Ninety Years On: Aer Lingus Sends the Iolar Back to Bristol

‍DUBLIN — Ninety years to the day after a small de Havilland biplane lifted off from a grass military airstrip near Dublin and crossed the Irish Sea for the first time, Aer Lingus (EI) did it again. On Wednesday morning, the restored DH.84 Dragon Iolar — Irish for eagle — departed Weston Airport at 10:16 am, piloted by Captain Brendan Bruton, who normally flies transatlantic widebodies, and Captain Mark Dolan. 

Two hours and forty minutes later, cruising at around 170km/h, it landed at Bristol Airport (BRS), recreating the inaugural flight of May 27, 1936, in near-precise detail. The occasion marks the Irish carrier’s 90th anniversary, and the Iolar's return to the skies is the centerpiece of a broader celebration of an airline that grew from a three-person operation into one of the world's busiest transatlantic carriers.

Before departure, Captain Bruton told reporters he was looking forward to the more traditional experience, though he acknowledged some of the modern challenges: with Ireland in the middle of a warm spell, the tiny cockpit, he said, felt like a greenhouse. The contrast with his usual office — an Airbus A330 flight deck with full automation and satellite connectivity — could not be more complete. That gap between 1936 and 2026 is exactly the story Aer Lingus is marking this week.

The flight that started it all

On May 27, 1936, following a religious service and blessing by the Irish Air Corps chaplain, EI commenced operations with a single aircraft, five passengers, and a staff of three waiting at the destination to greet them. The passengers on what was grandly designated Route No. 800 included William Herbert Morton, manager of the Great Southern Railway and a director of the airline, along with two paying passengers and their companions. The only cargo on board was a bundle of Irish Times newspapers bound for London. 

The original Iolar operated with the airline for two years before being sold. Today, the aircraft that flew to BRS is a sister machine, built in 1936 and passed through several owners, and was eventually acquired by Aer Lingus in 1967 as a memento. First restored to airworthy condition for the airline's 50th anniversary in 1986, it has since been periodically returned to flying condition for major milestones, including the 60th in 1996 and the 75th in 2011. 

Restoring the aircraft

The Iolar is one of only two de Havilland DH.84 Dragons still flying in Europe, making it not only an Aer Lingus artifact but a rare survivor of 1930s commercial aviation. The restoration work, completed ahead of this week's anniversary, was supported by the Aer Lingus Charitable Foundation, which owns the aircraft. In the intervening years since its last active period, the Dragon had been on static display at Aer Lingus' maintenance headquarters at Dublin Airport, drawing visitors but not turning a propeller.

The aircraft is re-registered as EI-ABI, matching the registration of the original 1936 machine, a detail that reinforces the symbolic continuity the airline is drawing between its first day of operations and its ninth decade. The restoration also drew coverage in Bristol, where local media noted that the original 1936 arrival represented not only Aer Lingus' inaugural service but also the first ever international flight for BRS — a double milestone that largely went unnoticed at the time, overshadowed by the Queen Mary's maiden transatlantic sailing from Southampton the same day.