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New air link between Scotland and Italy
05/03/2004
A new air route between Scotland and Italy was announced
today.
The new Ryanair service will fly daily from Glasgow
Prestwick International to Rome's Ciampino airport and will
begin on April 29.
The new route is the 18th service which will be
supported by the Executive's £6.8 million Route Development
Fund set up in November 2002 to help secure new direct air
services to Scotland, to encourage business links and
investment and inbound tourism.
Transport Minister Nicol Stephen said:
"This is very good news for Scotland - direct links
between Glasgow Prestwick and Rome will provide better
business opportunities to the whole of Scotland as well as
offering a boost to our tourism industry. Direct flights
from Scotland speed up travel times to key destinations and
avoid the need for two or more flights.
"Excellent connections to a wide range of European
destinations are good for the economy and also help to
reduce the environmental impact of air travel.
"The success of Ryanair's new international routes from
Scotland has encouraged them to start this new service to
Rome. Support for this service from the Executive's Route
Development Fund proves that our strategy of expanding
direct air services from Scotland continues to be a
success.
Mary McLaughlin, Head of Transport at Scottish
Enterprise, said:
"One of the great successes of the Route Development
Fund has been the diversity of countries which are now
directly accessible to Scottish travellers. Italy has been
a particular success, as there were no direct, scheduled,
all-year round, air services there before the RDF was
created and the new Ryanair Rome service is the third
direct route to Italy to be announced in the last eight
months."
Denise Hill, head of international marketing at
VisitScotland, said:
"We're delighted that Scotland now has this direct link
with Rome. This, together with Ryanair's Milan Bergamo
route means we now have the two biggest areas for tourism
across Italy covered, and are well placed to exploit these
for the benefit of Scotland.''
The RDF provided through the 2002 Scottish Budget with
£5.5 million from the Executive including £500,000 from the
Integrated Transport Fund, £1 million from Scottish
Enterprise, and £300,000 from Highlands and Islands
Enterprise.
The fund is operated in partnership with Scottish
Enterprise, who administers the fund on the Executive's
behalf.
Eighteen offers have been made for routes from
Scotland:
- Germanwings - Edinburgh to Cologne
- bmi - Edinburgh to Jersey
- Ryanair - Glasgow Prestwick to Skavsta
(Stockholm)
- Ryanair - Glasgow Prestwick to Girona
(Barcelona)
- duo - Edinburgh to Oslo
- duo - Edinburgh to Milan
- duo - Edinburgh to Geneva
- duo - Edinburgh to Zurich
- Germania - Glasgow Prestwick to Berlin
- Ryanair - Glasgow Prestwick to Gothenburg
- Eastern - Inverness to Birmingham
- Continental - Edinburgh to New York (Newark)
- Loganair - Kirkwall to Bergen (summer only)
- Snowflake - Inverness to Stockholm
- Ryanair - Glasgow Prestwick to Bergamo (Milan)
- Emirates - Glasgow to Dubai
- Duo - Edinburgh to Munich
- Ryanair - Glasgow Prestwick to Ciampino (Rome)