News: New flights from Newcastle to western Ireland set for next summer
Flights > News > # 1121 (13/12/2006)
Irish regional specialist Aer Arann is launching flights from Newcastle to Galway next summer.
The new service will operate four days per week from June 25. Flights will leave Newcastle at 8.25pm on Monday, Thursday and Friday and 9.10pm on Sunday with a flight time of one hour and twenty five minutes. The return will leave Galway at 6.30pm on Monday, Thursday and Friday and 7.15pm on Sunday. The service will be operated by a 66 seater ATR72 aircraft with fares starting from £35 one way, including taxes.
Aer Arann’s marketing boss, Colin Lewis, said: “Galway is the gateway to the west of Ireland offering top heritage attractions, scenic countryside and great cuisine. We believe it will prove to be a popular destination with visitors from Newcastle and look forward to developing the service in 2007.”
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Comment:
These new flights from Newcastle to Galway will consolidate Aer Arran’s position at their fast expanding hub in western Ireland, from where they already operate flights to Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, London Luton and Manchester in the UK; as well as to Dublin. Galway might be well below the radar of predatory rival Ryanair, who have a favourable position at nearby Shannon airport, but Aer Arran have shown that there is still plenty of demand to fly direct to Galway, if the right service is available at the right price.
Clearly they are not alone in this view - even if their larger rivals would experience technical difficulties getting into Galway’s small airfield, Flybe has seen the opportunity to start up flights to Galway from Birmingham and Southampton, as well as from Belfast in Northern Ireland. With Flybe’s recent expansion also having included new routes from Newcastle, we would not be surprised if they had given Galway some consideration. This now leaves Glasgow as the one notable gap in the network of flights from Galway.
Aer Arran currently only operate flights from Glasgow Prestwick to Donegal, whereas Flybe are much more established at Glasgow International. With passengers currently having to choose between using Aer Arran's flights from Edinburgh to Galway, or travelling with Ryanair from Prestwick to Shannon, then a route from Glasgow International to Galway would seem to make good sense.
