A regional government in Spain has confirmed plans to establish a new direct air connection to Scotland.
The Government of the Principality of Asturias is currently examining the possibility of establishing new connections to more than a dozen European destinations from Asturias Airport.
A new connection to Edinburgh is listed as one of the destinations being 'actively explored' by the region, alongside connections to cities such as Marseille, Berlin, Manchester, Bologna, Oslo and Warsaw.
Presenting the Principality's connectivity strategy "roadmap" at the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, Lara Martínez, The Deputy Minister of Tourism, revealed that the region seeking to achieve 40% international traffic and 2.5 million annual passengers at the airport by 2033.
READ MORE: Airline announces expansion of flight programme to Italy from Scots airport
Ms Martínez said: "The Principality is now and will be even better prepared to face the internationalization of the tourism sector with the strengthening of air connectivity."
Asturias Airport is the only international airport of Asturias, a region of northwest Spain known for its rugged coast, mountains, religious sites and medieval architecture.
In November last year, CNN Travel featured the region in its list of 'The Best Places to Go in Europe in 2024'.
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “We’re always interested in adding more connectivity at Edinburgh Airport and welcome any opportunity to speak to potential new partners.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here