Great news for everyone in the Loire area - Eastern Airlines are starting a service Southampton-Angers from 15 November. Fares seem very reasonable - £99 return, running Tues, Thurs and Suns.
Flybe have stopped for the winter. Let us hope Eastern have enough customers to make it worthwhile.
With the rapid growth of Low Cost Airlines operating from the UK especially to France where subsidies play an important part in their profitability there will be winners and losers. This has been more apparent this year with many routes opening and closing, a pattern that I believe will continue for the foreseeable future. Using local and provincial airports often means seasonal timetables have to operate and this results in further financial expenditures for the operators. I would caution anyone looking for a property or operating a business not to be influenced by the current or future intentions of the Low Cost Carriers in their region.
Baz
The Soton/LaR service only runs for the "summer months" - late Mar/late Oct. Balance of the FlyBe 2008 summer schedules will be announced within 2/3 weeks.
Frederick - are you saying that Soton/LaR has been dopped for 2008?
It is not shown on the Flybe www right now because I think you will find that the schedules for "summer" 2008 will not be announced and thus on the www for approx.3 weeks. My understanding is that Soton/LaR will operate again next summer.
In theory the many cheap flights to Limoge should provide the answer to my travel needs.
In reality, the frequent scheduled flights to Tolouse and the 2 1/2 hour door to door motorway journey more frquently meets my needs.
I can't rely on Ryanair and Flybe to maintain flights
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