New Budget Flights Coming to Paphos

Budget airline Jet2.com has announced that a twice-weekly service will travel between Leeds Bradford International Airport and Paphos, which it said should boost tourism in Cyprus.

Beginning on May 4 next year, flights will operate on Wednesdays and Sundays.

A Jet2.com spokesman yesterday told the Mail that, “flights will depart from Leeds at 9.15am, arriving in Paphos at 3.50pm. Departures will leave Paphos at 4.50pm and will arrive in Leeds at 8pm local time.”

The last flights to the island will take place during the week commencing November 2, 2008.

The spokesman added that frequency may be increased for 2009 and beyond, depending on demand.

“We are confident that seats will sell well, with a lot of interest shown.”

The leading fare is £58.99 sterling one-way, inclusive of all taxes and charges.

As well as Paphos, the airline also announced seven other new destinations from the airport. These are: Hamburg, Madrid, Jersey, La Rochelle, Avignon, Sardinia and Crete.

Seats to all new destinations are available to book now, with the majority of the inaugural flights leaving Leeds Bradford in May 2008. The additional destinations will increase the airline’s routes from Yorkshire’s premier airport to 36 and represents a 20 per cent year on year increase in capacity.

“Our unprecedented route expansion includes top sunshine destinations in two countries we've never served before, Paphos in Cyprus and Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete,” said Philip Meeson, Jet2.com’s chief executive.

Jet2.com has been flying commercial aircraft for over 25 years, exclusively under the name Channel Express (Air Services) for the first 20 years.

Jet2.com has now flown over seven million passengers. Low cost operations began in February 2003, flying daily from Leeds Bradford International Airport, to and from Amsterdam.

Now, 21 Boeing 737-300 aircraft and five Boeing 757-200s (all of which are owned by the company), are located across their six UK bases and fly to top sun, city and ski destinations in more than ten European countries, three Mediterranean islands and the Canaries

In terms of e–commerce, the first seats went on sale online in November 2002. Now 97 per cent of seats are currently booked online through the company’s website.

Readers of two of the UK’s top travel trade and consumer publications have voted Jet2.com their favourite British airline.

A poll of more than 25,000 members of Holiday Which? magazine resulted in Jet2.com being crowned the Best Scheduled British Airline, and in addition the second best globally that passengers are most likely to recommend to a friend.

In addition, the up-market title for independent travellers, Wanderlust, recently voted Jet2.com, the top UK low cost operator.