Newcastle International Airport has launched a new inbound tourism website for the North East of England, which aims to increase the number of visitors to the region.
In our regular Routes News series we take a look at the people that attend Routes events and find out more about them, their jobs and the current industry issues impacting them.
Newcastle Airport officials are celebrating their growing relationship with Irish low-fare carrier Ryanair with the addition of a new link to the Spanish capital, Madrid in summer 2017. The airline had already revealed an expanded 2017 programme earlier this summer when it added flights to Faro, Girona and Palma to its Newcastle network.
The airport is developing a much closer relationship with the budget carrier and this has brought what was just a single route operation to and from Dublin just over a year or so ago, to an eight destination network, including flights revealed this week to Gdansk, Warsaw Modlin and Wroclaw.
Emirates Airline's service from Newcastle to Dubai has for a long-time been hailed as a game-changer for North East England, not just affording better access into markets across the Middle East and into Asia and the Pacific via Dubai International Airport, but also due to the more than 14,000 tonnes of cargo its Airbus A330-200s and Boeing 777-300ERs have carried since it launched the route in 2007.
Complementing its existing operations from London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports, Thomas Cook Airlines will introduce weekly flights from Luton Airport to Ibiza, Mahon and Palma in Spain and Corfu in Greece during the summer 2017 schedule. These flights will be operated using Airbus A321 equipment which will fly in and out of the airport on a ‘W’ pattern between Fridays and Mondays.
Emirates Airline will add a fourth daily rotation between its Dubai International Airport hub and London’s Gatwick Airport from October 1, 2016. The additional flight will be operated by a three-class Boeing 777-300ER configured with 360-seats: eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class and 310 seats in Economy.
Irish budget carrier, Ryanair is to significantly grow its activities from Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle airports in the UK next year, introducing a total of ten new routes from the three facilities as part of an expanded offering from the summer schedule.
The new route has been very significant in terms of enhancing regional connectivity, growing the economy, attracting inward investment and encouraging inbound tourism to the North East of England. But it is more than just about connecting Newcastle to Newark and the wider New York area.
The airports, including Newcastle, Birmingham and Bristol have commissioned new research into the costs of devolving APD, which states that without policies to mitigate the effects of APD cuts in Scotland and Wales, English regional airports could see their passenger numbers fall by around 2.2 million by 2025.
The airline, which supports seat-only and package holiday demand between the UK and destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and into North Africa, is believed to have secured significant discounts to take late production aircraft ahead of Boeing’s transition from ‘Next-Generation’ to ‘MAX’ series production.
TUI UK’s summer 2016 growth continues the UK’s largest holiday company’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport and stay at the best hotels in some of the most exciting destinations.
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 Smith Commission examined the report put forward by bosses at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports arguing abolition of the charge, and has recommended it will now gain control over the APD tax in Scotland.
UK low-fare regional carrier Flybe is to reopen its base at Aberdeen, begin base operations from Bournemouth and launch a new limited programme of domestic flights from London Stansted in summer 2015 as it continues to work to enhance connectivity within and from the UK.
Here is the first of our regular series of industry trivia questions where we ask readers to vote on a particular subject during the month before revealing the actual results at the end of the month.
The confirmation of the new route follows years of discussions between the management of Newcastle International Airport and various US partners to establish a scheduled westbound long-haul link to the US to support its highly successful Emirates Airline flight to Dubai.
Newcastle International Airport is the most northerly major commercial airport in England and was therefore watching last week's Scotland Independence referendum more anxiously than any other airport.
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.
UK leisure carrier Thomas Cook Airlines is to launch new long-haul links to the United States from London Stansted, Manchester and Glasgow as part of its expanded summer 2015 programme. The long-haul growth will be supported by a major investment in upgrading its Airbus A330 fleet to offer a much higher level of comfort to Transatlantic passengers.
The move to introduce these routes is part of the UK’s largest tour operator’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport. There are also frequency increases enabling customers more choice and the ability to book a mix of seven, ten, eleven or 14 night holidays rather than the existing week and fortnight options.
