The number of passengers flying out of the city's airport is on the rise.

Norwich Airport has continued its recovery from the pandemic, welcoming 353,000 passengers last year - up by 2pc on the previous year.

The financial year figures are for the 12 months to the end of the March 2024 and do not reflect Ryanair's first ever flights from the Hellesdon airport, which commenced in April. 

Ryanair has added 60,000 seats to the airport's offering this summer, putting it on track to surpass its pre-covid passenger numbers of half a million.

Norwich AirportNorwich Airport (Image: Newsquest)

Richard Pace, Norwich Airport managing director, said: “We’re delighted to see continued passenger growth at Norwich and the addition of new routes further underscores our commitment to providing more choices and better connectivity for the region, supporting hundreds of skilled jobs as a major aviation hub.”

The airport employs 224 people and also acts as a gateway to the southern North Sea for the offshore energy industry.

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The figures contributed to a 15pc increase in passenger numbers for Norwich Airport's parent company Regional & City Airports (RCA), which saw more than 1.75m passengers use its airports throughout the year.

As well as Norwich, the group owns Bournemouth and Exeter Airports and holds a management contract for Solent Airport.

Ryanair, which offers routes from Norwich to Malta, Alicante and Faro, will continue the Alicante route through the winter.

Andrew Bell, Chief Executive of Regional & City Airports (RCA), which owns Norwich Airport; Steve Lilley, RCA's Aviation Development Director; Jade Kirwan, Ryanair Head of Communications; Brian Mitchell, Senior Analyst, Ryanair CommercialAndrew Bell, Chief Executive of Regional & City Airports (RCA), which owns Norwich Airport; Steve Lilley, RCA's Aviation Development Director; Jade Kirwan, Ryanair Head of Communications; Brian Mitchell, Senior Analyst, Ryanair Commercial (Image: Norwich Airport)

TUI also launched eight summer destinations earlier this year, with flights from Norwich to Cyprus, Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca and Turkey, on top of all year-round trips to Tenerife. 

There are also twice-weekly summer flights to Jersey operated by Blue Islands, year-round trips to Aberdeen with Loganair, and Amsterdam via KLM.