The Scottish carrier has unveiled its summer 2022 schedule, which includes the restart of several international services as well as frequency increases on scores of UK domestic routes.
After a deal was agreed that could pave the way for Flybe to restart operations, Routes looks at what became of the carrier’s UK network since its failure.
The Highlands and Islands make up half of Scotland’s land mass of 15,000 square miles and are home to a tenth of the country’s population. Regular, hassle-free access to the world from airports like Inverness is vitally important to the increasingly young and entrepreneurial population who live and work there. Half of inhabitants are under 44 and the region is home to 21,000 businesses, according to Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
KLM will introduce a daily service to Valencia from its Amsterdam Schiphol hub, its first flights on the city pair since May 1993. These will initially operate on a twice weekly schedule from April 23, 2016 but will revert to a daily operation from May 16, 2016. The route will be flown using mainline Boeing 737-800 equipment.
Over the past four years easyJet has grown its capacity in Scotland by 20 per cent and following this year’s network in Scotland it now operates 62 routes from the country to points across Europe. Its Edinburgh network is its largest in Scotland and now stands at 36 routes.
Although flybe currently provides Inverness with a hub link via the KLM network from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the new London route will be particularly important for Scottish businesses looking for improved access to global markets and will open up new economic opportunities for the Highlands region and potential inward investment.
A report commissioned by Edinburgh Airport has outlined the employment and economic benefits of the 50 percent reduction in Air Passenger Duty (APD) in Scotland.
This ‘start up aid’ will be made available from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund which was announced by the UK government in June 2013 and is open to airports with fewer than five million passengers per year. This fund has already been partly distributed to support strategic routes to London from Newquay and Dundee but is now being extended to bids for more routes.
The carrier will launch a twice daily operation between London City and Aberdeen from October 27, 2014 using a 78-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 following British Airways’ recent announcement that it would be withdrawing from the route at the end of the summer season.
The two new routes stretch from the north of Scotland with a new daily Inverness – Dublin service, to the south of England with a daily Southampton – Hamburg link, both of which will launch from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter schedules.
As first revealed by The HUB at the end of last month, UK low-fare carrier Flybe is to inaugurate five new routes from London City Airport from the start of the winter schedules in late October 2014.
Increased demand for business and tourism flights saw passenger numbers grow by more than 5,100 at Scottish airport operator HIAL’s regional airports in February and that trend looks set to continue.
A report from Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) has revealed that UK low-fare carrier Flybe has secured slot allocations to operate on five domestic air routes from London City from September this year, although neither the airline nor airport has confirmed the plan.
