Aer Lingus will fly daily to San Francisco next summer

Daily flights to the city are already bookable for next summer with the Aer Lingus website now showing a flight every day.

Speaking to the Irish Independent in May, out-going chief executive Christoph Mueller said that increasing the five-days-a-week service to seven would be the preferred option for the airline.

"It's always better to operate on a daily basis," he said, adding that increasing the San Francisco route to seven days a week is a target that is built into the business plan for the service. However, he said then a decision wouldn't be made until next year's summer schedules are being delivered.

The route was relaunched by Aer Lingus in April.

The airline operated the service between Dublin and San Francisco between 2007 and 2009 when it was cancelled as the economic downturn worsened and Aer Lingus went into cost-cutting mode.

But the new San Francisco route appears to be performing according to plan. It's also attracting passengers from locations such as London, other parts of the UK, and Paris as they take advantage of Dublin Airport's US customs and immigration pre-clearance facilities.

In a May conference call with airline management, analysts were told that the carrier is exploring the possibility of using more Boeing 757s to boost transatlantic capacity. Aer Lingus is now using three leased 757s as "pathfinders" on routes from Dublin to Toronto, and from Shannon to Boston and New York.