Loganair has added three new routes to and from the island as part of its summer schedule.

The Scottish airline has said that the new services to Southampton, Belfast City and Jersey have been planned ’in anticipation of Covid-19 vaccines enabling air travel to take place safely and widely once again’. In addition to its new routes, services to London Heathrow, which started on December 1, will increase to double daily flights from March 28.

Flights to Manchester will increase to two daily from April 1 and, from July 1, services to Manchester and Liverpool will have a further increase in flight frequency, with Manchester stepping up to four per day and Liverpool to three per day.

Birmingham services, cancelled last year following the demise of previous operator Flybe, will re-start on April 1 with a four- times a week service which then increases to daily from May 22.

Edinburgh services will re-start with three flights each week from April, building to four from May 25.

Three flights a week to Southampton begin on May 26 and to Belfast City four times a week from April 1 increasing to six times weekly from May 24.

A seasonal non-stop service linking the Isle of Man with Jersey, will take place every Saturday from May 22 until late September.

Lead-in one-way fares on the new services are £39.99 to Belfast City, £44.99 to Birmingham, £69.99 to Southampton and £79.99 to Jersey. Seats on all these routes are now on sale.

Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said:

’We’ve taken a phased approach to increasing the number of flights on offer, in anticipation of a progressive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and re-opening of borders.

’Of course, we will continue to work closely with the airport management team and the Isle of Man Government to prioritise public health and continued connectivity.

’We are heartened to be able to further increase the island’s connectivity with these announcements. We’re already seeing bookings coming in for destinations such as Jersey and Cornwall and it was increasingly clear that the Isle of Man was missing out.

’The announcements will provide clarity for both our customers in the Isle of Man and those on the "other island" and beyond wishing to plan and book for the summer.’

Loganair is also planning to increase the numbers of seats available across all routes by introducing larger ATR72 turboprop aircraft, which can carry up to 70 people per flight.

The airline, now the UK’s largest regional operator, employs pilots and cabin crew based in the Isle of Man and contracts the maintenance of its aircraft to local company M&A Technical Services, which is based at Ronaldsway.