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Cornwall to London air service secures £2.5 million government funding

An air route linking Newquay in Cornwall to London Gatwick Airport has secured £2.5 million government funding in a four year deal.

The funding go towards three return flights each weekday from Newquay to London Gatwick.

St Austell & Newquay MP, Stephen Gilbert, told the BBC he and business leaders had lobbied hard for the contract and government funding.

It is expected that about 100,000 passengers per year will make use of the service, which will be operated by Flybe.

The route had been under threat last year when Easyjet, which was expected to take over the Newquay-Gatwick slots from Flybe, said it would not operate flights on the service because of lack of demand.

Mr Gilbert said: “This is the culmination of months of hard work to make the case that Cornwall does need a route into London.

“It is worth about £30 million a year to the Cornish economy with about 3,000 jobs directly dependent on that route.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .