Business

Eastern Airways moves in to reconnect Southampton from Belfast City

Ocean Village marina in Southampton, to where Eastern Airways is opening a link from George Best Belfast City Airport
Ocean Village marina in Southampton, to where Eastern Airways is opening a link from George Best Belfast City Airport Ocean Village marina in Southampton, to where Eastern Airways is opening a link from George Best Belfast City Airport

REGIONAL carrier Eastern Airways is to commence a route from Belfast City to Southampton from later this month, picking up on one of the services which impacted by the Flybe collapse.

It will operate up to seven flights a week from Monday March 23, reconnecting Belfast to the south coast of England.

It follows Eastern (www.easternairways.com) confirming earlier this week that is will begin a Belfast City-Teesside service from next Monday.

And it comes as management at Belfast City continue to aggressive search for alternative operators on other key routes, including Manchester, Birmingham and Glas

Katy Best, the airport's commercial director, said: “Southampton has been a popular route from Belfast for a long time, particularly with leisure passengers connecting to cruises.

“Eastern Airways commenced its six-times weekly service from Belfast City to Teesside International on Monday, and we look forward to further building upon this route network with the airline.”

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 have started from Southampton, 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.”

Following Flybe entering administration, the full existing Eastern Airways network has continued to operate as normal.

The independent operator, which was a former franchise partner of Flybe, moved quickly returning to its own standalone booking system over the weekend.

The Humberside Airport-based carrier offers a network of 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.