Very good news for Easyjet’s Edinburgh customers:
https://www.easyjet.com/EN/News/massive_expansion_edinburgh.html
Three NEW direct European routes – MADRID – MILAN – PALMA
easyJet, Europe’s leading low-fares airline, today announced it would be investing further in its Edinburgh operation and bringing more low fares to Scotland by introducing three new direct European routes from Edinburgh Airport and increasing frequency to Amsterdam next spring.
The daily services to Milan and Madrid and twice weekly Palma flight will bring the number of destinations served by easyJet from its Edinburgh base to 12 and represents a capacity increase of 10%. The airline expects to carry close to 200,000 passengers on these routes in the first 12 months of operation.
This announcement comes just weeks after the low-cost airline unveiled plans to operate a daily service to Munich, which will commence on 4 April. The introduction of these new routes is a result of the airline’s commitment to the Scottish market and the additional investment in a fourth aircraft at the Edinburgh base.
At a press conference at Edinburgh Airport today, David Osborne, easyJet’s UK General Manager, commented:
“2006 has been has been a great year for easyJet in Scotland, we saw significant growth at our base in Glasgow and we are now welcoming 2007 with huge expansion at our Edinburgh base.
We expect the new routes to Madrid, Milan, Munich and Palma to attract not only outbound leisure passengers and boost incoming tourism to the region, but will also help Scotland develop its business links with these key European business centres.
easyJet is committed to Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole and we look forward to launching these routes in the spring.”
The daily Edinburgh – Madrid service that commences on 25 February and the daily Milan service that commences on 21 May are a result of investment from the Scottish Executive, in the form of the route development fund. This is a scheme introduced to support new direct air links, which will bring economic benefits to Scotland. easyJet will also benefit from funding, in the form of marketing support, from VisitScotland, to help promote Scotland as a destination in Spain and Italy.
Madrid, Milan and Munich are attractive city break destinations, and are also expected to be popular with business passengers providing a vital link between Scotland and the two cities. Whilst the Palma flight will offer families the chance to take advantage of easyJet’s famously low fares for a little summer sun.
Edinburgh Airport Managing Director, Richard Jeffrey, said:
“We are delighted to welcome easyJet’s announcement of three new services to Madrid, Milan and Palma which, on top of its recent announcement of a new route to Munich, further underlines the airline’s commitment to its operation at Edinburgh.
“We are confident that these new services will prove extremely popular amongst our passengers, whether they are travelling on business or leisure. It’s also great news for further encouraging inbound tourism to Scotland.
“The route to Madrid will be our first scheduled service to the city, which is known for its culture and vibrancy, and we believe will be important in further strengthening trade links with the Spanish capital.
“We look forward to working with e asyJet to ensure all these new services mirror the success of its existing routes at Edinburgh”
Not only will these routes provide Scots with new opportunities to travel, they will also bring Italian, Spanish and German tourists to the city.
Earlier this year easyJet also significantly expanded its operation from its Glasgow base launching four new direct European routes and basing an additional aircraft at the airport. In July 2006 the low-cost airline also converted its fleet at both its Glasgow and Edinburgh bases into solely Airbus operations with brand new 319 aircraft, demonstrating further commitment to its Scottish bases.
By: zoot horn rollo - 20th December 2006 at 14:23
Certain of us will no doubt remember that EDI used to have a weekly direct scheduled service to Spain back in the early 70s which was operated by IB Caravelles late on a Saturday night. It was scheduled to arrive just as the last Stirling-Edinburgh bus came past the old terminal so we always hoped that the bus would get stopped by the traffic lights. The service was dropped because of the fuel crisis in 1973/74 and didn’t restart.
By: PMN - 20th December 2006 at 10:28
Reply No.7
There’s a large number of inbound tourists that use charters in the summer, that combined with what I imagine to be a healthy outbound market with biz and leisure pax means in my eyes that MAD is one destination EDI very much needed.
For example, more than 4000 pax travelled between the 2 cities in July going by CAA stats and that’s only with infrequent charters and no non-stop scheduled service!
Reply No.16
I must have missed that one.
Yes, you must have completely missed the perfectly reasonable and entirely appropriate reasons for his thoughts. Quite spectacularly in fact. I’m almost impressed…
Paul
By: Bmused55 - 20th December 2006 at 07:19
Really?? First i’ve heard of this, which should cause a fair bit of upset down Holyrood, could be good for GLA and especially ABZ ,both being heavily strangled!! and in the lead up to the Scottish elections!! Bye bye Jack!:D
Any link to this Sandy?
Most likely on the BBC news website. I heard it on the news last week sometime.
As for the GLA comment… you really ought to know better than to post that kind of flame bait.
By: Tartan Pics - 19th December 2006 at 22:23
Indeed.
However, BAA are to be investigated for using their monopoly on Scottish Airports to route trade to where they want it to go.
Really?? First i’ve heard of this, which should cause a fair bit of upset down Holyrood, could be good for GLA and especially ABZ ,both being heavily strangled!! and in the lead up to the Scottish elections!! Bye bye Jack!:D
Any link to this Sandy?
