From 1st December, Flybe will introduce its 2019-20 winter schedule. This offers an increased service via the 98-seat E190 traveling from Edinburgh to London City to absorb additional demand over the festive season.

What additional services have been announced?

The winter schedule sees additional capacity offered via an E190 provided by Stobart Air. This runs through until 28th March 2020, with an increased flight schedule of 208 flights each week covering a variety of nine flight routes departing from Edinburgh Airport.

Within those additional flights are 24 flights each week traveling to London City, as well as an extension to the six flights per day arriving from Heathrow at 06:40 and returning back from Edinburgh at 20:15.

Flybe is also offering flights to Birmingham up to seven times per day, to Manchester up to three times per day, and to Southampton up to four times per day.

Why the increased schedule over Christmas?

Flybe's Chief Commercial Offer, Roy Kinnear, told Insider that;

"We are especially delighted to give those customers travelling with us to London City from Edinburgh an enhanced service by adding some jet services on this important business route at peak times."

Flybe's turbulent year

With a 40-year history, Flybe is the largest European regional airline. Having had a difficult year, the airline announced earlier this month that they will rebrand as Virgin Connect in 2020. Having now been taken over by a consortium made up of the Stobart Group, Cyrus Capital and Virgin Atlantic, the rebrand signals a welcome fresh start.

Excited to announce that in 2020 we will be joining the #VirginFamily as Virgin Connect, your new go-to name in regional flying ❤️

Find out more at https://t.co/gNMNGNUxND pic.twitter.com/cFUDZ2LMS6

— Flybe ✈ (@flybe) October 15, 2019

In the meantime, Flybe continues to operate all scheduled flights as planned, whilst it looks to the future with suggested investment in larger airplanes as time moves on. With this increased peak travel capacity, Flybe is looking to support the higher volume of business travelers during the highest demand period of the year.

Which other services does Flybe offer?

The airline serves nine destinations from Edinburgh, which are: Belfast City, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Knock, London City, London Heathrow, Manchester and Southampton.

Flybe operates a fleet of 76 aircraft of which 54 are Bombardier Q400s. The airline won accolades from FlightGlobal and Which? this year, being voted as the Most Punctual UK Airline by and joint 1st Best 2019 Airline. With increased services during peak travel times, it is looking to expand its customer base and service levels in the run-up to its rebrand next year.

Flybe provided around 38% of all UK domestic flights this year, which is more than any other airline.

How will the transition to Virgin Connect affect Flybe flights?

The rebrand of Flybe to Virgin Connect is planned for next year. In the interim, all flights continue to run as scheduled under the existing branding. Flybe says that its aim is for customers to 'connect seamlessly to locations across the world from their local airport'.

With onward travel via codeshare agreements, travelers using the extended schedule of flights from Edinburgh can take advantage of connections via Heathrow, London City, Manchester and Birmingham.