Travellers heading off on short-haul holidays this summer will welcome the news that Southampton Airport is to offer four new flights to France.
Budget airline Flybe is to launch three of the four flights, with the route to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne region kicking things off, followed by a flight to Pau in Aquitaine as of 25 May.
Two days later, planes will leave Southampton bound for Beziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. The final French route, which will be offered by Eastern Airlines (owner of Air Southwest), will fly three-times weekly from Southampton to Dijon from 6 June.
Director of marketing and communications for Southampton Airport, Jan Halliday, told the BBC: “The start of five new routes and a new operator joining the airport is fantastic news for the region and shows the summer holiday season is really getting under way now.”
Alongside the new French routes, the airport is also to offer flights to Menorca for the first time, thanks to a new summer route rolled out by Thomas Cook for 29 May.
The new flights increase the number of destinations offered from the south coast airport to 49.
