Flybe launches new flights from Norwich to Exeter
Flybe has today confirmed the launch of new direct flights from Norwich Airport to Exeter Airport in Devon, saving hours on the equivalent journey by road or rail.
The new flights will operate six days a week from 24 March with one-way fares starting from just £17.49, available at www.flybe.com
The new route is being supported by the Government’s Regional Air Connectivity Fund. This supports routes that might not initially be commercially viable, giving airlines time to build passenger numbers and deliver more sustainable services.
Richard Pace, General Manager at Norwich Airport, said: “Today’s announcement is further good news for Norwich Airport and we think this route will be popular with business and leisure passengers because the equivalent journey by road or rail takes five to six hours. The fact that the Government is supporting the new service with its Regional Air Connectivity Fund is further recognition of Norwich Airport’s role as a key economic driver in our region.
“We are also looking forward to the start in March of new flights to Alicante and Malaga through our partnership with Flybe. These year-round services mark the first time in almost a decade that Norwich has offered scheduled sunshine flights to Spain.”
Norwich Airport announced last October that airport owners Regional & City Airports, the airport division of Rigby Group, had entered a partnership agreement with Flybe to introduce new sunshine flights using one of Flybe’s E195 118-seater jet aircraft. Flybe will also launch a new service from Norwich to Geneva later this year.
Regional & City Airports owns Exeter Airport, Norwich Airport and Coventry Airport.
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Notes to Editors
The timetable for the new flights to Exeter is as follows:
Monday – Friday
Sunday
Depart
Arrive
Depart
Arrive
Norwich to Exeter
15:20
16:40
12:20
13:40
Exeter to Norwich
12:05
13:15
10:45
11:55
About Norwich Airport
Norwich International Airport is part of Regional & City Airports, the airport management division of Rigby Group plc having been acquired in June 2014.
The Airport offers direct scheduled flights to Amsterdam (with connections to over 600 destinations worldwide), Aberdeen, Alicante, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey, Malaga and Manchester. Connections through Manchester enable passengers to reach Belfast, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Inverness and many more.
Holiday flights operate to the Balearic and Canary Islands, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
The scheduled airlines and charter operators currently active from the Airport are:
KLM, Eastern Airways, bmi regional, Flybe and Loganair Thomson, Thomas Cook, Balkan Holidays, Newmarket Holidays and Omega Holidays
The airport is a key hub for the southern North Sea offshore oil and gas industry. Four major offshore helicopter operators are based at the airport. These are Bristow, Bond CHC and NHV. Last year over 100,000 passengers travelled offshore from the Airport.
About Rigby Group plc
Formed in 1975, Rigby Group is the parent company for a portfolio of privately owned and highly successful businesses operating across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Rigby Group has diversified from its origins as a principally technology-led business and evolved – through smart, strategic acquisitions – into a £1.8 billion business with interests in the technology, airports, hotels, real estate, financial and aviation sectors. Rigby Group businesses include Europe’s largest independent technology provider SCC, British International Helicopters, the Eden Hotel Group, international property developers Rigby and Rigby and Regional & City Airports.
With two generations of the Rigby family at the helm, Rigby Group has built a distinguished reputation as both an investor and business operator; renowned for its independent thinking, seamless execution and a peerless approach to acquiring and nurturing businesses to unleash their potential.
About Regional & City Airports (RCA)
Regional & City Airports (RCA) is Rigby Group’s highly-innovative airport management company. RCA owns and operates Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport, holds management contracts for both Blackpool International Airport and City of Derry Airport and is actively building its portfolio of owned or managed airport assets across the next five years.
Regional airports are vitally important to the economic development of regions, not just in the UK but across the world. To survive and prosper, smaller regional airports need to cooperate and collaborate – enabling them to benefit from the economies of scale and sharing of best practice traditionally enjoyed by larger hub airports. This is the vision behind RCA.
RCA has built a reputation as an efficient, safe and commercially-savvy airport operator, driving improvements to route development, commercial revenues, operating costs and capital investment in order to deliver a consistently sound commercial return. As RCA grows it is increasingly able to leverage significant buying power and shared expertise. Already employing more than 650 people, RCA is on its way to becoming a leading player in the regional airport sector and is taking advantage of the lack of capacity at major hub airports in the UK to demonstrate how regional airports can ease the strain.
