Highlands and Islands Airports today welcomed Flybe’s announcement of new services at Inverness Airport.

The airline will introduce direct services to Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester and Southampton next spring as part of an expansion of its Scottish network.

Inglis Lyon, HIAL’s managing director, said: “We are pleased to have successfully concluded discussions with the airline which will see both new routes and capacity increases on existing services at Inverness in 2008.

“This is excellent news for the region, both for inbound tourism and in terms of connecting the Highlands to important UK regions for business.

“Flybe is delivering on its aspiration to develop its business in the Highlands and we expect the services to generate in excess of 100,000 new passengers in the next 18 months,” said Mr Lyon.

The new services are:

Inverness - Birmingham

Flights operate daily from 30^th March 2008.

Fares from £24.99 one way including taxes and charges.

Inverness - Exeter

Flights operate daily from 8^th May 2008.

Fares from £32.99 one way including taxes and charges.

Inverness - Manchester

Flights operate twice daily from 8^th May 2008.

Fares from £24.99 one way including taxes and charges.

Inverness - Southampton

Flights operate daily from 8^th May 2008.

Fares from £27.99 one way including taxes and charges.

Flights can be booked from 27 November 2007 at the airline’s www.flybe.com website.

Inverness is the largest airport in the Highlands and Islands and handled a record 700,000 passengers and more than 40,000 aircraft movements in operating year 2006/07. Its passenger numbers have doubled since 1999 as a result of route development.