The Irish start-up Emerald Airlines has been granted AOC and an operating license. The company is now officially an airline. A tender from Aer Lingus had already been won.

The carrier carried out the official test flight on September 3, 2021 and shortly afterwards received the AOC and the operating license from the IAA authorities. With this one is authorized to carry out commercial flights. The callsign of the new carrier is Gemstone and the ICAO code is EAI.

Emerald Airlines should actually take over the Aer Lingus regional connections in just over 1,5 years. This could now go much faster, because the previous operator Stobart Air had to file for bankruptcy. The IAG subsidiary and the young airline unanimously confirm that intensive negotiations are ongoing. The volume of the order could possibly be expanded as negotiations are underway for the use of four more aircraft.