BRITISHRegional Airlines has launched daily Manchester flights to Lyons and Nice.
The British Airways franchise carrier will use 49-seater Embraer 145 jets on the routes. The aircraft will be fitted with business-class Club Europe cabins.
Services run all week to Nice but Lyons flights do not operate on Saturdays.
Commercial director Mike Bathgate said the flights were launched in response to demands from business travellers for better connections from Manchester to the south of France. He promised further enhancements in Manchester during 2000.
British Regional has also rescheduled its Manchester-Berlin service to give business passengers a full day in the German capital and introduced a new Sunday flight on its Cardiff-Edinburgh route. The new service is in addition to the previous thrice-daily weekday flight. Fares lead in at £112 return.
Meanwhile, BA subsidiary Cityflyer will offer 36% more capacity from Gatwick this summer.
Highlights include thrice daily flights instead double daily to Cork and seven daily flights to Dublin instead of six between July 17 and September 8; a second daily flight to Nice and an all-jet service instead of turboprops to Dusseldof.