A Regional airline is to provide the first regular air travel link between Southampton and the French city of Dijon.Southampton Airport will be the launch venue for the three times a week service run by Eastern Airways that travels to Dijon, in Eastern France from this summer.The UK regional airline has offered scheduled services from Southampton since 2003 and will operate the new route from June 6 on Monday, Friday and Sunday.

The city of Dijon is the capital of the Cote d’Or and Bourgogne region and industry includes manufacturing, automobile, electronics, machinery and pharmaceuticals. The region has some of the country’s best wine producing vineyards, and of course Dijon is famous for its mustard.Jan Halliday, director of marketing and communications for Southampton Airport said: This new service will be the first time regular air links have been established between the two cities, and further grows the airport’s status as the UK’s top gateway to France which now totals 15 French destinations.

This will be the only way to access the UK from the Dijon region and will provide an easy and fast way to access the whole of the south of England.Kay Ryan, Eastern Airways’ commercial director, said: This new summer service from Southampton is part of our wider development plans in Dijon to provide a UK link to the south of England.Southampton Airport is a popular gateway for heading to France and our service will save business and leisure travellers visiting the Burgundy region valuable time.This is part of Eastern Airways’ expansion plans for Dijon, following the set up of domestic services to Bordeaux and Toulouse.The airline also flies to Aberdeen, Durham Tees Valley, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool from Southampton.Founded in 1997, Eastern Airways initially built its network of scheduled services around flights up the east coast of England to Aberdeen.