Easyjet's Edinburgh Airport expansion promises jobs boost
Easyjet Two more Easyjet aeroplanes will be based at Edinburgh Airport
One hundred jobs could be brought to Edinburgh after Easyjet announced plans to base two more aircraft at the capital's airport.
The airline already has five planes based in Edinburgh, flying to 24 destinations, and carrying 2.5 million passengers in the past 12 months.
It has not yet decided where the additional aircraft will fly to.
The choice of destinations will be announced in October after discussions with other agencies.
Hugh Aitken, Easyjet's commercial manager for Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland: "We are doing something quite unique, we're starting to talk to a lot of our partners, Scottish Enterprise and VisitScotland and others about where they see the opportunities, where they see the markets that are underserved or have potential to grow in and out of Scotland and how they can support us with that."
He hinted that the destinations would be European. "Absolutely, that's our foot print", he said.
Mr Aitken agreed that Edinburgh had great "inbound potential".
He added: "On some of our routes well over 50% of the people are coming in to Scotland - so that's about tourists coming in to Scotland and visiting the country. You can imagine there will be other places with that potential." .
However he explained that the airline would also be looking at outbound destinations "that need new capacity brand new or other areas with potential to grow".
"It's about connecting Scottish businesses and leisure travellers with where they want to go to and flying directly rather than having to go through the hub airports," he said.
Heathrow
At the moment, Easyjet does not fly to or from Heathrow and Mr Aitken claimed there was "a real preoccupation with Heathrow".
Mr Aitken said: "Everybody talks about any loss of capacity at Heathrow being bad for Scotland.
"In our view we fly to London Luton, Stansted, Gatwick which very often if you're doing business in London it's quicker to fly to those airports than it is to fly to Heathrow plus given that Heathrow is over 90% full, when things go wrong they go wrong very badly."
The airline said although it was investing in Edinburgh it was not ignoring Glasgow and had increased capacity there and introduced new routes over the past year. /bbc.co.uk
EasyJet to create 120 jobs as it steps up its presence at Manchester Airport
EasyJet boss Carolyn McCall today said the airline planned to increase its presence at Manchester Airport – starting with the creation of 120 jobs.
The budget carrier will base a new aircraft at its Manchester hub, which will come into operation from March.
That will bring the number of planes easyJet has at the gateway to seven and chief executive Ms McCall hinted more could be on their way.
She added the airline hopes to grow the number of business travellers to carries to more than a fifth of all passengers in the coming years.
Ms McCall told the MEN: "I would say we currently don't have as strong a presence in Manchester as I would like.
"We have based aircraft there for four or five years now and do some fantastic routes from Manchester already.
"We are very well known in Liverpool and could become much better known in Manchester and it is very important to us to increase our presence here and show out commitment to the city.
"If you look at how we operate, we do not go in and out of airports, we commit to them over the long term and that is what we intend to do at Manchester.
"We see Manchester as the gateway to the north and have made a commitment to grow in the city, provided the conditions are right."
Easyjet currently offers flights to 26 destinations out of Manchester. Ms McCall said a seventh plane will be added to its fleet at the airport, which will lead to the creation of around 120 jobs.
That in turn will service a series of new routes, which will be announced in due course.
Easyjet faces competition at Manchester, following the move by both Ryanair and Flybe to set up bases there.
But she said: "We love competition and were born for it."
Ms McCall said increasing the number of business travellers easyJet carries out of Manchester was one of the main opportunities for growth.
She said: "We are very strong on leisure travel but also increasingly strong on business travel.
"One of the opportunities for us here is to build our business network because that is perhaps an area where we are not as strong as we could be.
"Manchester has a great business community and you will start seeing us offer increased frequencies to business city destinations.
"One of our unique selling points is we always fly into primary airports, rather than military airports or ones not close to the city centre and that is what business travellers want."
She added easyjet wanted to increase the proportion on business travellers on its flights to more than 18 per cent. /menmedia.co.uk
easyJet scarta Zurigo nei piani di sviluppo sulla Svizzera
Zurigo resta fuori dalle rotte easyJet. La low cost inglese guarda alla Svizzera per espandere il network, ma sceglie Basilea-Mulhouse come scalo di riferimento, scartando a priori il principale hub elvetico per operare sul Paese.
Pubblicità
È quanto ribadito da Carolyn McCall, ceo della compagnia, che, secondo il quotidiano Der Sonntag, avrebbe affermato che easyJet "intende aumentare la flotta a Basilea e, eventualmente, anche a Ginevra-Cointrin, dove abbiamo rispettivamente dodici e sette aerei". Il numero di passeggeri è salito del 14 per cento a Ginevra e del 21 per cento a Basilea.
"Zurigo è troppo cara - ha sottolineato la numero uno del vettore -. Non vogliamo pagare per cose che non utilizziamo".
