Jet2.com is to increase summer and winter capacity out of Glasgow, with extra seats to Spain and Portugal and a new direct route to Geneva.
The leading leisure carrier – which also revealed it will add new destinations out of Glasgow for 2012 – announced the plans as its first flight took off from Glasgow, flying to Alicante in Spain, this morning.
The aircraft, branded Jet2Scotland in Jet2holidays’ colours, features a new seat design to give two inches extra legroom without changing the seat pitch. All aircraft will be fitted with the new seating by the start of the summer.
Managing director Ian Doubtfire said the airline was increasing capacity on summer routes to Spain and Portugal from Glasgow after dropping part of its Egypt programme as a result of recent political riots in the country. It forecasts it will carry 300,000 passengers out of Glasgow in its first year.
He said: “We have filled the gap from Egypt and we have done it by looking at demand for Spain and Portugal.”
For this summer, flights from Glasgow to Faro, on Portugal’s Algarve, will increase from three to four times a week from May 26 to October 20 while flights from Glasgow to Majorca will go up from five to six flights a week for the June 15 to September 18 period.
The airline is also switching from a Boeing 737 to a larger 757 aircraft on Alicante and Majorca routes out of the Scottish airport this summer, adding 81 extra seats per flight.
For winter, Alicante and Tenerife routes have been launched, with flights up to March 2012 currently on sale.
The new winter destination Geneva in Switzerland will bring the number of destinations offered by Jet2.com out of Glasgow to eight. The route went on sale today for departures from December 23, 2011, to April 15, 2012, starting at £31.99 one way including taxes.
Doubtfire said the carrier was already planning new routes out of Glasgow for 2012. These will be existing routes the carrier currently offers from other UK airports. “I think our product really suits the Glasgow market and we anticipate further expansion next year. It will not be long before we announce new routes for 2012,” he added.
The carrier received funding from the Scottish Enterprise, Renfrewshire Council and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau to establish its new Glasgow operation, which has resulted in the creation of 150 new jobs. Of these, 35 are cabin crew and 22 are pilots.
Doubtfire said; “We have felt for some time Glasgow was the missing airport in our portfolio. We concentrate on the north of England and have 14 destinations out of Edinburgh and now eight from Glasgow.”
Destinations offered by Jet2.com out of Glasgow are Alicante, Dalaman, Faro, Majorca, Paphos, Tenerife, Nice and Geneva.