By: Bmused55 - 19th December 2006 at 21:27
Good news for the Scottish Central Belt.
Sadly it’ll be a cold day in hell before EZY ever expand at what is in fact Scotland’s fastest-growing airport, £60m expansion plan or no £60m expansion plan. 🙁
Indeed.
However, BAA are to be investigated for using their monopoly on Scottish Airports to route trade to where they want it to go. Something a lot of people have been crying foul about for years now.
Lets hope this means all the airports under BAAs control get the freedom they need to attract the airlines and passenger.
By: by738 - 19th December 2006 at 20:37
Hardly, I’ve given my reasons for why I thought EDI had been crying out for a MAD route.:
I must have missed that one.
So what’s your problem? Disappointed EZY chose to launch these routes from EDI no doubt.:rolleyes:
Whatever…….I wont be losing any sleep over it but sounds as if you might. I suppose the others who have posted and are uninspired by the announcement will have your same comment directed at them also……?
(No further posts in this topic)
By: Richard Taylor - 19th December 2006 at 13:51
Good news for the Scottish Central Belt.
Sadly it’ll be a cold day in hell before EZY ever expand at what is in fact Scotland’s fastest-growing airport, £60m expansion plan or no £60m expansion plan. 🙁
By: andrewm - 19th December 2006 at 08:27
Disappointed EZY chose to launch these routes from EDI no doubt.:rolleyes:
Lets not start any airport vs other airport wars please
By: RIPConcorde - 18th December 2006 at 23:08
Unnecessarily defensive…?
Hardly, I’ve given my reasons for why I thought EDI had been crying out for a MAD route. So what’s your problem? Disappointed EZY chose to launch these routes from EDI no doubt.:rolleyes:
By: by738 - 18th December 2006 at 22:48
Problem?
Unnecessarily defensive…?
By: keltic - 18th December 2006 at 21:30
Clickair´s only concern now destroying Vueling as much as they can. The usual stuff. Iberia can´t compete, and has a troublesome staff of pilots who don´t want to match Vueling working conditions so as a move to threaten them, IB CEO opens Clickair to transfer flights from the main branch. There´s mounting anger in Iberia pilots headquarters and don´t rule out another strike soon. Too many emergencies in Clickair which uses old ageing Iberia A320……so I don´t really see them making a MAD-EDI for the moment. But one never knows in this “funny” country
As soon as they get Vueling out of the way, clickair will close down.
By: RIPConcorde - 18th December 2006 at 21:19
I think its a spotter thing….:rolleyes:
Problem?
By: by738 - 18th December 2006 at 21:09
How exactly does one base the “crying out” for a route?
I think its a spotter thing….:rolleyes:
By: SHAMROCK321 - 18th December 2006 at 20:20
Massive expansion??? Be realistic its far from massive expansion espeically where EZY are concerned but still good news for EDI.
By: RIPConcorde - 18th December 2006 at 20:06
How exactly does one base the “crying out” for a route?
There’s a large number of inbound tourists that use charters in the summer, that combined with what I imagine to be a healthy outbound market with biz and leisure pax means in my eyes that MAD is one destination EDI very much needed.
For example, more than 4000 pax travelled between the 2 cities in July going by CAA stats and that’s only with infrequent charters and no non-stop scheduled service!
By: RIPConcorde - 18th December 2006 at 19:59
Odd that the summer only IB flights EDI-MAD were not extended to year round and downgraded to a regional jet and then dropped. Cant see IB or Click entertaining it now.
They were only ever charters for inbound Spanish tourists, done by a variety of airlines over the years, including Iberia/Air Nostrum.
However Iberia did have slots for a daily scheduled service for the summer just past but they chose not to use them, for whatever reason. So good on EZY for stepping in when IB chose not to.
Clickair appear to have an interest in operating BCN-EDI at some point in the future, but not MAD I don’t think they operate from MAD nor will they ever?
By: andrewm - 18th December 2006 at 19:56
Wouldn’t call it a risk at all, EDI-MAD has been crying out for a non-stop service for a while now.
How exactly does one base the “crying out” for a route?
By: by738 - 18th December 2006 at 19:32
Excellent news! 😀
EDI-MAD has been crying out for a non-stop service for a while now.
Odd that the summer only IB flights EDI-MAD were not extended to year round and downgraded to a regional jet and then dropped. Cant see IB or Click entertaining it now.
By: RIPConcorde - 18th December 2006 at 19:09
Excellent news! 😀
The flight to Madrid is a risky move. All previous attempts were not really successfull for two main reasons. Not enough business people, not enough tourists out of peak season. In any case, good luck for the route.
Wouldn’t call it a risk at all, EDI-MAD has been crying out for a non-stop service for a while now.
Jet2 could be in trouble now on EDI-BGY now though, before it’s even started…
By: keltic - 18th December 2006 at 12:55
The flight to Madrid is a risky move. All previous attempts were not really successfull for two main reasons. Not enough business people, not enough tourists out of peak season. In any case, good luck for the route.
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December 18, 2006 at 12:11 pm