It is all kicking off the southern England airport of Bournemouth as the airport kick starts its full Summer season schedule this month.
To start with, low cost giant Ryanair has based a second aircraft at Bournemouth and this week has launched 3 new routes.
These routes are Carcassonne, Edinburgh (launched in March) and Venice (launched in December 2022) and with the addition of its second aircraft has allowed the carrier to grow to 120 weekly flights alone.
The addition of these routes grows the total list to 19 for Ryanair alone, which represents a 30% increase for the carrier at the airport compared to 2022.
In addition, UK package holiday company TUI has also introduced its full summer season schedule this week, with the launch of 6 additional routes to the map.
These routes are Corfu, Zante, Kefalonia, Menorca, Rhodes and Crete, allowing passengers a wide range of choice across the ever popular Greek islands.
Furthermore, TUI also plans further growth at Bournemouth, with the addition for a further 3 routes later this month.
On top of that, TUI has also laid its sights on 2024 too, with plans for a second based aircraft and 60,000 extra seats, all in all boosting its capacity by 33% for summer 2024 compared to this year.
35 Destinations available from the airport
For the rest of 2023, 35 destinations spanning across summer and winter seasonal and year round flights are available to book across multiple airlines and these are:
- Paphos
- Zadar
- Bergerac
- Carcassonne
- Corfu
- Crete
- Kefalonia
- Rhodes
- Zante
- Budapest
- Dublin
- Venice
- Enotekio
- Ivalo
- Pajala
- Malta
- Krakow
- Wroclaw
- Faro
- Edinburgh
- Alicante
- Girona
- Gran Canaria
- Ibiza
- Lanzarote
- Majorca
- Malaga
- Menorca
- Murcia
- Tenerife
- Geneva
- Enfidha
- Antalya
- Dalaman
- Barbados
What is interesting to note about the list here is down the bottom is Barbados. This is listed by Bournemouth Airport has a special departure for a cruise.
In other words it will mean a one off flight will be operated by a TUI 787 Dreamliner down to Barbados in order to transport passenger booked on one of TUI’s cruises around the Caribbean starting in the aforementioned destination.
Bournemouth Airport’s managing director Steve Gill praised the rapid expansion the airport is seeing this month saying: “Our busy summer schedule is officially underway.”
“This week really marks the start of the holiday season for us, and we are delighted to welcome Ryanair’s second aircraft to the airport and to see TUI’s full schedule getting underway.”
“With new routes and more flights to popular destinations across Europe, we’re confident that our passengers will enjoy a fantastic travel experience and an excellent choice this summer from Bournemouth Airport. We’re very much looking forward to a busy 2023.”
Summary
Overall, Bournemouth is growing to new heights as it enters an increasingly busy summer season.
The launch of new routes and the extensive choice offered to passengers will mean the those in the South of England will able to avoid the long and tedious experience generally associated with larger airports such as London Gatwick.
Plus with plans from TUI for 2024 already in the works, it seems the only the way is up for Bournemouth.
