It's been a grim 12 months for airlines, and the news that RyanAir is pulling its flights from Manchester airport is a disappointment for those who've bought properties on the other end of its routes, largely in southern France. But in spite of the tough economic situation, many airlines have been opening new routes at the same time as others have closed down.
Take RyanAir. In October it is closing nine routes at Manchester – thanks, it says, to the airport's decision to increase charges. But from March 2010 the Irish airline is opening 14 new routes at nearby Leeds Bradford airport, which it is adding to its list of bases. The new routes will include Carcassonne, Faro, Ibiza, Knock, Krakow, Limoges, Malaga, Malta, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Palma, Pisa and Venice Treviso – which covers some of the most outstanding areas in Europe for buying a property, and is a boon for anyone in Yorkshire looking for a place in the sun.
And the company may have cut some of its flights from Dublin, but it's announced 39 new flights to the Canaries, including those from eight UK airports, which will make it a lot easier for anyone with a bolthole in Gran Canaria, Tenerife or Lanzarote. The company has already expanded flights from Bristol, Edinburgh and East Midlands this year.
And there are plenty of other new flights on the cards: Aegean Airlines is to start flying twice daily from Heathrow to Athens, with connections at the other end to its domestic flights to Rhodes, Mykonos, Corfu and Kefalonia. Easjet has some new flights to interesting destinations, including Paphos in Cyprus, a key property market. And even beleagured British Airways, which has asked its staff to work without pay, is opening new flights to a string of Caribbean destinations: Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic and Montego Bay in Jamaica will be joining new flights to St Kitts which began in January, and to St Lucia which steps up from three a week to five a week in October.
Direct flights are vital if you are buying abroad – not just to get yourself to and from your holiday home, but if you want to let the property to other holidaymakers. The good news is that, as the total number of flights and destinations expands, home owners will become less vulnerable to any one flight being closed down.
Alexander Garrett is a freelance property writer who contributes regularly to The Observer and British Airways' Business Life.