ireland, and that is excellent news for the principal commercial partner of the game and the series, Aer Lingus.

With flights this year to 21 US destinations, it is a core market. As we discovered in an interview with Susanne Carberry, the airline’s  Chief Customer Officer this morning, there is a lot that goes into making it a key part of their marketing.

In another nice touch linking partnerships, the game ball at the stadium tomorrow will be presented by Clive Healy, the Special Olympian Gold Medal winner from the World Winter Games in Turin earlier this year, also supported by Aer Lingus.

 

SfB: How big is the logistics operation of the flights for this year?

SC: It’s been a busy week for us at Aer Lingus as we prepared to welcome the two teams that arrived yesterday, on Thursday morning.

Kansas State University and Iowa State University teams, their coaching staff, cheer squads, bands and delegations travelled with Aer Lingus to Dublin on specially chartered flights. They flew from Des Moines International Airport and Kansas City International Airport, which are not part of our usual network, so that required months and months of planning.

The logistics involved in bringing a spectacle like College Football to Dublin are extraordinary. As well as the passengers connected to the travelling teams, we also transport all the equipment that they need for the game.

To give you an idea, this year we will transport 16 tonnes of cargo from the two colleges. We’ve also brought 947 pieces of baggage to Dublin, including 278 pieces of sports gear and 136 band instruments. Our operational teams, in particular, really go above and beyond to make this all happen seamlessly.

As soon as this year’s event is over, they’ll begin planning for the 2026 Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

Have you a metric on measuring the transition of goodwill to seat bookings down the years?

 As well as the hundreds of passengers directly connected to the teams that come to Ireland on our charter services, we also transport thousands more fans travelling from other airports across our North American network to Ireland for the game. These are passengers who are travelling on our regular scheduled services, from New York, Chicago, Cleveland and many more, all coming to Dublin to support K-State and Iowa State University.

This year, we’re operating our biggest ever transatlantic network. We have 21 direct routes from North America to Dublin and Shannon, with our Dublin Hub allowing customers to connect onwards to 70 destinations across Europe.

Through College Football, we’re bringing our brand to millions of people in North America who may now consider Aer Lingus for the next big trip they take not only to Ireland but also to Europe.

 

How do you activate across the US market given the prominence of Week Zero?

Again this year the match will be broadcast live on America’s ESPN to an estimated U.S. audience of 4.5 million.

Last year’s matchup between Florida State and Georgia Tech drew over 5 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-watched Week Zero game in five years. This visibility translated directly into digital engagement.

Traffic to AerLingus.com from the U.S. surged by 35%, with 54% of visitors being new users. During the game alone, over 60,000 people visited our website, with the majority of searches coming from New York, Florida, and Massachusetts—all key U.S. gateways that we serve.

Each year, the momentum continues to build.

This year is a first for us as we have a brand new TV commercial running during the ESPN broadcast of the game – bringing some Irish ‘craic’ to millions of viewers across North America. The ad sees mascots ‘Willie the Wildcat’ and ‘Cy the Cardinal’ swap the gridiron for a lively Irish pub session!

I’m an Aer Lingus baby from when EI153 was the flagship and EI104 was the fancy jumbo jet. What does the world map of business importance look like these days?

North America is still very much at the heart of our strategy for growth as an airline. Through our Dublin Hub, we connect North America to 70 destinations across Europe, including business hubs like Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Berlin and London. So customers flying from destinations we fly to, particularly secondary cities such as Cleveland and Hartford, Connecticut, have a very seamless connection with Aer Lingus to Ireland and the rest of Europe.

That strategy has been successful for us and we plan to build on this into the future.  Whilst we don’t fly ‘jumbo jets’ anymore, we do have a modern fleet of aircraft including our brand new A321 XLR aircraft providing a very good travelling experience to our customers.

 

How many US destinations do you fly to?

Aer Lingus is flying our biggest ever transatlantic network this summer – 21 routes from North America to Ireland, so establishing connections between people and places is hugely important to us and we look forward to welcoming many more Football fans from the US and Europe in September.

 

Is this a popular partnership across the Aer Lingus workforce?

The Aer Lingus College Football Classic is hugely popular with our people and Aer Lingus will be very well represented by employees in the crowd this Saturday. From the operations teams that organised all the logistics, to the crews who took care of our special guests on board, we are all very invested in the success of putting Ireland on the map as the home of College Football in Europe.

 

Will we have a flyover this year. Any nice story about crew?

We are excited to do a flyover again this year, with an Airbus A330, which is the largest aircraft in our fleet, flying over the Aviva Stadium. This is always a special moment for everyone in the stadium and brings our brand to life in a very tangible way.

Three senior pilots will fly the aircraft and they will then return to the stadium afterwards where they’ll be presented to the crowd in-person. There’s usually a huge cheer for them and that’s really lovely recognition of our people and their expertise.

 

And with talk of an extension of the programme for years to come, is this embedded now as a key partnership. 

Our sponsorship of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic has provided us with a unique opportunity to strengthen our ties to North America, a key market for us, as well as generate awareness and excitement in our home market.

This year is now the fourth year of the series and next year we will welcome Texas Christian University and University of North Carolina to Dublin. We are committed to growing our long-haul network and the Aer Lingus College Football Classic has been, and will continue to be, a powerful platform to do that.

 

The game takes place at the Aviva Stadium at 5 Pm on Saturday with multiple activities taking place across the city between now and then.  Read more about them here.

 

 

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