flybe. (2002) (Exeter) will significantly increase its presence in the London market by offering 10 routes and up to 214 weekly flights from London Southend next summer, as part of a new commercial arrangement with Stobart Air (Dublin International).
Six new routes - Belfast City (18x weekly; from June 1, 2020), Edinburgh (18x weekly; from June 15, 2020), Glasgow International (18x weekly; from May 1, 2020), Newcastle, GB (12x weekly; from March 29, 2020), Isle of Man (6x weekly; from March 30, 2020) and Jersey (weekly; from May 2, 2020) - will be added to the four existing routes to Caen, Groningen, Newquay and Rennes.
The enlarged London Southend network will be operated by three of flybe.’s 78-seat Dash 8-400s based in Belfast City, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, alongside two Stobart Air ATR72-600s based at Southend.
flybe. also announced a new 6x weekly E175 operated service from Manchester International to Stuttgart Manfred Rommel from March 29, 2020, as it moves towards its full re-brand as Virgin Connect (Exeter).
Connect Airways’ CEO, Mark Anderson, commented: “I am very excited with our new Summer 2020 schedule and its focus on our business customers and regional communities. The schedule includes many of our most popular high-frequency services with better timings to accommodate our frequent fliers as well as new flights from London Southend airport. By increasing our presence at London Southend our customers will also, for the first time next summer, benefit from flybe.’s ability to create a truly customer-centric regional network."
While flybe. is expanding its presence at London Southed, Loganair (LM, Glasgow International) has just announced that it will be withdrawing its flights from Glasgow to the London airport from January 3, 2020. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, the regional airline currently also flies direct to Aberdeen Dyce, Carlisle and Londonderry City of Derry from the London airport.
A spokesman for the airline said: "We made the decision due to the high number of low-fare options in the Glasgow to London market for which our size aircraft are unsuitable."
The Glasgow-London Southend route cancellation decision is a rare backward move for the dynamic Scottish airline. It has had a busy year in terms of route development, which included its take over of Edinburgh and Glasgow flights to Nottingham East Midlands following flybe. withdrawing its services at the UK Midlands airport.
As a result of the Glasgow-London Southend capacity cull, Loganair will increase the Glasgow – East Midlands route to three times a day from February 23, 2020.
