British Airways launches new routes from Manchester Airport and London Stansted including Ibiza, Mykonos and Florence
British Airways has announced the launch of seven new routes from Manchester Airport and three new destinations from Stansted.
From May, the airline will start summer-only direct flights from Manchester to Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma, Mykonos, Nice and a weekly service to London City Airport.
New flights from Stansted – part of the Manchester Airport Group – will launch to Florence, Geneva and Nice, as well bumping up frequency on existing routes to Ibiza and Palma. Flights to Malaga and Faro will also resume for the summer.
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All the new return BA flights from Manchester will operate once a week at weekends, apart from the Ibiza route which will operate three times a week, providing more than 35,000 extra seats from the North West.
Alex Cruz, BA chief executive and chairman, said: “We are very excited to be launching all these new routes from Manchester and Stansted, providing customers with flights to the sun direct from their doorstep with British Airways. These are the destinations that our customers tell us they want to fly to so we look forward to a busy summer.
“In addition the Thursday night flight from London City, in the heart of the capital’s commercial district, will provide commuters with a valuable air link back to Manchester, with the return flight to London City on a Sunday.”
Basic each way fares from Manchester to Alicante, Ibiza, Nice and Palma are on sale from £49, to Malaga from £59 and to Mykonos from £69.
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Stephen Turner, commercial director at Manchester Airport, said the new services "offer something for both the leisure and business passenger, and I am sure the London City route will prove particularly popular with corporate travellers looking for additional connectivity with our capital".
“I look forward to the routes starting in due course, all of which continue to showcase Manchester as the UK’s global gateway for the North," Turner said.
Earlier this month, Irish carrier Ryanair said it was adding nine new London Stansted routes and would continue to plan for "prudent" growth in the UK, with Brexit looming.
Chief commercial officer David O'Brien said the enhanced growth deal with Stansted owner Manchester Airports Group (MAG) in a "pretty bleak climate", will up passenger numbers to 20m per year and support around 15,000 jobs.
He added that it would allow people to move "from the hot air to the hot weather as we escape the misery of all this Brexit talk and doom and gloom".