Flybe doubles Scottish capacity

Anglo-Scottish route expansion is planned by Flybe as the airline seeks to carry more than one million passengers to and from Scotland this year. Flybe aims to become the third largest low cost carrier serving Scotland by more than doubling capacity from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The airline yesterday outlined plans to add five new routes to three already operated from Scotland. Flybe is to offer 1.4 million seats a year – 30,000 a week – from the two Scottish airports against 600,000 last year. The first new route to be added is Edinburgh-Belfast on 1 March with introductory returns fares of £9.99 available for one week only from Monday. Lead-in rates will then rise to £15. From 28 March the airline introduces three routes – Edinburgh and Glasgow to Exeter and Glasgow-Belfast. A Glasgow-Southampton connection is planned for September to complement an existing Edinburgh service to the south coast city. The airline’s managing director Jim French hinted that further expansion for Scotland was under consideration. “With Scotland now firmly integrated into Flybe’s growing network we’re going to be looking at adding more routes and more capacity over time. Increased competition in the Scottish marketplace can only be good news for Scottish travellers,” he said. Report by Phil Davies