A new route to primarily serve a new energy sector was a poignant way to celebrate 25 years of Eastern Airways.
The Kirmington-based airline first flew to support the oil industry in December 1997, with co-founder Richard Lake OBE joining the inaugural flight from Humberside to Esbjerg, as two offshore wind hubs were united this week.
Linking the booming Aberdeen production and exploration hub with refining knowledge and wider skills was a driver back then, just as the large scale construction and deployment of the leading renewable electricity generators is now.
Read more: Business leaders welcome Esbjerg route launch from Humberside
Roger Hage, commercial director, said: “Eastern started off serving the oil sector back in 1997 with the Humberside to Aberdeen route. There were difficulties getting between Aberdeen and Humberside, getting refining capability and labour to Aberdeen which was booming with exploration.That’s how we came about, a gap in the market, a hurdle to overcome that became an opportunity.”
It is a single route that has continued through each and every year of its existence, with even Covid-19 unable to stop the need for the service, such is its strategic importance.
But many more routes have followed as it set about becoming a regional airline of choice, with public service contracts and entirely commercial schedules running alongside a vibrant charter market - including getting Premier League football teams up and down the country with minimum fuss or travel fatigue.
Around 300 people are now employed with the company having a fleet of 18 aircraft. While it is lower than the 32 it had peaked at, larger regional jets of up to 100 seats are now operated, where before it was 18 to 50.
“Historically it was a lot bigger, 10 years ago, but it shrunk with the core industry and had to scale back, but now we’re pushing back out, adding extra flights and moving into new areas, routes that will carve themselves a living,” Mr Hage said. “It is about the right routes, for the right people in the right places, it is all about evolution and doing a little bit more, growing where we can. While we do have hubs now in Aberdeen, Southampton and Newquay where we’re growing too, we are a Humber-based business trying to help the Humber economy.”
Eastern actually briefly owned the airport when Manchester Airports Group sold up in 2012, before it was bought by Bristow Group in 2014 in a £27 million deal.
Mr Lake bought the airline back from the then crisis-hit US helicopter specialist in 2019, with the wider company having been hit by the slump in oil and gas. It retained the airport, however.
Eastern has brought in Newquay and Jersey summer flights, adding a tourism flavour, with definite potential with Esbjerg and its proximity to the original Legoland and the sensational scenery that Scandinavia had to offer.
“We’re always looking to do something innovative, that’s what this is about,” he said of the Danish addition.
“This is another step in trying to develop connectivity between the Humber and key European regions. We’re trying to aid employment and the prosperity of the estuary as a whole.”
And the independent and nimble nature of the operations directed from the Humberside site lend themselves to ensuring it is just so, unlike its predecessors who have attempted a North Sea crossing.
“We’re trying to engage with primary people in the sector, to talk to people in Denmark, and work from there. We could be looking at a hop service, to other Danish airports in key locations - it is all about how we get the right people in the right place.
“We need to get the industrial part and the commercial part working well. We can try things, test the market, react to the market and adapt the schedule frequency and timings. Then there’s the tourism opportunity too.”
Mr Hage joined Eastern in his first spell in 2004, leaving in 2011 - a few years before the Bristow deal. He returned in 2017, ahead of Mr Lake’s buy-back.
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