INNOVATIVE PRICING structures are promised among the fares being offered by new airline flyWhoosh on its services between Dundee and Birmingham and Belfast, writes Brian Smith, aviation reporter.

Commercial director Aden Murcutt said on a visit to Dundee at the weekend that it is already looking at introducing a student programme, with special packages, in anticipation of the volume of student travel between Dundee and the two cities the services will link from May 29.

He added, “We have had calls from people who said they would be regular travellers on the sector and they asked if we would consider introducing a season ticket. It is something we are looking into.

“We would be happy to look at any other ideas to serve the community.”

Mr Murcutt said that the aircraft to be used on the route will be based in Dundee, along with crew and engineering support.

“We will be using local services as much as possible and have already arranged for the catering to be done from Dundee,” he said.

He estimated that once the route is fully operational, the airline will have created around a dozen jobs in the city.

He said, “At the moment we estimate that 50,000 journeys are being made a year from this area to travel to Birmingham.

“In addition to the journeys by road to Edinburgh, before flying to Birmingham, there are those who drive all the way between the two cities and we believe we will save two million miles of road travel annually.

“Our ATRs are among the most fuel-efficient aircraft of their type and we will be able to move people between Dundee and Birmingham using four gallons of fuel per seat, per flight.”

Mr Murcutt said air travel had been unfairly represented as a polluter.

He said flyWhoosh will be keen to develop the most ecological programme it can, “both in terms of waste disposal and recycling, as this is something we strongly believe in.”

Last week The Courier revealed that the airline had received 125,000 hits on its website a little over two days after it went online.