Articles

Flying into Northern England

By Richard Day, Principal, English in Chester

The last few years have seen an amazing growth in regional airports in the UK. This has been accompanied by the development of low-cost airlines. English language students now have an opportunity to get to the North of England easily and with minimal cost.

217 million passengers went through UK airports in 2004, an increase of 9% on 2003. There was a 7% growth at London's five main airports but UK regional airports grew by 9%. Newcastle Airport saw a staggering 23% growth and handled 4.7 million passengers.

Manchester Airport can justifiably claim to be the main gateway to the North of England. It is the region's biggest airport with 21 million passengers in 2004. There are now 8 international airports in the North with scheduled services to Europe and beyond.

Airport	Website
Blackpool	www.blackpoolinternational.com
Durham Tees Valley	www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com
Humberside	www.humberside-airport.co.uk
Leeds/Bradford	www.lbia.co.uk
Liverpool	www.liverpooljohnlennonairport.com
Manchester	www.manairport.co.uk
Newcastle	www.newcastleairport.com
Robin Hood Airport (Doncaster/Sheffield)	www.robinhoodairport.com

For more information about UK airports see: www.airports.co.uk.

It is important for international students from distant markets to think about flying to the North of England through one of the major European hubs e.g. Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris or Madrid. This is often the easiest, cheapest and most convenient way to travel. Many of the world's biggest airlines have flights to our regional airports. Students can, for example, fly into 5 our the Northern airports with KLM via Amsterdam. Humberside Airport claims 300 worldwide connections via KLM flights.

It is, however, the low-cost airlines that have contributed so significantly to the growth of regional airports. Western European countries are well connected with the North of England and there are a growing number of flights to Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Scandinavia. A selection of low-cost scheduled flights into Northern Airports appears in the following table:

Airline	Website	Airports Served
Jet2	www.jet2.com	B, L/B, M, N
KLM	www.klm.com	DTV, H, L/B, M, N
Flybe	www.flybe.com	L/B
British Midland	www.flybmi.com	DTV, L/B, M, N
BMI Baby	www.bmibaby.com	DTV, L/B, M
Central Wings	www.centralwings.com	L/B
easyJet	www.easyjet.co.uk	D/S, L, N
Ryanair	www.ryanair.com	B, L/B, N
Wizzair	www.wizzair.com	L
SN Brussels Airlines	www.brusselsairlines.com	M, N
Hapag Lloyd	www.hlx.com	M, N
Key B: Blackpool; D/S: Doncaster/Sheffield; DTV: Durham Tees Valley; H: Humberside; L/B: Leeds/Bradford; L: Liverpool; M: Manchester; N: Newcastle

Some low-cost airlines have concentrated on one of the regional airports in the North. Wizzair, for example, flies to Liverpool from 5 Polish cities. This enables the price-conscious student to travel cheaply and opens many possibilities to Polish students of English.

All English in the North members, private language schools, colleges and universities, are located within a very short distance of one or more of our regional airports. They are really accessible for students from Europe and around the world.