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In 2002, Easter Sunday occurred on March 31st. During that year, Manchester airport, which is one of the UK’s main airports, welcomed 18.8 million passengers. Last year, there was a significant increase of 10 million passengers. This number is expected to rise even further this summer as Manchester, along with many other UK airports, has launched new flights for the busy season. In addition, it has added a rare destination, Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, which is not currently served by any London airports, with the introduction of a Ryanair flight.
This weekend, the number of available departure destinations will increase. In the world of airlines, the start of summer coincides with the time change. Several airlines take advantage of this moment to introduce new flight routes.
The UK government has done its best to encourage flying by reducing air passenger duty for domestic departures; environmentalists are horrified. Anna Hughes, director of Flight Free UK, says: “While it’s exciting to look ahead to the summer holidays, it would be much better to make plans in a low-carbon way. Last summer’s wildfires across the Mediterranean were a potent illustration that our climate situation is fragile and getting worse, and a bumper summer of flying will only exacerbate that.
“There are countless holiday destinations all across Europe that can be reached by boat, coach or train, for a fraction of the emissions of a flight, so not flying doesn’t mean giving up our holidays.”
The airlines claim that they are taking measures to minimize the negative effects of air travel. Customers can help mitigate the harm by choosing to fly in economy class with airlines that utilize the most up-to-date planes.
These are the top links that caught my attention, curated by airline schedule analyst Sean Moulton.
Simon has chosen all items starting on March 31.
The city of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest, is poorly serviced from the UK. However, the introduction of Air Peace, a strong Nigerian airline, may help improve this and also provide connecting flights to other parts of Africa. Unfortunately, for the first flight, tickets are already priced at over £1,000 for a round trip.
Birmingham-Beauvais, Ryanair. Flights from the West Midlands to a small town in northern France may not set the travel pulse racing but this is a useful new link. It will offer a far cheaper alternative to Air France’s existing route to Paris CDG. The 90-minute bus transfer to the French capital may be annoying but it could save you £100. The route could also spur interest in relatively under-visited nearby locations such as Amiens, Compiegne and Rouen.
Southampton-Alicante, easyJet. What a difference 164 metres makes. That is the length of the runway extension at the Hampshire airport. Making the runway longer allows aircraft to carry more fuel, permitting a far wider range of opportunities to link Southampton with sunshine destinations. It will create competition with Gatwick and Heathrow (both 53 miles northeast) and Bournemouth (24 miles southwest).
The John Lennon airport in Liverpool-Corfu is projected to experience a 12% increase in passengers this year, thanks to the addition of a four-aircraft base by Jet2 and continued expansion by Ryanair. Multi-airline competition, similar to what is happening in Birmingham, is thriving, with easyJet and Wizz Air also establishing a presence. It is remarkable to think that only 30 years ago, the only available flight destination was the Isle of Man.
British Airways is now offering flights from London Gatwick to Agadir, going up against easyJet’s service from the same airport. This is great news for travelers. Additionally, Morocco is seeing an increase in flight options, with Ryanair also launching a route from Birmingham to Marrakech on the same day.
Possible rewording:
– Sean’s choice – multiple starting dates
– Selection of different start dates for Sean
– Options for Sean’s starting date
– Sean’s pick of several starting dates
– Sean has the ability to choose from several starting dates.
Ryanair is introducing service to Norwich for the very first time, with three destinations available: Alicante, Faro, and Malta.
Azerbaijan Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, and Uzbekistan Airways are increasing their presence in London by launching new flights to Gatwick at the beginning of the summer season.
On 23 April, Blue Islands will be connecting the two crown dependencies of Jersey and Isle of Man by adding Jersey to their route.
JetBlue is increasing its UK presence by adding Edinburgh to its existing airports of Heathrow and Gatwick. This expansion will provide transatlantic connections from three airports.
Rewording: Italy has improved connection with the UK, including routes from Reggio Calabria and Salerno to Manchester and London Gatwick, respectively.
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