Eastern Airways will commence up to six flights a week from George Best Belfast City Airport to Welsh capital Cardiff from 11th January 2021, while also having recently increased frequency on routes to Southampton and Teesside International Airport.
The
service, the only direct air link to Wales on the entire island of Ireland, not
only increases the number of destinations served by Belfast City Airport to 16,
but also completes the route network left vacant by the collapse of Flybe.
Katy
Best, Commercial Director at Belfast City Airport, said:
“Today’s
announcement that Belfast City Airport will once again operate flights to
Cardiff is not only a positive development for the Airport itself, but also
extremely welcome news for passengers who regularly travel to Wales.”
The
popular route to Cardiff was previously operated by Flybe before the airline
entered into administration in March 2020, and there has been huge demand since
for it to be reinstated.
Katy
continued:
“Despite
the challenging aviation environment of recent months, we continued exploring
options to secure connectivity with the Welsh capital, and we’re very happy
that our partner Eastern Airways has committed to this service.”
The
Belfast City to Cardiff service, operated initially by Jetstream 41 aircraft
seating 29 passengers, will operate on all weekdays and Sundays, with fares
starting from just £79.99 each way.
Eastern
Airways has also increased frequency on its services from Belfast City Airport
to Teesside International Airport, now flying up to twice daily, and to Southampton
Airport, which will now have extra capacity on Sundays following strong demand
throughout September for a double-daily service.
Roger
Hage, GM Commercial & Operations for Eastern Airways added:
“Ensuring
the right services and frequencies are offered as passenger confidence returns
is essential.
“As
the UK’s regional airline serving all four home nations, the introduction of a
Cardiff service combined with the increase in frequency on both our Belfast
City to Southampton and Teesside International routes means connectivity
between Northern Ireland and both England and Wales is already in place as the
appetite for travel increases. We are all about regional connections of people
and places and are carefully adding long-term sustainable offers to our network
that, in this adding a further Belfast-City service to one of our established
bases in Cardiff.”
Belfast
City Airport continues to follow all relevant directives for airports in
relation to Covid-19. Measures have been taken to enable passengers to socially
distance in the terminal and hand sanitising units are available throughout the
passenger journey.
– eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News
