The Scottish Executive’s Route Development Fund has helped secure two new daily services from Edinburgh to Madrid and Milan, Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson announced today, Monday, 18 December.
Easyjet intends to introduce a daily Edinburgh to Madrid service commencing May 2007, and a daily Edinburgh to Milan service commencing April 2007. It will be a year-round service with a maximum of 7 rotations per week. The services will be operated on an Airbus 319 which has a capacity of 156 seats.
VisitScotland has teamed up with easyJet on a joint marketing initiative to promote Scotland in Madrid and Milan as an ideal travel destination. The funding for this new venture will come out of the additional £800,000 which the Executive awarded to VisitScotland earlier this year to promote direct air services to Scotland.
Since it was introduced in November 2002, the Route Development Fund has brought around £100 million of economic benefit to the Scottish economy. There are now over 30 routes currently operating which are supported by the RDF, and last year fund-supported routes carried about 1.4 million passengers.
