UK regional carrier Eastern Airways has been awarded a new important contract in France to provide scheduled services between Lorient and Lyon. From January 5, 2014, the airline will offer two flights a day and a single Sunday rotation from Lorient South Brittany to Lyon Saint Exupéry.

Eastern Airways has been operating domestic flights in France from a base at Dijon since September 2010 with services to both Bordeaux and Toulouse. This latest announcement further demonstrates the carrier’s commitment to serving the regions of France.

“This is a major step forward in the development of our domestic services in France.  We play a key part in the local community in the Dijon, Côte d’Or and Burgundy area, and want to develop strong relationships with the CCI Morbihan and the regional tourism bodies as we provide a continuation of this essential Lorient air link to Lyon.”

Kay Ryan
Commercial Director, Eastern Airways

According to Jean-François Le Tallec, President of the CCI of Morbihan (which holds the management of Lorient South Brittany Airport in its responsibility) Eastern’s decision to establish an operational base at the facility to serve this route could be the first step for future growth.

“Eastern Airways is setting up a base in Lorient at a time when we are implementing a development plan for the airport platform. I am pleased to note that the company has real ambitions to grow,” he said.

Lorient, within the Morbihan prefecture, is located in the heart of southern Brittany in the north west of France and is the leading agriculture and fishing region for France. Meanwhile, Lyon is the capital of the Rhone–Alps region in east-central France, the country’s second largest city and renowned for its gastronomy.

The Britanny region and Lorient have strong industrial links with Lyon in the electronics, telecoms, automobile and food processing sectors. The natural tourist attractions of the coast of southern Brittany attract many visitors, and the area offers numerous leisure activities, including sailing, golf and thalasso spas. Lorient is also the country’s main naval base for construction and repairs and is ‘the town of five ports’ with its military port, yachting marina, fishing port, industrial port and passenger port.

"We are delighted to be awarded this important contract to operate the Lorient South Brittany – Lyon Saint Exupéry route,” said Kay Ryan, commercial director, Eastern Airways. “This is a major step forward in the development of our domestic services in France. It is built on the back of the solid foundations that we put in place in Dijon, setting up a base and domestic services in 2010 to serve the Burgundy region.

“We play a key part in the local community in the Dijon, Côte d’Or and Burgundy area, and want to develop strong relationships with the CCI Morbihan and the regional tourism bodies as we provide a continuation of this essential Lorient air link to Lyon,” she added.

Eastern Airways will take over responsibility for the route from Airlinair which has served the route from March 2013 under the Hop! brand. Prior to this date, BritAir and Regional had operated the route on behalf of French flag carrier Air France. This is one of only two routes currently operated from Lorient South Brittany, the other connecting the airport to the capital, Paris, via Orly Airport.

Founded in 1997, Eastern Airways initially developed its UK network of scheduled services around the oil and gas offshore industry in the North Sea, with flights from the east coast of England to Aberdeen. The airline is the UK’s second largest regional carrier operating flights from Aberdeen, Birmingham, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and Southampton. It now offers a network of domestic flights spanning the length and breadth of the UK, as well as services from airports in Norway and France using a fleet of 30 aircraft consisting of a mix of regional jets and turboprops.