Norfolk International Airport Has New Dutch Connection

City Airport Has New Dutch Connection 
Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, UK

17 February 2004

A new service took off from Norwich International
airport yesterday, flying business travellers and
tourists to Groningen in Holland.

Eastern Airways is using 50-seater Embraer 145 jets on
the scheduled service which will operate daily, Monday
to Friday. Personnel from the oil and gas industry are
expected to be a key source of revenue for the
service, which links centres of expertise in the
sector around Aberdeen, Norwich and Groningen.

Eastern Airways chief executive Richard Lake said: "We
identified clear business synergies between the three
cities with the oil and gas sector featuring as the
common denominator in terms of primary demand."

He added that the movement of people between the
regions since the early development of North Sea oil
and gas had created expatriates, and so there was a
market for people visiting friends and relatives.

Hugh Lawson, managing director of Norwich
International, said: "This is a great addition to our
services which gives new business and leisure
opportunities between Norfolk and the Netherlands. It
also gives quick access to the north of Germany. 

"Eastern Airways are to be congratulated on starting
this new route and we will work with them to build yet
another successful service cementing our working
relationship."

It will be the first international service for
Hull-based Eastern Airways, which operates 18 domestic
routes. From Norwich, the company already flies to
Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Inverness via Manchester.

Eastern is a full-service operator and said that
flights from Norwich to Groningen would cost £120 one
way or £240 return. Daily weekday flights will depart
from Norwich at 9.30am, arriving at 11.30. Return
flights will depart Groningen at 1.55pm European time
and arrive at 1.55pm UK time.

A competitor will be no-frills airline Ryanair, which
has a service from Stansted. Groningen is less than an
hour's drive from Germany, and under 90 minutes from
the main centre of offshore supply services, Den
Helder.

Bert-Jan Hakvoort, managing director of Groningen
Chamber of Commerce, said: "Groningen has a lot to
offer. Besides accommodating the largest
conglomeration of ICT business in Holland, Groningen
represents science, sincerity and splendour."

Meanwhile, Norwich International is hoping that the
merger of Dutch airline KLM, which operates from
Norwich, and Air France will help the airport in its
goal of having a service to Paris. Airport bosses have
been trying for years to get a service to Paris and
they hope the merger will be a positive step.
 

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