EASYJET has announced it is expanding its operations at Glasgow Airport as it plans to base an additional aircraft there from next summer.

The move comes after the airline operated its biggest ever summer flying programme in Scotland and flew a record seven million passengers to and from Scotland in its 2023 financial year.

As well as this, new routes from Edinburgh to Rovaniemi in Lapland will take off next month and inaugural flights to Rome, Larnaca (Cyprus) and Enfidha (Tunisia) from Glasgow will launch for the first time next summer.

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The airline employs around 685 crew in Scotland and the addition of the sixth aircraft expects to have nearly 300 employees based in Glasgow including pilots, cabin crew and base management.

It has also recently expanded at its Edinburgh base, where it welcomed the arrival of a ninth aircraft over the summer, meaning it now has 15 easyJet aircraft based in Scotland operating across 84 routes.

UK country manager for easyJet Ali Gayward said: “We are proud to be Scotland’s largest airline and are delighted to have carried a record seven million customers in our last financial year, offering a fantastic network of 84 routes across four Scottish airports – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.

“We continue to see opportunity in Scotland which is why we are pleased to be basing an additional aircraft in Glasgow from next summer to offer our customers even more choice, like our new routes to Enfidha and Larnaca, providing more connectivity to popular destinations across the UK, Europe and beyond, all with great value fares and a warm welcome aboard.”

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Chief commercial officer at ASG Airports Matt Hazelwood said: “easyJet’s decision to introduce a sixth aircraft is a huge endorsement of our continued recovery and testament to a fantastic relationship between the airline and Glasgow Airport that stretches back more than 27 years to the airline’s inaugural flight.

“It has been a bumper year for both airport and airline not only celebrating the 40-million passenger landmark earlier this year, but we also welcome a number of new routes which are proving popular with our passengers.”