IRISH airline Aer Lingus is switching part of its UK operation from Stansted to Gatwick.

The carrier currently operates six flights a day from the Essex airport to the Irish capital.

But from January 2000, Aer Lingus will transfer Dublin flights to Gatwick, with services from the airport to Cork and Shannon expected to start in 2001.

The announcement coincided with today's start of a four-times-a-day Aer Lingus service to Dublin from London City Airport in London Docklands.

The airline, which also operates out of Heathrow airport, said the new route structure was expected to increase its capacity by 11 per cent in the year 2000.

Aer Lingus fortunes have fluctuated in recent years but

it has seen better

times since selling

the Sussex-based Copthorne Hotel Group for £219 million in 1995 in order to improve the group's financial strength and allow it to focus on its core business.

A spokeswoman for Gatwick said the airport welcomed any moves that gave the public more choice.

Gatwick is the largest private employer in Sussex with a combined workforce exceeding 27,000.

They have played a vital part in putting Crawley at the top of the employment league, with unemployment less than one per cent.

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