On 27 October 2005, Aer Lingus announced its first scheduled service to Asia from March 2006 as Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, where Chief Executive Dermot Mannion was based when at Emirates. Despite the Aer Lingus press release describing it as the first long-haul service outside the United States, there had in fact been a previous service to Montreal from 1966 to 1979. The great circle distance of is comparable to the service to Chicago. At the same time, Mannion linked the funding of new long-haul aircraft to replace the A330 fleet with the privatisation of the airline. The Dubai service ceased in March 2008 as the airline sought to increase its market share in the newly liberalised transatlantic market.