Flights from Belfast City to Southampton have been saved in a second boost for the airport from Eastern Airways.
The airline announced that it was creating a Belfast City to Teesside International Airport route at the weekend.
It announced last night that it would also be taking on the former Flybe Belfast to Southern England route from March 23, following its predecessor’s collapse.
Katy Best, Commercial Director at Belfast City Airport said: “Southampton has been a popular route from Belfast for a long time, particularly with leisure passengers connecting to cruises.
“This new service to be operated by Eastern Airways will importantly reconnect Northern Ireland with the south coast of England.
“Eastern Airways commenced its six-times weekly service from Belfast City to Teesside International Airport on Monday of this week and we look forward to further building upon this route network with the airline.”
Eastern Airways will also connect Southampton to Manchester and Newcastle.
Roger Hage, Eastern Airways’ General Manager Commercial & Operations, said: “Adding a Belfast City service from Southampton Airport, along with our new Manchester and Newcastle services which we started from Southampton today, following Monday’s launch to Teesside, is a significant expansion with up to 70 departures a week in total.
“We are ensuring Southampton is reconnected to the regions throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“Initially the Belfast City route will be daily and reconnects the south coast of England to Belfast for business and leisure, while inbound passengers have the London rail connection within the hour and access to the major cruise offering via the port. By providing six destinations from Southampton, frequency and additional destinations will continue to increase.”
Flights between the two cities will be available to book at www.easternairways.com from March 12, 2020.
The Humberside-based carrier provides complimentary on-board refreshments as part of the service and a minimum 15kg of free hold baggage.
The independent airline, which was a former franchise partner of Flybe, returned to its own standalone booking system over the weekend.
And said its network has continued to operate as normal since the collapse of Flybe.
It has routes from airports including Aberdeen, Alicante, Anglesey, Belfast City, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Humberside, Isle of Man, Leeds Bradford, London City, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton, Teesside International and Wick John O’Groats.
