The Tunisian flag carrier, Tunisair, has launched a regular service between Tunis and London’s Stansted Airport. The new route will be operated on a bi-weekly basis and is already operational since yesterday. This marks the first time both airports have been connected via a regular service.
Airline Development Director for the Manchester Airports Group (operator of Stansted Airport), Mats Sigurdson, said:
“New routes are always exciting developments and Tunisair’s direct flight to Tunis offers even more choice to passengers. Tunisia offers something for everyone, whether it’s a city break in the capital with its fascinating Roman archaeological sites or an all-inclusive break along the country’s famous Mediterranean coastline. We wish them much success with this new route from London Stansted.”
Tunis and Stansted connected with a bi-weekly service
Flights will be operated on Mondays and Thursdays each week. Flight TU792 will depart Tunis’ Carthage International Airport (TUN) at 13:50 for a three-hour hop North and land at STN at 16:15. For the return leg, the flight will bear TU793 and leave Stansted at 17:55 to complete the round-trip and arrive back at TUN at 20:55. All times are in UTC.
Tickets are now available on the airline’s website, with prices ranging from around 500 TND (£130) to 1070 TND (£280) one-way before taxes and additional fees. There are five types of tickets available- Dunes, Beach, Thalasso, Golf Pro, and Golf. The first three seats are in economy class, while the others are business offerings.
Tunisair plans on using one of its Airbus A319-100 aircraft for the service. Data from ch-aviation shows the airline currently has four planes of the type, but only two are active. Tunisair’s A319-100 narrowbodies are configured in a two-class configuration with a total of 114 seats. Of those, 12 are in business class, while the remaining 102 are economy seats.
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Tunisia and London
Before starting the Stansted service, Tunisair used to fly to London’s Gatwick and Heathrow Airports on a similar twice-weekly service. But the Gatwick route now stands terminated after the airline started flying to Stansted yesterday. Flights to Heathrow remain unchanged.
As Tunisair is shifting its Gatwick operations to Stansted, another airline from the North African country is getting ready to serve the TUN-LGW route. Nouvelair, a privately owned Tunisian airline, has announced its return to the airport after a two-year hiatus. Nouvelair is serving the route twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays for now. A third flight on Thursdays is planned from May.
David Bell, airline business development manager at Gatwick, said:
“We are delighted that after a two- year wait due to Covid-19, Nouvelair is commencing its twice-weekly service to Tunis, offering passengers the only direct link between Gatwick and the Tunisian capital.”
Looking Ahead
As the UK recently announced dropping nearly all COVID-related travel restrictions, we are likely to see more routes meant to increase connectivity in the region. It will be interesting to see future developments.
What do you make of Tunisair shifting its Gatwick operations to Stansted Airport? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Travel Weekly