easyJet keeps growing in Northern England, adds three routes from Newcastle and Manchester
easyJet is opening its base at Newcastle International Airport (NCL) in March 2026.
easyJet has unveiled a pair of new routes from Newcastle International Airport (NCL), as well as a new connection from Manchester Airport (MAN), as the low-cost carrier continues growing its presence in the North of England.
On January 23, 2026, easyJet announced that it would fly from NCL to Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) starting March 30, and to Lisbon Airport (LIS) from June 22. Both will be operated twice-weekly, with departures on Mondays and Fridays enabling a perfect “long weekend city break.”
The carrier’s new MAN route, following an identical departure schedule like the new itineraries from NCL, will connect the airport with Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (BRI).
“easyJet holidays will offer package holidays to all three destinations, inclusive of flights and hotel, plus 23kg luggage and transfers on Bari beach breaks.”
Growing Newcastle base
easyJet’s two new routes from NCL will come on top of the 11 new connections that the airline unveiled when it announced that it would reopen its base at the airport in September 2025, with the three-aircraft base officially opening on March 22.
At the time, easyJet said that it would operate up to 19 domestic and international routes from NCL, up from eight that it had already flown before it unveiled its base at the airport.
It already had a base at NCL, which it closed down in August 2020, citing “the unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions, compounded by quarantine measures in the UK, which is impacting demand for travel.”
Compared to August 2019, easyJet will operate one extra weekly departure in August 2026. Still, with the carrier now largely flying Airbus A320 family aircraft from the airport, its weekly seats from NCL will increase by 7.4% versus August 2019, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed.
In August 2019, easyJet scheduled A319ceos to operate 56 out of its 79 weekly flights from NCL.
With the addition of four additional weekly flights from NCL to FCO and LIS, its August 2026 schedule will now include 80 weekly departures, with all of easyJet’s NCL routes from NCL being displayed in the map below.
Rytis Beresnevicius
Recovering connectivity in Northern England
The United Kingdom’s economy is growing – albeit slowly – and with two out of three northern England regions’ gross domestic product (GDP) either growing or at least not contracting, according to the latest data, airlines are gradually adding more flights from the region.
North England has six international airports, including Humberside Airport (HUY), Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA), Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL), MAN, NCL, and Teesside International Airport (MME).
With the exception of HUY and MME, all of the airports will have more weekly flights and seats in August than during the same month in 2019. In terms of market share, Ryanair is the largest airline in the region, followed by Jet2 and easyJet.
To say that the region is mostly connected to the wider Mediterranean region would be an understatement. In August, out of the 3,711 weekly departures, 2,246 are scheduled to fly to countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, according to the latest schedules filed with Cirium’s Diio Mi.
(The region’s weekly departures do not include easyJet’s new services.)
Or, in other words, the most popular leisure destinations for British travelers during the summer peak season.
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