At Norwich Airport, a series of mutually beneficial relationships are building a resilient and environmentally responsible aerospace ecosystem in the region.
The UK Government’s Regional Air Connectivity Fund was launched last year as a way of encouraging new routes to and from UK regional airports and improving connectivity for business and leisure travellers.
This growth represents a notable change in the network strategy from the state-controlled airline and sees it using the additional capabilities of E-Jet to support market opportunities. Although these initial four return flights are a test, they could lead to a longer schedule next summer or even additional new markets.
The low-fare airline will introduce new year-round scheduled holiday flights from Norwich to Alicante and Malaga from March 2016, with the addition of Geneva expected later in 2016. The partnership will see one of Flybe’s stored Embraer E195 jets return to the skies, and planning is already underway to maximise its use by the airport.
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.
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.
UK start-up carrier Anglia Airways hopes to launch scheduled operation before the end of the year once a final evaluation of aircraft and funding is secured. The airline plans to offer a network of domestic and European services from East Anglia with a fleet of up to five turboprop aircraft and continues to talk to both Cambridge and Norwich airports as a base for its operations.
The new weekday flight, the only direct link between the two cities, will be launched on April 20, 2015 and will provide a late morning departure from the Welsh capital and afternoon return from Norwich. The flight time of just over one hour will shave around four hours off the current ground links by road or rail.
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 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.
Latest statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) shows that UK airports collectively reported a 3.4 per cent growth in total passengers in 2013 when compared to the previous year.
