Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Aer Arann, is revising the times of flights on its popular three times daily London Southend Airport to Dublin route in order to improve convenience for customers.

From 31 March 2013 Aer Lingus will fly from Dublin to London Southend first thing in the morning, instead of vice versa – this will mean departures from London Southend to Dublin will be at 9.15am, 3.15pm and 7.30pm, with flights departing Dublin for London Southend at 7.15am, 1.15pm and 5.30pm.

This new timetable will mean an earlier arrival in Southend for people travelling to the UK – and London in particular – on business.For citybreakers off to Dublin it means a more relaxed 9.15am departure, rather than the current 6.45am early take off.This first outbound flight to Dublin will now also work more efficiently with the rail timetable.

People travelling to and from New York, Boston, Chicago and Orlando, via Dublin, will also experience improved, smoother connectivity. They will also still benefit from the US immigration pre-clearance facilities Dublin Airport has to offer, therefore arriving into the States as domestic passengers avoiding those long queues for the department of Homeland Security.

As demand varies regularly – the forthcoming RBS Six Nations rugby match between England and Ireland (10 February, at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin) being an ideal example – larger planes can also be brought into service to give greater flexibility and more capacity when required.

London Southend Airport Managing Director Alastair Welch says “Whilst the existing route is both very efficient and highly popular, we and our partners Aer Lingus Regional are always looking to see if there are ways routes can be improved for the benefit of our customers. Our joint review revealed that by simply changing the starting direction of the aircraft we can create a number of improvements for our passengers. This move offers a longer business day for Irish customers travelling to London, a more relaxed departure time for people flying to Dublin from London Southend, and better connections for passengers going on to the USA. Aer Lingus can also introduce more flexibility with the size of aircraft used providing larger aircraft on popular flights.”

Chief Commerical Officer Aer Arran, Simon Fagan, says “We at Aer Lingus Regional are continually reviewing operations to provide the best service possible to passengers at Southend airport. With the improved schedule, London based passengers can now catch the train from Central London to make our morning flight and also connect to the US, availing of pre-clearance in Dublin to save time at their US destination. City breakers can enjoy a leisurely trip to Dublin with a later check- in and get more out of their weekend. The schedule now allows Irish based travellers spend a full business day in London and make it into London in under 50 minutes in the morning. We are confident that the improvements in flight times will be a great success and further supply our passengers' needs.”