British Airways will start flying from Dublin to Manchester from May 2018. This is almost an exact reflection of what happened in 2017 only the route is not from Dublin to Ibiza.

Since that route is not being repeated, it must not have been a success for the airline. That is a bit of a shame, because I quite enjoyed the inaugural flight out and the flight back when I gave it a try.

Manchester Timetable

Flights to Manchester will leave Dublin at 22:20 on a Friday, starting 18 May, arriving in Manchester at 23:15. The late departure means the Dublin Airport DAA lounge used by British Airways will be closed. It shuts its doors at 21:00, so do consider that if choosing to fly Club Europe.

Return flights will leave Manchester at 09:55 on a Sunday, starting 20 May, arriving in Dublin at 10:55. There is a British Airways lounge in Manchester which looks quite decent.

British Airways CityFlyer

These flights are operated by British Airways CityFlyer, which is the subsidiary that operates flights out of London City Airport. The aircraft they use is the Embraer E190 which features seats in a 2 by 2 configuration throughout the cabin.


One thing I find is the crew on CityFlyer are invariably really quite friendly. Due to that, I always look forward to flying with them. Perhaps my experience is also coloured by the fact the only time I ever received an upgrade on British Airways was on a CityFlyer flight between Dublin and London City.

Overall Thoughts

For what it’s worth, this is clearly a positioning flight so the aircraft can fly something far more lucrative out of Manchester. What strikes me as silly is the fact the flight is not offered on the Aer Lingus web site for sale.

Since Aer Lingus became part of IAG, all of their flights are available for sale on the British Airways web site, but not vice versa. Irish consumers are way more likely to search Aer Lingus, so I think they are missing a trick here.

Either way, it is a flight that may be handy for some people and I might give it a go myself. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Konstantin von Wedelstaed via Wikimedia Commons.