On 21 June Newquay Cornwall Airport will welcome Lufthansa, Germany’s national carrier, and the start of its new weekly air services from Dusseldorf International Airport. Lufthansa Regional franchise partner Eurowings is operating weekly Saturday services to the German city in the heart of the Rhein-Ruhr region using Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft.

“The beautiful scenery and landscape of the Cornwall region is well known to German TV viewers because of the Rosamunde Pilcher novels that are extremely popular here,” says Lufthansa Senior Vice President Dr. Christoph Klingenberg,

“Our arrival at Newquay is in response to the wishes of our customers to experience this beautiful region themselves. That is why we are introducing this new route. Forward bookings for the summer months on the route are extremely encouraging to date with seat load factors for July already in excess of 71%,” he noted.

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome our first route from Germany. Cornwall sees a lot of visitors from Germany and we are pleased that Lufthansa now offers them the opportunity to fly directly into the heart of the UK’s most attractive County – its rugged coastline, beautiful gardens and award winning cuisine are just some of the things that visitors can enjoy. This new route is a great addition to our growing international network,” said Karen Medweth, Commercial Manager.

Timetable:

Newquay to Düsseldorf
Saturdays 21st June 2008 to 13th September 2008
Dep: 11:00 Arr: 12:35 Flight Number: LH4889

Düsseldorf to Newquay
Saturdays 21st June 2008 to 13th September 2008
Dep: 08:55 Arr: 10:30 Flight number LH4888

Reservations can be made by visiting www.lufthansa.com.

Lufthansa is the third mainline carrier to serve Newquay, joining Swiss International (and its charter flights to Zurich) and British Airways, now established on the London Gatwick route. The airline recently confirmed it would be a year round service. “This is further evidence that Cornwall is not just attractive to regional and low cost carriers, but legacy carriers too,” highlighted Newquay Cornwall Airport Project Director Chris Cain.

The airport is on course to handle 500,000 passengers with year with a route network comprising 24 destinations. It recently opened its new arrivals hall which marks the latest phase of ongoing development plans to increase the capacity of the terminal to meet a throughput of 700,000 passengers a year.

On December 1 this year Cornwall Airport Ltd will officially take over from the RAF and the one time RAF St Mawgan Airport will be operating with a new civilian licence from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Cornwall Airport Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cornwall County Council, assumed operational management of Newquay Cornwall Airport on 1 April 2007, following the expiry of the contract the airport held with Serco. Transition works are well underway, including all the elements of the airport redevelopment required to operate in a civilian capacity.