Flybe has today announced figures showing that the airline’s new route between the Highland city of Inverness and Amsterdam has seen a strong surge in demand from both business and the leisure travellers

Sales have been boosted by passengers choosing to take advantage of the seamless onward connections offered by Flybe, with business travellers booking convenient and hassle-free connections through Amsterdam and onward as far afield as Dubai, New York and Singapore.

Showing the ‘mini break’ trend is still popular with travellers, this route which opens up links between these two exciting destinations, has proved to be particularly popular with travellers looking for short breaks abroad with Monday – Thursday and Friday – Sunday bookings proving to be the most booked.

Flybe also reports that connection bookings on the route have performed particularly well from Stornoway to Amsterdam via Inverness and Stuttgart to Inverness via Amsterdam.

Flybe has reported strong demand for its new year-round Inverness to Amsterdam service that starts on September 5th with stronger than average bookings made during its first 24 hours on sale.

The first two bookings, received within minutes of the route’s announcement, were for inbound travel from Amsterdam with many further bookings being easily identified as family travel particularly over the autumn holiday period in Holland. These first bookings were followed quickly by the first interline booking for passengers travelling seamlessly from Inverness to Tokyo via Amsterdam.

Flybe’s in-house analysts view this as an early indication that passengers have quickly realised they can travel affordably and conveniently with Flybe to Amsterdam Schipol Airport from where – as a gateway to the world – they can then connect onward to over 300 global destinations.

Mike Rutter, Flybe’s Chief Commercial Officer comments: “The volume of early bookings received indicate a clear enthusiasm and demand for this new route which we hope will be an indication of its success. The business community has voiced the benefits of the international connectivity that it will open up, serving to bolster Inverness as the Highland gateway for worldwide travel – and Amsterdam as the new favoured route to the rest of the world.”

A new service linking Inverness Airport with Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has been announced.

The route, which will be operated by Flybe, is a result of discussions between Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), and Flybe with collaborative support and key funding from Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) – funding has also been received from the Highland Council, the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) and VisitScotland.

Inverness to Schiphol flights will commence on 5 September 2011 and will operate six times per week (Monday to Friday and Sundays).

The BBC has reported that a school trip of more than 200 children was unable to fly and subject to severe delays as the aircraft that was to fly to France last Sunday, a Thomson charter flight, booked by holiday company, Skibound, was too big to land at Inverness Airport.

The flight was due to leave Inverness Airport at 6.50am and fly to Grenoble, France. However, the flight’s passengers had to travel to Aberdeen Airport, 9 hours later, for a suitable flight.

In a statement about the incident, Skibound, said they had faced “operational delays” and said that the delay would not impact on the children’s holiday.

A spokesperson for the Highlands and Islands Airports said “A Thomson charter aircraft had arranged to pick up passengers from Inverness Airport. Thomson Operations had access to all information regarding Inverness’s facilities. The pilot, having received this information, chose not to land. This is a matter for Thomson and Thomson customers.”.

The Press & Journal reports that the aircraft parking area at Inverness Airport, the parking area situated closest to the terminal entrance, is too weak to carry the heavier passenger aircrafts using the Scottish airport.

The problem came to light when passenger Alan Clarke, a helicopter engineer from Garmouth, landed at the airport and noticed that the plane he was travelling on was parked approximately 100 yards from the actual aircraft park. He raised a complaint to Highlands & Islands Airports Ltd, citing that when asking a member of Inverness Airport staff about the planes position, the reply was that the aircraft was too heavy. His wife, who suffers mobility problems then struggled to walk the way to the terminal building. They, and fellow passengers, were then caught in a heavy down pour of rain.

Flybe is to double seat capacity on its Inverness to Southampton Airport and Manchester Airport routes due to demand.

The airline will begin the changeover from E145 to 78-seater Bombardier Q400 aircraft on 10 July.

Mike Rutter, Chief Commercial Officer for Flybe, says: “We’ve been bowled over by the immediate success of these routes. It’s always been part of our plan to phase out the older aircraft inherited from our acquisition of BA Connect in March last year and replace them with our newer, more environmentally sensitive Q400s. We’re delighted that these routes have proved so popular, enabling us to introduce them so much earlier than originally planned.”

Flybe’s summer services from Inverness have just got underway.

The routes include daily flights to Exeter; twice daily flights to Manchester airport and daily flights to Southampton airport.

Inglis Lyon, managing director of Highlands and Islands Airports said: “The launch of Flybe’s new services represents further investment on the airline’s part in connecting the Highlands with the rest of the UK. We expect the new services to be popular with both business and leisure travellers and look forward to them contributing to significant growth at Inverness this year.”