Flybe confirms new London City routes

Flybe has announced several new routes from London City as part of a new five-year deal with the airport. 

The carrier has announced five routes from the London airport this morning to Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Inverness and Exeter.

Services will commence on 27 October, offering four times daily connections to Edinburgh and Dublin; a thrice daily service to Belfast and Exeter and twice daily flights to Inverness.

Five aircraft will be based at three of its regional bases and are expected to fly up to 500,000 passengers a year, mainly city workers that need to reach other parts of the UK.

In addition Flybe will have off-peak flights to destinations in France and northern Spain for the ski and leisure markets which will be announced soon.

“Today’s announcement is a significant landmark in the re-birth of Flybe. We are delighted to re-enter the London market at London’s most convenient airport following a rigorous profitability analysis utilising our strict route assessment model,” said Saad Hammad, CEO at Flybe.

“Dedicating five growth aircraft initially to these new routes is a major statement of intent and we look forward to building a successful and growing presence there over the coming years,” he added.

Flybe already carries seven million passengers a year and recently launched eight new routes from Birmingham and four new services from London Southend.

London City is hoping to reach six million passengers a year by 2023 in its growth plans, which will see 120,000 flight movements a year.

Declan Collier, CEO of London City Airport said: “Today’s announcement is an extremely important step on that journey – Flybe will bring an immediate uplift of up to half a million new passengers to the airport. In addition, Flybe’s selection of routes serves to cement further LCY’s status as the business traveller’s airport of choice, underpinned by our ‘location, convenience and speed’ customer propositions.”