City of Derry Airport receives £4.3m to maintain London route

The UK government will provide £4.3m to fund a flight route between City of Derry Airport in Northern Ireland and London Stansted until 2023.

The route, which is jointly funded by the Department for Transport and the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy, provides connectivity from the north-west of Northern Ireland to the capital.

The 2-year extension, which begins on 1 April 2021, will be funded through around £4.3m over the course of the contract. Loganair is set to continue operating 13 return flights a week.

This comes as the government announces up to £20m to develop transport projects that could improve union connectivity.

Aviation minister Robert Courts said: “Regional connectivity is at the heart of our plans to build back better after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the agreement secured today is a vital step towards this.”