Skylark Air will open four new regional routes from September, linking Meridale directly to three Meridian Accord capitals and doubling frequencies to Ostrele, in the carrier’s largest single expansion since it launched in 2011.
The airline is adding two leased single-aisle aircraft to serve the routes, taking its fleet to eighteen. Chief executive Vessa Trent said forward bookings on the corridor “have outrun every model we drew” since visa-free travel took effect across the Accord in March.
Regional passenger traffic through Meridale International is running 23 per cent above last summer, according to airport figures published last week, with leisure travel driving nearly all of the growth.
The expansion puts Skylark in more direct competition with rail once the Accord’s high-speed upgrade programme delivers in the 2030s — a horizon Trent shrugged off: “We will meet the train at the timetable. Today the corridor needs seats, and we are adding three thousand a week.”
Analysts broadly applauded the move while noting the lease costs land just as fuel hedges roll off. Skylark shares closed up 4.2 per cent at a twelve-month high; the first new route, to the Veskan capital, goes on sale on Monday.
