UK low-fare regional carrier Flybe has recently re-opened its operational base at Aberdeen International Airport, host of this year’s Routes Europe. The airline is offering a strong summer 2015 schedule for the Granite City with up to 75 flights a week on five routes, one of which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The re-opening of Flybe’s base sees the return of 78-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprops being located at the airport to service and meet the demand for the airline’s routes to and from Aberdeen - the 10 year-long established daily service to Belfast City; the first summer of operation for Flybe’s three times a day service to London City; multi-daily flights to its Birmingham and Manchester mini-hubs and the return of summer seasonal flights to Jersey.

“Our newly re-opened base at Aberdeen marks the very real testament to Flybe’s year of recovery. I would again like to thank all parties involved for welcoming Flybe’s based operations back. We look forward to welcoming all our passengers on board this summer,” said Paul Simmons, chief commercial officer, Flybe.

Speaking to Routesonline ahead of the opening of this year’s Routes Europe, Carol Benzie, managing director, Aberdeen Airport, said she was delighted to see the return of the Flybe base and the commitment of the carrier to the city and wider region. “We’re delighted to welcome back Flybe as a base at the airport and look forward to continuing to work together to promote its regional offer from North East Scotland,” she said.

“There are a number of significant developments to the airport over the next few years driven by passenger demand for increased connectivity, and the re-establishment of Flybe is a real boost for addressing that call,” she added.

In our analysis, below, we look in greater detail at Flybe’s network capacity from the United Kingdom, highlighting its largest airport markets during the current calendar month by departure seats. A comparison with April last year shows the airline’s available capacity from the UK has grown 16.1 per cent.

Alongside new operations from Bournemouth and London City the main growth has been seen at London Stansted (687.9 per cent), Liverpool (135.9 per cent), Newcastle (76.5 per cent), Leeds Bradford (63.2 per cent), Isle of Man (31.5 per cent), Inverness (29.6 per cent) and Belfast City (21.0 per cent).