UK regional carrier Eastern Airways has added extra capacity on its Leeds Bradford to Southampton and Aberdeen routes.
A 37-seater Embraer 135 regional aircraft will now operate daily on selected peak services to both Southampton and Aberdeen, providing an additional 900 seats a month.
The airline has also confirmed that from today there will be new timings for the service aimed at making it more attractive to business travellers.
Weekday flights to Southampton from Leeds Bradford will see new 6.40am, 10.35am and 5.15pm departures arriving in Hampshire at 7.25am, 11.45am and 6pm respectively.
Services leave Southampton at 7.50am, 4.30pm and 6.30pm landing at Leeds Bradford at 8.35am, 5.45pm and 7.15pm respectively. Sunday services leave Leeds Bradford at 5.55pm and depart Southampton at 7.15pm.
Flights to Aberdeen on weekdays will depart Leeds Bradford at 7am, 8.55am and 6.05pm, arriving at 8.10am, 9.45am and 7.20pm. Services take off from Aberdeen at 8.45am, 4.10pm and 7.55pm arriving in Leeds Bradford at 10.05am, 4.55pm and 9.05pm respectively. Sunday flights depart from Leeds Bradford at 8,20pm and leave Aberdeen at 4.45pm.
Kay Ryan, Eastern Airways’ commercial director, said: “The introduction of the Embraer jet on our Leeds Bradford services enables us to offer additional capacity to the two busy regional centres of Southampton and Aberdeen. It also allows us to offer business commuters and offshore industry personnel new enhanced timings to suit their needs.”
Tony Hallwood, Leeds Bradford Airport’s aviation development director, said: “This is great news for the busy executive who flies with Eastern Airways to Aberdeen and Southampton from Leeds Bradford. The introduction of a jet service allied to a more convenient flight schedule will deliver improvements meeting the travel needs of our business and corporate customers."
Eastern Airways provides a network of services across 17 airports in the UK, Norway and France using a fleet of 31 regional aircraft.
Last month, Eastern added a Sunday service to its busy Norwich to Aberdeen route.