Archive Blue Islands from Leeds Bradford Airport

[Iron Duck]

NEW ROUTE

Blue Islands - Southampton to Leeds/Bradford. Flights start 29 March 2026

SI1112 SOU 0720-0825 LBA (M-Th)
SI3352 SOU 1005-1110 LBA (F&Sa)
SI3370 SOU 1630-1735 LBA (M-F&Su

SI3365 LBA 0855-1005 SOU (M-Th)
SI3373 LBA 1140-1250 SOU (F&Sa)
SI3391 LBA 1805-1915 SOU (M-F&Su

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980560504327221297

 

[AirBingley]

The big win here for my Southampton Cruise passengers (I jumped ship from tax to the cruise industry!) is the pragmatic approach to cases - 23kg automatically and only £20 for another for those travelling Cunard Grills who want an extra Ball Gown!

 

[Jerry]

Will be nice too see a new airline flying past my house!

 

[Ian Gratton]

Great news, Blue Islands is a surprise, should do well especially with Channel Islands connections

 

[lbaspotter]

Press release now issued on blue islands website.

New Southampton - Leeds flights | Blue Islands

Blue Islands will provide convenient North-South connectivity with new Southampton - Leeds Bradford flights twice a day from 29 March 2026.

www.blueislands.com

 

[AirBingley]

Now bookable and indeed you can get a single for £69.99 including 23kg baggage which is phenomenal - hope the yields work!

 

[SierraHotel]

Airline to launch twice daily flights from Leeds Bradford Airport to Southampton

New twice daily flights are set to provide better connectivity between Leeds Bradford Airport and Southampton.

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk

 

[LBA4EVER]

Twice daily on Atr72s so a good frequency, the airport teams done a good job to secure these flights!

 

[oldendays]

Jolly good. An old route reinstated with a new airline customer for Leeds Bradford. Splendid.

 

[Finger66]

Let's just hope they are now well supported. I see no reason why they won't be, especially at some of the lead in prices already quoted. We all know T3 were expensive. Good lead-in period too. The added benefit is the onwards to JER - which Mrs Finger and I did once when BE operated ABZ-LBA-SOU-JER. Bit of a pain on the return having to disembark at SOU, clear customs and reboard the same aircraft in the same seat. Do these restrictions still apply today?

 

[pug]

Nice win there, good to see SOU return. Do Blue Islands have a SOU base?

 

[752]

Be good to get the cruise pax added onto to these flights connecting to their ship in Southampton. Do cruise lines offer domestic fly cruises? or is it just booked / arranged separately?

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Let's just hope they are now well supported. I see no reason why they won't be, especially at some of the lead in prices already quoted. We all know T3 were expensive. Good lead-in period too. The added benefit is the onwards to JER - which Mrs Finger and I did once when BE operated ABZ-LBA-SOU-JER. Bit of a pain on the return having to disembark at SOU, clear customs and reboard the same aircraft in the same seat. Do these restrictions still apply

Pretty sure theres been no change.

 

[AirBingley]

Be good to get the cruise pax added onto to these flights connecting to their ship in Southampton. Do cruise lines offer domestic fly cruises? or is it just booked / arranged separately?

Cunard do offer an domestic add on but clearly this will be very new so probably not on their very old system!

 

[Bigman]

A nice little 2s up to Cross Country trains who prefer to operate South Coast to Manchester rather than Leeds. Plus it will be ideal when LUFC are playing Southampton in the Championship again next season 😆(only joking...I meant Premier League).

 

[Finger66]

Might be useful for SFC Vs BCFC in the Championship though!!! This is also going to extend JER to year round, or at least extend the season even if W26 SOU-JER reduced or no longer a through one from LBA via SOU

 

[752]

Just looking the only really competing service is LoganAir from MAN appears to be a later afternoon one daily service, so this is definitely a big win for LBA but also a lot of seats to shift.

Hopefully with the backing of the industry these flights do well

 

[YorkshireLad]

Excellent! I’ve been hoping for this route to come back since Eastern dropped it. By some quick maths, this is almost as much capacity as when Eastern did 4X daily on a Saab 2000 (864 weekly one-way seats vs 1050 if I’m remembering the weekly frequency correctly), and certainly more than their later days operating 10-15X weekly at best on the JS41 (290-435 weekly one-way seats)

A fun little quirk is that we will have both EI3391 and SI3391 operating from LBA (however at different times of the day)

Regarding connections: outbound to Guernsey Mon-Thu it looks like a 5h25 connection at Southampton for the early morning flight, or a 35m connection for the afternoon flight (incl Friday and Sunday). Inbound there is a 1h30 connection at Southampton for the afternoon flight (incl Fri and Sun, no early flight available as expected).
Fri and Sat offer a 2h40 connection outbound at Southampton from the later morning flight and a 2h35 connection inbound for the morning.
Prices are £130-160 return

For those who hadn't clocked it (like me), the flights operate onward to Jersey (all outbound, afternoon flight only inbound (and the later morning flights on Friday and Saturday)
Prices are £90-100 return

Southampton: no further explanation required
Prices are £70-80 return

 

[Finger66]

Interesting post in the SOU thread on the DFF detailing cruise pax and baggage between Leeds and Southampton. Certainly a positive from a pax perspective but not sure whether luggage may be an issue on an ATR. Either way, based on the post as a whole you can see why the route appeals to SI

 

[White Heather]

Interesting post in the SOU thread on the DFF detailing cruise pax and baggage between Leeds and Southampton. Certainly a positive from a pax perspective but not sure whether luggage may be an issue on an ATR. Either way, based on the post as a whole you can see why the route appeals to SI

If luggage was an issue on an ATR, I think the airline would have figured that out by now. They wouldn't offer a 23kg allowance if the aircraft wasn't capable. They fly these ATRs to Spain from Jersey, presumably with the same baggage allowance. Leeds to Southampton is less than half that distance so fuel weight won't be an issue.