Flybe unveils major expansion at Birmingham

Flybe, Europe’s largest independent regional airline, has today unveiled a major expansion of its operations at Birmingham Airport with the announcement of seven new routes that includes a six times a week service to Florence, in a first for the airport; daily flights to Cologne; a six times a week service to Toulouse; a five times a week service to Alicante and four times a week to Bordeaux, Palma Mallorca and Porto.

To support these ‘Magnificent Seven’ routes, Flybe is also adding three of its 2×2 seat Embraer 175 jets to the airport thereby creating its biggest ever regional base with 12 aircraft, thereby creating more than 50 new Flybe jobs.

The airline’s daily service to Florence, capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and those to Toulouse and Porto in particular open up some important commercial regions for business travel but also are an attractive draw for leisure as well.

Seats are on sale now at www.flybe.com plus details of full schedule, with one way fares from £34.99 including taxes and charges. Travel is effective from 10th April, 2014 to Alicante, Cologne, Florence and Porto; and from 13th May for the remaining three routes (Bordeaux, Palma and Toulouse), the majority of flights utilising Flybe’s new 88-seat E175 jet aircraft.

Paul Simmons, Flybe’s Chief Commercial Officer says: “Today’s news reinforces the increasing emphasis that Flybe is putting on its operations at Birmingham Airport. We’re obviously delighted to offer these additional seven new routes. Our decision to support the region by basing an extra three aircraft here is not only a vote of confidence in the local economy but also in the strong relationship we have built with the airport team.”

The news follows hot on the heels of last week’s announcement that Flybe will be boosting the frequency on three of its most popular European routes from the end of March namely those to Hanover, Milan-Malpensa and Stuttgart.

As a result of the seven new destinations announced today, Flybe will now operate 32 routes to and from Birmingham for Summer 2014 with a choice of up to 375 return flights a week totalling an impressive 1.7 million seats.

William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director, added: “By creating new jobs and offering more choice from Birmingham Airport demonstrates Flybe’s commitment to the Midlands region. Not only will this growth make Birmingham Airport Flybe’s biggest ever base, it will also become our largest carrier, flying up to 400,000 extra passengers a year and serving nearly two million travellers in total. We thank Flybe for its commitment to Birmingham and look forward to welcoming passengers on these new services this summer.”

Continues Mr Simmons: “Flybe is strongly committed to supporting the UK’s regional economies and the London-centric media coverage of the aviation debate all too often neglects the rest of the country. By substantially increasing services from the UK’s second largest city, Flybe is demonstrating it realises the importance of maintaining and developing easy and affordable choices with convenient multi frequency regional schedules. We believe that our future here in Birmingham is bright and we remain committed to continue to play an important role in the development of airline passenger services to and from Birmingham and the Midlands.”