Lufthansa flight set to enhance airport
FRANKFURT TO BECOME THE LATEST DESTINATION SERVED
A FLIGHT between Newcastle Airport and Frankfurt is set to begin in June.
The daily Lufthansa service will link Newcastle to what is the German airline’s largest hub airport, with connections to 140 destinations in 46 countries.
The flights will operate seven days a week between the two cities from Monday, June 28.
The UK aims to end its Covid restrictions a week earlier, on June 21. Non-essential international travel is banned until at least May 17.
Announcing the new flight, Andreas Koster of the Lufthansa Group, said: “We can offer a huge connectivity as we take advantage of our hub system in Frankfurt. Lufthansa can provide more than a hundred connections beyond Frankfurt to destinations worldwide, just with one single transit. We are very happy to return this upcoming summer, reconnect Newcastle International Airport to our huge network and resume our connection for our customers in the North East of England.”
Frankfurt, which is home to one of the world’s largest stock exchanges and the European Central Bank, also boasts a rich collection of museums, a vibrant art scene and many wineries in the Rheingau region. It is within easy reach of Germany’s famous Black Forest as well as other popular German regions.
Lufthansa also operates flights between Newcastle and Munich in Germany’s Bavaria region.
Nick Jones, chief executive of Newcastle International Airport, said: “We are delighted to welcome Lufthansa back to Newcastle International Airport and it is fantastic news for the North East and beyond that the airline will be operating this new daily service to Frankfurt.
“The addition of this route not only provides a new direct destination but also access to another major global hub for the North East public from the airport.
“Frankfurt Airport feeds directly into Lufthansa’s extensive onward connection network and will give passengers even more opportunity to travel to destinations across Europe and the wider world. This will help to support the restoration of crucial global connectivity from the region as we look to compete in the future.”
Flights will depart from Frankfurt at 16:10 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and depart from Newcastle at 17:35. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays flights will leave Frankfurt at 10:20 and Newcastle at 12:15.
Flights are on sale now and are available to book at Lufthansa.com or at Booking.com.
Fares to Frankfurt start from £89 for a round trip including all taxes, fees and carrier charges and a carryon bag.
MASS vaccination centres may remain part of the fight against coronavirus for years to come, North East experts say.
Vaccine chief Dr Stewart Findlay has warned that the fight against Covid-19 will continue long after all UK adults have received both their jabs this year.
“I expect the vaccination programme to go on for years to come,” he said. “Whether all the new centres are sustainable in the long term will depend on various factors.
“But we will be vaccinating people against the virus for several years to minimise the risk.
“This will be like the adult flu vaccine.
“We will have to do the active adult population for quite some time.
“New vaccines will arrive here just as they do for the flu vaccine.”
Dr Findlay, clinical director for the NHS programme for the North East and North Cumbria, paid tribute to the ‘fantastic’ team work by frontline NHS staff so far. He added: “GPs will never save more lives in their entire careers.
“It is the biggest operation they will ever be involved with.”
He spoke as a new vaccination centre opened inside the Northumbrian Water HQ at the Arnison Centre in Pity Me, Co Durham.
Out of the county’s 530,000 population, 95% of over-80s have received their first jabs, as have 82% of the clinically extremely vulnerable.
All care home residents have been offered a vaccine.
Amanda Healy, director of public health for County Durham, said: “We had two days just after Christmas where we had 500 cases a day, and that is down to about 80 a day.
“The rate in the under-18s is low, which is really encouraging. The working-age population aged 35-64 have the highest rate, and there are
people who cannot work from home, like supermarket workers and our own council refuse collectors. We are going to offer testing to those groups.”
The new centre will see up to 1,000 patients a day, seven days a week.
People are invited to attend through a national booking service run by NHS England. They receive a letter and are invited to book either online or by calling 119 free of charge. Only people invited to make a booking can do so.