HIAL today (Tuesday 24 May) welcomed Eastern Airways’ decision to add an additional weekday flight to its Aberdeen-Wick service and introduce a larger aircraft to its Birmingham and Manchester services from Inverness.

From Tuesday 7 June the regional airline will operate four return flights a day between Caithness and Aberdeen and introduce a larger Jetstream 41 aircraft on some of its cross-border Inverness flights.

Alex Johnson, Commercial and Marketing Manager with HIAL, said: “We are delighted that Eastern is both increasing frequency on its Wick-Aberdeen service and adding more capacity on its services from Inverness. Both moves will support growth in passenger traffic at the airports and open up more opportunities for inbound and outbound travelers.

“Eastern is now a well-established presence in the region’s air network and it is encouraging to see them continuing to invest in expanding their services at our airports.”

Eastern Airways’ Scotland Director Graeme Ross commented: “Since we based an aircraft at Wick and revised the timetable in February, there has been a marked increase in passenger numbers, both in terms of the Wick – Aberdeen route as well as in connecting traffic via our network out of Aberdeen.

“To improve connectivity even further, we are adding a fourth rotation each weekday, as well as extending the working day for passengers travelling in either direction. The improved service offers travellers access to 35 connections each way, 24 of which are with Eastern.”

In a further improvement to Eastern’s North of Scotland operation, from 7 June the larger and faster Jetstream 41 aircraft will be based at Inverness to allow additional passenger capacity on the 0705 and 1630 flights to Manchester and the 1140 flight to Birmingham.

Mr Ross added. “As well as being able to offer a significant increase in capacity on these routes these two developments further underline our commitment to the North of Scotland.”

FROM WICK TO ABERDEEN (from Tuesday 7 June)

FROM ABERDEEN TO WICK

ENDS