Why Are Airlines Launching Random, Bizarre Direct Flight Routes?

Here’s what goes into making the decision between connecting two cities with a new flight route.

We’ve all been there, killing time at the airport, scanning the “Departures” screen for places we’ve been and places we’d like to go. Most of these routes make perfect sense. Occasionally, however, a smaller airport offers a direct flight to another smaller airport, puzzling common sense. For instance, from Jacksonville, Florida (JAX), travelers can fly non-stop to Des Moines, Iowa.

One reason is U.S.-based discount carriers like Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier are building route maps around smaller airports with smaller gate fees as a cost savings. But sometimes, these oddities extend to international non-stops on major airlines. St. Louis (STL) flies non-stop to Frankfurt, Germany, on Lufthansa, and yet, oddly, travelers can’t fly from St. Louis non-stop to London, Paris, Berlin, or Rome.

Frankfurt’s an interesting case. In addition to all the U.S. airports you’d expect to be able to fly to and from Frankfurt non-stop, such as New York, Boston, D.C., and Chicago, travelers can also get there direct from Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Raleigh-Durham, Portland (Oregon), and even Anchorage. While these flight routes may seem random, there is reason behind it.

Frankfurt is a major international banking hub. Frankfurt’s central location within Germany and continental Europe—and exceptional intermodal transportation networks—makes it an easy and convenient jumping off destination for travel and business throughout the country and continent. And don’t forget the Cold War. Berlin, which was effectively split in two until 1991, was a dicey place to both travel and build out travel and transportation infrastructure like big commercial airports. Enter Frankfurt: solidly located in democratic West Germany.

Airlines and airports possess a limited number of planes, pilots, gate space, and travelers. Painstaking research, planning, and negotiation goes into adding new routes and carriers to assure their profitability. Aer Lingus wouldn’t have started flying from Indianapolis (IND) to Dublin (DUB)—arguably America’s most unexpected international non-stop—if that weren’t the case.

Non-Stop from Indianapolis to Dublin

Beginning May 3, 2025, Aer Lingus began operating four weekly flights connecting Ireland with Indianapolis, the only direct non-stop service between Indiana’s capital city and Europe. Indy debuted its first ever non-stop service to Europe in 2018, flying to Paris, but the pandemic ended it, and the route never returned.

Indianapolis doesn’t leap to mind as an international city meriting transatlantic non-stop flights but consider this: Indianapolis is one of America’s top big event cities. It’s among the handful of places having hosted a Super Bowl, college football national championship game, men’s college basketball Final Four, WrestleMania, National Basketball Association All-Star weekend, and Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour.

Between its status as an epicenter for major sporting events—particularly college sports, and, of course, the Indy 500—and its central Midwestern location at the intersection of four interstates making it a popular conference venue, Indy hosts a big event almost every month. Like, 10,000-plus people visiting Indy for the event every month.

As for outbound traffic, research conducted by the Indianapolis International Airport found that approximately 350 people per day were flying from Indy to Europe, all of them doing so via connection somewhere else. That total doesn’t account for all the northern Indiana residents driving to Chicago or Detroit for non-stops offered by larger airports like O’Hare International.

So, why open a non-stop route to Dublin over, say Paris, London, or Amsterdam?

Indiana is surprisingly home to 52 Ireland-based businesses. It’s an Indianapolis-based company with business in Ireland, however, that likely sealed the Indy-Dublin new route deal. In September of 2024, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company announced a billion-dollar expansion of its Limerick, Ireland manufacturing plant, and an $800 million expansion of its Kinsale, Ireland facility.

That’s a lot of executives looking to travel regularly between the Emerald Isle and Indianapolis now. Dublin via Aer Lingus also offers easy connections to Europe’s other popular tourist destinations like London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, making the route attractive as a gateway to Europe.

Airport Speed Dating

An airport may have demand for a new route, but it still needs an airline.