La Svizzera è un mercato in crescita per easyJet, "con una progressione del 10 per cento", come ha detto McCall. /ttgitalia.com
CIAO
_goa
Easyjet Two more Easyjet aeroplanes will be based at Edinburgh Airport
One hundred jobs could be brought to Edinburgh after Easyjet announced plans to base two more aircraft at the capital's airport.
The airline already has five planes based in Edinburgh, flying to 24 destinations, and carrying 2.5 million passengers in the past 12 months.
It has not yet decided where the additional aircraft will fly to.
The choice of destinations will be announced in October after discussions with other agencies.
Hugh Aitken, Easyjet's commercial manager for Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland: "We are doing something quite unique, we're starting to talk to a lot of our partners, Scottish Enterprise and VisitScotland and others about where they see the opportunities, where they see the markets that are underserved or have potential to grow in and out of Scotland and how they can support us with that."
He hinted that the destinations would be European. "Absolutely, that's our foot print", he said.
Mr Aitken agreed that Edinburgh had great "inbound potential".
He added: "On some of our routes well over 50% of the people are coming in to Scotland - so that's about tourists coming in to Scotland and visiting the country. You can imagine there will be other places with that potential." .
However he explained that the airline would also be looking at outbound destinations "that need new capacity brand new or other areas with potential to grow".
"It's about connecting Scottish businesses and leisure travellers with where they want to go to and flying directly rather than having to go through the hub airports," he said.
Heathrow
At the moment, Easyjet does not fly to or from Heathrow and Mr Aitken claimed there was "a real preoccupation with Heathrow".
Mr Aitken said: "Everybody talks about any loss of capacity at Heathrow being bad for Scotland.
"In our view we fly to London Luton, Stansted, Gatwick which very often if you're doing business in London it's quicker to fly to those airports than it is to fly to Heathrow plus given that Heathrow is over 90% full, when things go wrong they go wrong very badly."
The airline said although it was investing in Edinburgh it was not ignoring Glasgow and had increased capacity there and introduced new routes over the past year. /bbc.co.uk
EasyJet to create 120 jobs as it steps up its presence at Manchester Airport
EasyJet boss Carolyn McCall today said the airline planned to increase its presence at Manchester Airport – starting with the creation of 120 jobs.
The budget carrier will base a new aircraft at its Manchester hub, which will come into operation from March.
That will bring the number of planes easyJet has at the gateway to seven and chief executive Ms McCall hinted more could be on their way.
She added the airline hopes to grow the number of business travellers to carries to more than a fifth of all passengers in the coming years.
Ms McCall told the MEN: "I would say we currently don't have as strong a presence in Manchester as I would like.
"We have based aircraft there for four or five years now and do some fantastic routes from Manchester already.
"We are very well known in Liverpool and could become much better known in Manchester and it is very important to us to increase our presence here and show out commitment to the city.
"If you look at how we operate, we do not go in and out of airports, we commit to them over the long term and that is what we intend to do at Manchester.
"We see Manchester as the gateway to the north and have made a commitment to grow in the city, provided the conditions are right."
Easyjet currently offers flights to 26 destinations out of Manchester. Ms McCall said a seventh plane will be added to its fleet at the airport, which will lead to the creation of around 120 jobs.
That in turn will service a series of new routes, which will be announced in due course.
Easyjet faces competition at Manchester, following the move by both Ryanair and Flybe to set up bases there.
But she said: "We love competition and were born for it."
Ms McCall said increasing the number of business travellers easyJet carries out of Manchester was one of the main opportunities for growth.
She said: "We are very strong on leisure travel but also increasingly strong on business travel.
"One of the opportunities for us here is to build our business network because that is perhaps an area where we are not as strong as we could be.
"Manchester has a great business community and you will start seeing us offer increased frequencies to business city destinations.
"One of our unique selling points is we always fly into primary airports, rather than military airports or ones not close to the city centre and that is what business travellers want."
She added easyjet wanted to increase the proportion on business travellers on its flights to more than 18 per cent. /menmedia.co.uk
easyJet scarta Zurigo nei piani di sviluppo sulla Svizzera
Zurigo resta fuori dalle rotte easyJet. La low cost inglese guarda alla Svizzera per espandere il network, ma sceglie Basilea-Mulhouse come scalo di riferimento, scartando a priori il principale hub elvetico per operare sul Paese.
Pubblicità
È quanto ribadito da Carolyn McCall, ceo della compagnia, che, secondo il quotidiano Der Sonntag, avrebbe affermato che easyJet "intende aumentare la flotta a Basilea e, eventualmente, anche a Ginevra-Cointrin, dove abbiamo rispettivamente dodici e sette aerei". Il numero di passeggeri è salito del 14 per cento a Ginevra e del 21 per cento a Basilea.
"Zurigo è troppo cara - ha sottolineato la numero uno del vettore -. Non vogliamo pagare per cose che non utilizziamo".
La Svizzera è un mercato in crescita per easyJet, "con una progressione del 10 per cento", come ha detto McCall. /ttgitalia.com
CIAO
_goa
