To highlight the commercial significance of its new direct flights to Porto from Birmingham Airport, Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, recently flew a group of prominent business leaders from across the West Midlands’ region to the Portuguese city, on a three-day fact-finding business trip that opened up discussions on many new opportunities.

In a major expansion that will see the airline significantly boost connectivity between the UK regions and Ireland to and from London, Flybe is delighted to announce that it has signed a five-year agreement with London City Airport (LCY) to commence domestic and international operations to/from London City with effect from 27 October 2014. Routes are on sale immediately.

Flybe has announced details of its six new routes operated by Stobart Air from London Southend Airport. Services to Rennes, Groningen and Münster Osnabrück will commence on 5 June, with services to Cologne Bonn, Caen Normandie and Antwerp starting on 3 July.

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, has boosted three of its most popular routes from East Midlands Airport namely Belfast City, Edinburgh and Glasgow by replacing some Q400 turboprop services with larger Embraer jets, and adding a second Saturday flight to Belfast City. This will add an extra seven thousand seats on these key routes effective through to March 29th, 2014.

Flybe has announced a number of additional flights from Birmingham Airport boosting the frequency on three of its most popular European routes. Route to Hanover, Milan-Malpensa and Stuttgart will see new double daily departures from March 30th, 2014 as well as an extra Saturday service to Stuttgart.

Flybe has announced its summer schedule for 2014, confirming more than 150 routes from 65 UK and European airports between March 30th and October 25th, 2014. Following the recently announced reconfiguration of its route network, the airline can now also confirm that it is withdrawing 30 routes of which 14 normally operate for summer only.