The recent announcement that Flybe has placed a firm order for 35 new aircraft could be good news for Cardiff Airport. Steve Hodgetts, the airport’s business development and commercial director, said that he is very keen to sit down with the airline and discuss ways in which Cardiff and Flybe can work together to offer passengers more frequency to more destinations throughout Europe.

Flybe is currently Europe’s number one regional airline. It already carries passengers from Cardiff to a number of destinations including Belfast, Paris and Edinburgh. The airline is looking to expand its presence in the business market and if it increases services from the Welsh capital, destinations such as Lyon, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt could soon become an option.

The airline expects to start taking delivery of the new Embraer 175s in September next year. Each of the aircraft will be able to carry 88 passengers and the seating layout will be a 2×2 formation. Flybe claims that this is the configuration preferred by its customers.

Flybe’s chairman and chief executive, Jim French, said that the Embraer 175 was the perfect plane with which to secure the carrier’s position as the leading regional airline in Europe. The order is worth £850 million.

Hodgetts said that there was already a growing demand for more services to popular leisure destinations throughout Europe as well as a need for more capacity to major business locations. He added that Flybe, with its intension to expand its fleet, would be the ideal partner to start delivering such services to the people of Wales.