NEWCASTLE - 8

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[B][I][U]Newcastle International Airport declined to comment.[/U][/I][/B]

WHY HAS AIRPORT MANAGEMENT DECLINED TO COMMENT?????????



OLT Express launch flights from Newcastle Airport to Poland

by Michael Brown, The Journal
May 9 2012

NORTH East businesses will have a direct link to one of Eastern Europe’s financial capitals with the launch of new flights from Newcastle.

Expanding airline OLT Express have earmarked Tyneside for a twice-weekly service to the Polish city of Bydgoszcz – pronounced Bid-gosht – which could see 38,000 more passengers heading in and out of the region.

And that could mean a boost for the local economy, as firms over here benefit from being able to work more closely with their counterparts in a city that boasts 38 different banking companies, 37 insurance firms, heavyweight Wall Street hitters like JP Morgan as well as heavy chemical industry.

NECC Director of Policy, Ross Smith, said: “The ever-expanding roster of destinations offered by Newcastle International Airport is a credit to the airport itself and testament to the North East becoming an increasingly desirable place to visit and do business.

“Bydgoszcz is one of the major economic cities of Poland.

“These new flights not only open up another potential market for regional business, Bydgoszcz’s rich cultural offer will no doubt attract many tourists.

“Likewise the North East’s burgeoning reputation as a tourist destination will bring people to the region.”




Bydgoszcz and its near 360,000 inhabitants are found about 60 miles north east of Poznan, and will be a three-hour-five-minute flight from Newcastle when OLT’s 180-seat Airbus A320 takes off every Wednesday and Saturday from October 31.

Tickets for the route are already on sale priced from 149 Polish zloty – about Ł28.

It will mark Newcastle International’s second route to Poland, as Jet2.com already run a twice-weekly service to Krakow and is the eighth new route announced from the city since December last year.

A spokesman for the airline, Magdalena Gordon-Wesolowska, said she thought the new route would meet an existing need for a link between the cities on the Tyne and the River Vistula.

“Many people from Bydgoszcz already work in Newcastle, make business there or just visit Newcastle and its area,” she said.

“But we’re counting on tourist and business travel from Newcastle as well. And so we hope that Bydgoszcz-Newcastle route will be very popular.”

Newcastle International Airport declined to comment.