American travel to get easier next year

TRAVELLING from the Midlands to New York will get a whole lot easier next year – with fares at a snip of the usual price.

Low-cost airline Primera Air is launching flights to both New York Newark and Boston from Birmingham Airport from May 2018.

The New York service will be daily.

The Boston route, meanwhile, will fly four times a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Primera Air tickets have gone on sale with fares starting at £149 one way, all taxes included. Who is Primera Air? The Icelandic leisure airline is owned by the Primera Travel Group.

Its primary goal is to provide scheduled air travel services, as well as flights for tour operators and charter flights.

It was founded in 2003 as JetX and has grown at a steady pace – now offering flights from Northern Europe to over 70 destinations in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Atlan- tic.

It has over 300 employees and operates mainly in Scandinavia.

It currently has a fleet of nine aircraft; seven Boeing 737-800s and two Boeing 737-700s but will be operating the Birmingham route on brand new Airbus 321 NEOs. Where does it fly to? Generally Primera Air operates return flights from its Scandinavian hubs to popular holiday destinations along the Mediterranean coast of Europe, the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as custom charter flights to virtually any destination.

The airline maintains seasonal summer and winter selections. Why Birmingham? Birmingham Airport aviation director William Pearson said: “We are delighted to enter a partnership with an additional transatlantic airline.

“Primera Air will offer daily flights to New York and give passengers the chance to visit Massachu- setts’ capital and largest city. This is a brand new route from Birmingham. We are delighted that Primera Air will base these brand new Airbus321NEO’s here at the air- port.”

Primera Air’s president Andri Ingolfsson added: “We are very proud to announce our new bases and routes to US. With our brand new Airbus321NE- Os airplane, we are opening routes previously traditionally served only by wide-body aircrafts.”

Services from Birmingham to US will commence in May 2018.