Eastern Airways is due to commence a route between George Best Belfast City Airport and Southampton, commencing 23 March 2020.

The connection, previously flown by Flybe, will operate up to seven flights per week.

“Southampton has been a popular route from Belfast for a long time…This new service to be operated by Eastern Airways will importantly reconnect Northern Ireland with the south coast of England,” said Katy Best, Commercial Director at Belfast City Airport. Upon the announcement, she added “we look forward to further building upon this route network with the airline.”

Following Flybe entering administration, Eastern Airways returned to its own standalone booking system and also launched connections from Southampton to Manchester and Newcastle, expecting frequency and the number of destinations to increase. An additional route to Teesside International Airport has also been introduced to provide passengers with a connection to Aberdeen.

Roger Hage, Eastern Airways’ General Manager of Commercial and Operations commented, “Adding a Belfast City service from Southampton Airport, along with our new Manchester and Newcastle services…is a significant expansion with up to 70 departures a week in total. We are ensuring Southampton is reconnected to the regions throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

The Belfast route is expected to benefit leisure passengers that are connecting to cruises, providing inbound passengers with London rail connection within the hour and access to cruise ships via the port.

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