Norwich Airport has announced eight new flight destinations for this summer, as its boss predicted passenger numbers might not return to pre-Covid levels until 2026.
Passengers can now fly directly from Norwich to holidays in Greece, Turkey, Spain and Cyprus, which are operated through the holiday company TUI.
The airport is expecting 350,000 travellers to pass through its terminal this year, which is significantly below its pre-Covid number of 500,000 a year. In 2020, however, passenger numbers plummeted to just 80,000.
Richard Pace, managing director of Norwich Airport, explained that it is going to "take time to build the services back up" but they've planned it for 2026.
Mr Pace said: "We're seeing strong demand for holidays with operators saying they are seeing bookings back to 2019 levels, and in some cases even better, and KLM have just increased the frequency of their Amsterdam service from Norwich which is another indication of returning confidence.
"For now, we remain focused on rebuilding passenger numbers and are pleased to be offering 18 destinations for 2022/23.
"The industry is saying that it has not seen a significant impact on bookings from the cost of living crisis but is predicting a move towards more direct debit payments so that people can spread the cost of their holiday over several months. This suggests that people still want to get away, which is not surprising after two years of travel restrictions."
TUI is Norwich Airport's largest operator and it will now be flying to Menorca, Dalaman, Crete, Majorca, Rhodes, Paphos, Corfu and Ibiza.
Karen Switzer, director of aviation planning at TUI said that the company was "delighted" to begin its summer 2022 programme at Norwich Airport.
She added: "We know that many of our customers haven’t been overseas for more than two years and can’t we wait to take them on their well-deserved holidays.”
Norwich Airport is offering a total of 18 destinations during 2022/23 which are:
- Bulgaria: Bourgas
- Cyprus: Paphos
- Greece: Corfu, Crete, Rhodes
- Lapland: Enontekiö, Pajala
- Netherlands: Amsterdam
- Spain: Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca, Tenerife
- Turkey: Dalaman
- UK: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Exeter, Jersey
- Special departures: Arctic Circle, Bergamo (Italian Lakes)
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