This October, UK passengers will be able to book plane tickets from Manchester, to Southampton and Exeter.
Loganair, the UK’s largest regional airline, has confirmed that two new routes will be launching:
- Manchester to Southampton
- Manchester to Exeter
The Manchester to Southampton flight will run three times daily, beginning Monday October 26.
The Monday to Friday flights will depart from Manchester at 06:50, 11:40 and 18:10.
In the opposite direction, flights will depart from Southampton at 08:35, 16:35 and 19:55.
The Manchester to Exeter route will run a single daily flight, launching on the same date.
Flights will take off on weekdays, departing at 13:20 and returning from Exeter at 15:00.
Tickets are already on sale, starting from just £59.99, which includes a 15kg hold bag and a 6kg cabin bag.
It’s the first time ever that these UK cities will be connected by air, making quick journey times a possibility for business and leisure travellers.
Manchester to Southampton will have a journey time of just 1 hour and 5 minutes. To compare, the average journey by train takes an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes.
Meanwhile Manchester to Exeter will take 1 hour and 10 minutes, with the average train journey around 4 hours and 13 minutes.
Jonathan Keenan-O’Connor, Head of Aviation at Manchester Airport, said: ‘We’re proud to connect people in the North to the places they want to get to, and that includes other parts of the UK. It’s fantastic that the South Coast and Southwest regions will now be within easy reach for business and leisure travel from Manchester.’
Loganair might not be familiar to those of us who opt for trains or cars when travelling domestically, but the Scottish airline actually operates from 11 UK airports: Kirkwall, Inverness, Southampton, Manchester, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, City of Derry, Newcastle and Isle of Man.
It was also named by consumer champion Which? as the UK’s second best short-haul airline, only losing out on the top spot to Jet2.
Customers gave their airline five stars for customer service.
The world’s shortest passenger flight takes just 90 seconds
Loganair boasts the title of the airline which offers up the shortest passenger flight, taking just 90 seconds.
The route connects the islands of Westray and Papa Westray in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago.
The flight covers a mere 1.7 miles, roughly the same length as the runway at Edinburgh Airport, and it’s over long before most planes even reach cruising altitude, which typically takes 10-15 minutes.
The route has been operating since 1967 by the regional airline, and runs daily except on Saturdays.
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