“It is risky to start,” Maggie Cunningham, director of air service and airport experience at the Indianapolis International Airport, told Fodor’s. “It costs a lot of money to operate an airplane. There’s also an opportunity cost because that airplane could go anywhere [the airline] could deploy it in the world to the range it can fly. Our job is to convince them that the reward is greater than the risk.”

That convincing takes place, in part, at conferences like Routes Americas, an annual event bringing together airline, airport, and destination representatives from around the world to discuss new flight routes.

“It’s speed dating,” Cunningham explained. “The airlines all sit at their own tables in a big room and the airports run through 20-minute meetings all day long. What’s this airline’s strategy? What am I talking about with United? What do I have with Aer Lingus? What’s happening with American? How can I pitch to Air Canada? Constantly changing topics, but always pitching the city.”

The conference comes complete with a countdown clock and buzzer. Seriously. And after-hours networking.

Routes America was held in Nassau and Paradise Island, Bahamas earlier in 2025. In 2026, it will be in Rio de Janeiro. In 2020, it took place in Indianapolis.

Cunningham had been working on securing a non-stop from Indy to Europe since before that–with an eye on Dublin–but getting decision makers to the city proved critical in the effort.

“I remember speaking with IAG, the Aer Lingus parent company, at Routes America. Their team had come, and they got to experience Indianapolis firsthand. That, to my knowledge, is the only time that anybody from their team had ever been to Indy,” Cunningham said. “I really do think it helped us make the pitch and make the sell. They could feel it, see it. There’s something about Indy that, if you don’t come and feel it and see it, it’s hard to understand.”

Indy made its case to Aer Lingus about service to Dublin—and kept making its case. For years. Those conversations gradually became more serious. Discussions progressed to who would be traveling and why, and how often. Frequent business travelers, like the Lilly executives, are particularly attractive to airlines.

So, you’ve got passengers, an airport, and an airline, the next most important thing you need is an airplane. Airplanes are expensive. Prices for new commercial jets start at just shy of $100 million and go up (way up) from there. Airlines don’t have extras just sitting around with the pilots and crews necessary to fly them.

Critical for the Indy to Dublin flight making sense was the right aircraft. Big enough to make the transatlantic flight, not so big as to fly with empty seats. The planes used for this flight will be brand-new A321XLR’s that are both long-range and cost-efficient. The A321XLR has the world’s second-widest single-aisle cabin, but it’s still considered a narrowbody aircraft, and among them, it has the longest range. It is 20% more fuel efficient per seat than previous models. In other words, it’s just right for this route.

“The geographic position of Aer Lingus’ Dublin hub is highly advantageous as we can reach many North American cities non-stop with our new generation narrowbody aircraft,” Chris Keen, Director of Network Management, Aer Lingus, told Fodor’s. “Whereas we serve major markets such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles with larger widebody aircraft, our new 184-seat Airbus A321XLR aircraft is ideal for markets like Dublin-Indianapolis, making year-round Europe service economically feasible.”

Passengers and the airport. Check.
Airline. Check.
Airplane. Check.

To fly international, you also need a customs facility and Indianapolis’ airport has that. You also need a gate, and that’s an additional cost.

Every airport’s gate leasing policy works a little differently. Aer Lingus’ is renting space at IND. To sweeten the deal, the airport offered Aer Lingus an inducement through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Carrier Incentive Program helping offset the gate cost. The incentive was made available to any airline willing to fly a transatlantic route.

Lastly, IND has gone all out with a local and statewide marketing effort promoting the new flight. The airport, Visit Indy, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, Indiana Destination Development Corporation, and visitors bureaus in local counties have all chipped in with advertising dollars to raise awareness.

Indianapolis officials have also invited Dublin-based media, tour operators, and influencers to take the flight and experience Indy for themselves. They are also buying ads in Ireland promoting the route.

Aer Lingus expanding service will be the most obvious indication its risk providing Indy non-stop flights to Europe paid off. That proof of concept will signal other carriers that IND is open for more transatlantic business.

Cunningham stands ready to woo them. Indianapolis hosts another airport/airline speed dating event this June when Airports Council International’s North American JumpStart Air Service Development Conference hits town.