Cambridge Airport welcomes new flights to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet.

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Cambridge Airport, the east of England aviation hub, has announced that leading UK-based tour operator Newmarket Holidays will be operating an inaugural charter flight from Cambridge to Verona, Italy on 16 September 2012.

The initial flight will support a week long itinerary that is anticipated to be the first of a regular set of charters arranged by the specialist tour operator. Passengers on the Verona flight are being offered the opportunity to select from a choice of six varied week-long trips in the breathtaking central and northern regions of Italy.

This is the first time that Newmarket Holidays, which celebrates 30 years of business this year, has chartered an aircraft to fly from Cambridge Airport. Swedish-based Tor Air, which specializes in wet leasing and charter, will be servicing the route with a Boeing 737. The aircraft has capacity for 148 passengers in a standard class configuration.

Archie Garden, Director at Cambridge Airport said, "This flight marks a significant step forward in our plans to increase the number of regional charter and schedule flights available from the airport. With unrestricted slots and no congestion aircraft are assured of on-time departures and arrivals. Passengers enjoy quick transits through the terminal both on arrival and departure, there is easy parking and we can offer fast check-in facilities which makes us very attractive for the smaller regional carriers. For those living locally this significantly reduces their journey time when compared to travelling to one of the London airports. We anticipate this will the first of a number of similar specialist charters and look forward to welcoming more to the airport."

Newmarket Holidays' regional charter director, Alison Keeble, commented, "I'm especially pleased that following the great successes we've enjoyed over many years from other regional airports, we have been able to introduce this special departure from Cambridge. We selected Cambridge for this particular departure because we anticipate demand from the east of England catchment area will be quite high for this type of trip. We look forward to this being the start of a long and fruitful partnership with the airport"

Newmarket Holidays will provide 7 night packages with a strong focus on the cultural aspects of Italy. The Italian offering includes relaxing trips to expansive Lake Garda, excursions to Venice and tours of medieval Verona where the balcony inspiring the famous Romeo and Juliet scene is located. Other trips feature Renaissance capital Florence, breathtaking Sienna, city of towers San Gimignano, Assisi and Rome. The Italian packages start from £549 per person and are available through www.newmarketholidays.co.uk.

About Cambridge Airport:

Cambridge Airport is part of the Marshall Group of Companies, a private family business, owned and managed by the Marshall family. The business was founded in Cambridge in 1909, and entered aviation in 1929. The Marshall Group activities include Cambridge Airport, Marshall Executive Aviation, and Marshall Aerospace, focused on engineering and technology.

Cambridge Airport primarily targets the east of England market with a strong focus on Cambridge and its business, academic and industrial communities. It is also a strong provider to the equine community as it is just 10 miles from Newmarket and offers regular services for the transportation of horses.

Cambridge Airport is home to a variety of aviation service providers including charter operator Marshall Executive Aviation, MEA which operates a Cessna Citation Bravo and Citation XLS as well as a Bombardier Challenger 300.

Other aviation companies include Capital Air Services and several GA flight training operators. It is also home of the East Anglian Air Ambulance service operated by Bond Helicopters. A fully authorised Cessna Service centre is located at the airport.

www.cambridgeairport.com