Faro Airport’s French-owned operator, the Algarve Tourism Association and easyJet today inaugurated new routes to Nice and Lille with the baptism of an Airbus A320 from Lille and a special welcome for all passengers on the inaugural fight.
With the inauguration of the new service for Nice and Lille, the Algarve is connected to 10 French airports with the number of available seats showing a 30% increase this summer over last.
easyJet, the second largest airline operating in Faro, confirmed it is betting on increased numbers to and from France this summer as the French have started to come to the region in increasing numbers.
"We are extremely pleased to launch the links between Faro-Nice and Faro-Lille and reinforce our ambition to provide 2.4 million seats to and from Faro airport during the current financial year. The launch of these new routes underlines easyJet’s commitment to Portugal.
“We already have a close relationship with France and, for this reason, it is very important to consolidate this commitment with the investment in destinations that are of interest to the Portuguese and the French. Lille and Nice are two fabulous French cities and are now linked to the south of Portugal via Faro," stated an airline spokesman.
easyJet will fly to Nice and Lille 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the summer season and will extend into the winter season with two weekly flights to each, on Mondays and Fridays.
The new easyJet routes will be served by 186-seater Airbus A320s and Faro's airport soon may be a fit state to service the increase in passengers.
The original statement, "The contract is with the national construction company Mota Engil and is estimated at €32.8 million euros. Its completion is scheduled for the spring 2017," remains current but with Spring 2017 officially ending on June 22nd, there are not many days left.
