Derry to Dublin flights expected to return

At the North-South Ministerial Council in May 2026, it emerged that the Government is to fund a new air route linking Dublin Airport with the City of Derry Airport.

The North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) published the communiqué of its plenary meeting on 11 May 2026, confirming support for a Public Service Obligation (PSO) air service between Dublin Airport and City of Derry Airport.

The Irish Government announced funding for the route in November 2025. The NSMC statement re-affirms the joint commitment and sets a launch target of late 2026.

The service is expected to run at least twice daily and is to be tendered under EU PSO rules, with subsidy designed to guarantee frequency on route which may not be commercially profitable.

For business travellers, the 45-minute flight will cut journey times compared with a three-hour road trip and provide a same-day return option that rail cannot yet match.

The connection is also seen as an important symbol of the Shared Island agenda, enhancing economic ties and labour mobility between the North and the Republic.

If confirmed, the route will mark the third domestic route on this island, with Dublin Airport already offering flights to Kerry and Donegal. However, the Dublin-Kerry route is no longer run under the aegis of the PSO scheme, with Ryanair operating the route on a for-profit basis.

The PSO scheme once funded regional routes connecting Dublin to Cork, Waterford, Derry, Donegal, Galway, Sligo, and Kerry, but post-Great Recession austerity measures prompted the governments of Brian Cowen and Enda Kenny to significantly reduce spending on the scheme.

The cuts in funding were also enabled by a significant increase in the State’s road infrastructure capacity throughout the mid-2000s, which made Cork, Waterford, and Galway in particular more accessible from Dublin via road.

It is not yet clear which airline will operate the route.