Thank you, Aer Lingus! There are a lot of glad expats in the States today

Citing higher fuel costs, a weak US dollar and the uncertainty of the economic climate, in November 2008 Aer Lingus scrapped its direct Dublin-LA route. 

But at a time when a load of Irish folk were heading out Californian for employment opportunities, it was a particular blow to Los Angeles-based expats. 

Although the airline later implemented a now-popular San Francisco route, there is further good news today for anyone based on America's West Coast: Aer Lingus's Dublin-LA flight is being reinstated. Hurrah!

Kicking off next spring on a year-round basis, there will be five flights weekly with fares from €329.

The announcement was made as part of the airline's transatlantic expansion. In fact, it will be operating three new routes from Dublin to North America in 2016.

In addition to the LA flight, it will also have planes heading out to Newark and Hartford – those are in addition to existing routes to Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, San Fran, Washington and Toronto from Dublin, and Boston and New York from Shannon.

Aer Lingus was bought this year by IAG for a cool €1.36bn – and its new parent company is eager to drive more transatlantic traffic through Dublin from the UK.

Indeed, IAG's chief executive Willie Walsh said today: "Ireland’s geographic location and US immigration pre-clearance provides IAG with the natural gateway to build our business between Europe and North America through Aer Lingus.

"This is the first step in our plans to add North American destinations, bring new aircraft into the fleet, increase passenger numbers and create new jobs. This shows also our keenness to develop Dublin as another key hub."