Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus will stop flying from Ireland West Knock Airport to London Gatwick in March.
The airline is to instead open a Knock-London Heathrow route on the 26th of the month and compete more directly with Irish rival Ryanair, which connects the airport with London Luton and London Stansted.
Heathrow sits to the west of London, with Luton and Stansted to the north, leaving Gatwick largely serving the south of the vast city and surrounding regions.
Despite Heathrow and Gatwick being at least an and a half apart on the UK's increasingly-unreliable and strike-riven public transport, an airline spokesman said the switch would only add "slightly" to the time needed by people hoping to fly direct between the west of Ireland and the south of England.
In a statement, Aer Lingus said it expects the switch to "drive additional point-to-point demand and increased connecting traffic", based on Heathrow's size over Gatwick's.
The hype around the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning film The Banshees of Inisherin, which was filmed about a 90-minute drive from Knock Airport, could prove a further tourism attraction for the region, the carrier said, citing Tourism Ireland.
“I have no doubt the service will get huge support from the business community and leisure travellers both here and abroad and we thank Aer Lingus for this strong vote of confidence in the airport and the west of Ireland region," said Joe Gilmore, the airport's managing director.