easyJet, Europe’s largest low cost airline, has today (December 17^th) announced a new daily service between Inverness and London Gatwick, commencing on February 3^rd. The new route, which goes on sale from today, will be in addition to the existing daily service connecting the Highland capital with London Luton:

London Gatwick to Inverness – dep 11am – arr 11240

Inverness to London Gatwick – dep 1300 – arr 1445

London Gatwick to Inverness – dep 1145 – arr 1325

Inverness to London Gatwick – dep 1350 – arr 1530

London Gatwick to Inverness – dep 1100 – arr 1240

Inverness to London Gatwick – dep 1315 – arr 1500

London Gatwick to Inverness – dep 1200 – arr 1345

Inverness to London Gatwick – dep 1405 – arr 1545

"People living in the Highlands have suffered from high fares and limited choice for too long", explained easyJet Sales Manager, Yvonne Work. "Now they will have a choice of destinations in the London area with fares starting at only £12.50 one way - a fraction of what people pay to fly from Inverness to Gatwick on British Airways"

The importance of the Inverness Gatwick link to local businesses has been highlighted by research showing that hundreds of jobs in the Inverness area depend on the route.

But Yvonne Work argues that British Airways have been taking advantage of the lack of competition on the route to charge high fares: "What good is a route that is too expensive for many leisure and business travellers? It’s low fares that will bring in tourists. And it’s low fares that will help Highland companies develop business in the London area".

By offering two daily low cost services from the London area, easyJet says that tourism in the Highlands will receive a welcome boost. "Short breaks in the Highlands will become practical and affordable for many more people in London and the south east", added Yvonne Work.

HIAL PRESS RELEASE

HIAL welcomed the launch by Europe’s leading no frills airline, easyJet of a new route from Inverness to London Gatwick.

The route, which will start operating in spring 2003, follows the successful operation of easyJet’s Inverness to Luton service that was launched in 1996.

Commenting on the news, Bob MacLeod, Managing Director of HIAL said: "Today’s announcement by easyJet will undoubtedly receive a very warm welcome across the Highlands and in the South of England as it offers even more low cost seats to and from the region. There is no doubt that no frills airlines bring economic advantages to the areas they operate in and we have already experienced this through easyJet’s very successful Inverness-Luton route. In terms of both business and tourism travel the Gatwick route will bring significant economic benefits to the region.

"In conjunction with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, we have recently completed an economic impact study based on easyJet’s Luton service which we shall publish in January. We are confident that today’s announcement means millions of pounds coming into the North of Scotland, resulting in more jobs for the region."

Alex Johnson, HIAL’s Commercial and Marketing Manager said: "The new easyJet route reflects a strong and successful working relationship between us as an airport operator and a major no frills airline and is yet further evidence of our commitment to market ourselves and facilitate the start-up of new routes to improve accessibility and promote a vibrant economy in the Highlands and Islands.

"Our vision is to grow the business, increase routes and continue the upward trend in passenger numbers and recent months have also seen the successful launch of new services by Eastern Airways and bmi and the expansion of Transun’s holiday charter flights from Inverness and Stornoway. A close working relationship has also continued with our three largest customers: Loganair, BA CitiExpress and easyJet.

"We have been subjected to criticism in the past with regard to another no frills airline, most of it ill informed and inaccurate, but I hope that our critics will be equally vocal in acknowledging the significant success for the region that easyJet’s announcement represents," said Mr Johnson.

Mr MacLeod added: "This year has seen a range of exciting developments for the company including new routes, new airlines using our facilities, stronger partnership working between us and local enterprise companies and councils, and the delivery of key targets in our 10-year corporate strategy. The Scottish Executive has also made additional monies available to us in 2003 through the Route Development Fund specifically to develop new routes.

"I am confident that the committed staff throughout the company will carry this momentum forward into 2003 with the continuing support of our partners in the public and private sector. Today is an excellent way to round off the year and we are already working on projects to deliver further good news for the travelling public in the Highlands and Islands in 2003."

ENDS