THE news last week that Ryanair, or a new subsidiary of the Irish low cost airline, is planning long haul flights to the U.S. from Ireland and other points in Europe is exciting. Ryanair are the equivalent of Southwest Airlines in Europe, a company that revolutionized budget travel, and their no frills policy has resulted in huge savings for travelers.

Indeed, the company chairman Micheal O’Leary, one of the legendary figures in Celtic Tiger business era in Ireland, was predicting that fares could be as low as 10 euro — a sure case of hyperbole, we suspect, but nonetheless an exciting prospect for those who travel frequently between the two countries.

Ryanair may not be up and running for a few years in America, but there is no doubt at all that the airline’s eventual entry will revolutionize the flying business from Ireland. In that sense they will present a major challenge to Aer Lingus, which has always had the unquestioned loyalty of most Irish fliers because of their long and historic links with the airline business in Ireland.

While several U.S. carriers now fly into Ireland, there is no question that Aer Lingus, with its familiar shamrock logo, has a huge brand advantage for the Irish, especially when it comes to flying to and from America. Ryanair on the route, however, would immediately bring a new challenge to that.

It seems we are truly on the cusp of a new era in airline transport to the U.S. from Ireland. Recently the European Union and the U.S. government announced an agreement to an open skies policy that will allow European airlines to fly to American destinations of their choice and vice versa for American carriers flying to Europe.

In practice this means that new hubs will immediately be created. Aer Lingus plans to take immediate advantage, kicking off a service to Dulles outside Washington by November of this year.

Previously, Aer Lingus did fly for a time to Baltimore/Washington, but the fact that the new service will be directly into the American capital gives it a huge advantage.

San Francisco, Florida and Texas may not be far behind according to company executives — an exciting prospect for anyone who has long been forced to change planes and endure long delays when trying to connect onwards to an American destination from New York, Boston or Chicago, where Aer Lingus currently fly to on the East Coast and Midwest.

The implications for Irish tourism are obviously massive. Little wonder that Tourism Ireland executives, who have long had to deal with a series of frustrating realities such as the mandatory Shannon stopover, were smiling broadly when the news was announced of the open skies initiative.

The notion of having access to such huge markets as northern California, Florida and Texas with direct flights to Ireland must be enough to make even the most taciturn tourism executive salivate with anticipation. We can certainly expect that tourism numbers to Ireland will greatly increase in the coming years.

We must not forget the little airport that could, Knock Airport in Mayo, which recently announced that it too would be host to a new trans-Atlantic service in the coming months. The west of Ireland has long been starved of such access to American visitors, and hopefully that too is about to change.

All in all an exciting new era is about to open up for aviation between Ireland and America at a time when economic bonds in particular have never been more vital. It is long overdue, and we can look forward to a time when choices of destination both within Ireland and America will vastly outnumber what is available today. Thankfully, open skies are here to stay.