Watch out Eastern: FlyBe start NWI-ABZ next month, and have now hinted at NWI-MAN as well:
from the
Eastern Daily Press
New cheap flights planned
09 September 2005 06:30
Cut-price flights to a host of new European destinations could take off from Norwich International airport next year.
Budget airline Flybe revealed yesterday that it was considering adding a Norfolk-Manchester link to its 2006 timetable, along with new routes to France, Spain, the Channel Islands and Portugal.
Flybe already plans to start jetting holidaymakers to Spanish sunspots Malaga and Alicante later this month, and to Alpine ski resorts Chambery and Geneva in December. Next spring it will start daily flights to Dublin and Aberdeen.
Along with current trips to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Jersey, the new destinations are expected to take Flybe's Norwich passenger numbers beyond 500,000.
Return trip prices currently range from around £44 for Belfast to £114 for Geneva.
Flights to Paris and Amsterdam are expected to be announced later this year and routes to Palma in Majorca, Faro in Portugal and Murcia in Spain are among other possibilities.
Sales and marketing director Mike Rutter told the EDP yesterday that Flybe was also looking at Bordeaux, Limoges and Bergerac in France, Guernsey and Manchester.
“These are routes that are actively under consideration for launch in the spring of 2006,” he said.
“We are hoping to make an announcement in the middle of November.”
Mr Rutter said that flights to Malaga, Alicante, Chambery and Geneva were all being introduced well ahead of schedule because of the success of Flybe's operations so far in Norwich.
He said: “Norwich is a key base for us and we're pleased to continuing extending our offering with an exciting new range of destinations for the winter.
“It's been a bigger success than we had hoped for.”
He said that passenger figures at Norwich were “very encouraging” with almost three-quarters of all seats sold on Flybe flights during August.
In June Flybe announced a £522m plan to buy 14 Embraer 195 jets to help it open up the skies of Norfolk to more destinations. The carrier wants to see about 20 routes by the middle of next year.
Mr Rutter's aim is to take Norwich from zero to one million passengers in two years, creating an estimated 1000 new jobs in the region.
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