A new service flying to Paris will be made available for customers at the East Midlands Airport. Eastern Airways, dubbed the UK’s regional airline, announced the launch of three UK to Paris services in co-operation with Air France.
The announcement was made on Thursday, March 23, and will see daily services between East Midlands, Cardiff and Southampton airports to Paris Orly commencing in April. The East Midlands and Southampton daily services commence on Friday, April 14.
The service in Cardiff will start from April 21, offering a year-round travel to the capital city plus onward Air France connections. This also sees Eastern Airways return to East Midlands as a base carrier, adding around 25 crew and engineering roles.
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The daily services to Paris Orly will be operated by Eastern Airways and are bookable now on their website. This will also be available via Air France, including onward connectivity, Air France being part of the Air France-KLM Group.
Roger Hage, Commercial Director at Eastern Airways, said: "We are delighted to be entering into this cooperation with Air France and opening up connectivity to Europe’s second biggest city for both business and leisure travelers and restoring direct access year-round to France.
“These first three new UK-France services from East-Midlands, Southampton and Cardiff will initiate the new Eastern Airways and Air France cooperation, developing into a codeshare partnership in the course of this year. Each ensures a sustainable capacity development whereby not only direct access to Paris is offered, but onward connections to a myriad of destinations allowing business users much improved options but also an exciting and ever popular leisure offer, including Disneyland Paris celebrating its 30 th anniversary this year to add to the Parisian charm the City is famous for”
Fahmi Mahjoub, General Manager United Kingdom & Ireland, Air France/KLM, added: “This new cooperation between Air France and Eastern Airways is a very positive move and comes in response to the growing appetite for travel to Paris that we have noticed from all over the United Kingdom. Residents near Cardiff, Southampton and East Midlands will now be able to fly from their local airport and reach the magnificent capital of France with a direct service, an option that was not available to them before. We look forward to the success of this operation and to enhancing further the cooperation with Eastern Airways in the near future.”
Steve Griffiths, Managing Director at East-Midlands Airport, added: “Today’s news is a very significant development for East Midlands Airport (EMA) and the region we serve. This partnership with Eastern Airways and Air France opens-up the world to our passengers bringing global destinations such as Africa, the Caribbean and South America within one-stop of EMA."
The new Paris Orly service will be operating on a low-emission 72-seat ATR aircraft, the first to be based at East-Midlands Airport for Eastern Airways. This will complement the Newquay-Cornwall service which launches on Friday, March 31, and will aim to act as a catalyst to further new services from the East Midlands hub.
Air France will sell seats via an interline agreement developing into full codeshare with Eastern Airways by the end of the year.
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