easyJet adds five UK routes for summer 2027

The Southampton additions are a daily Edinburgh service from 28 March 2027, Málaga from 1 May and La Rochelle from 29 May, with the two international links flying on Tuesdays and Saturdays. London Gatwick gains Cagliari in Sardinia from 1 June, three times a week, and London Luton gets Rennes from 1 July, twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays.

One-way fares start at £32.48 to Edinburgh and La Rochelle, £53.48 to Málaga, £51.48 to Cagliari and £43.48 to Rennes. The routes went on sale on 15 October alongside easyJet holidays packages for summer 2027, which can be booked with a £60 per person deposit.

Southampton's 11 routes

The additions take easyJet to 11 routes from Southampton in summer 2027, according to the airport. The airline says the La Rochelle link will be exclusive to it, and it already flies there from Bristol, London Gatwick and Manchester. Southampton to La Rochelle takes about one hour 20 minutes, with fares from around €50 one way.

La Rochelle airport handled 303,669 passengers in 2025, its third record year in a row, up 3% on 2024 and 30% on 2019. Jet2 will fly there from Birmingham and Manchester in 2027.

Part of a wider 2027 push

The five come on top of 18 UK routes easyJet put on sale in September from 10 airports, covering Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Six are new routes to Spain, including the airline's first flights to Girona: Liverpool from 28 March 2027 with about 9,000 seats in the first year, and Gatwick from 3 June with about 8,000. Six new routes start from Scottish airports, among them Aberdeen to Barcelona from 31 March 2027.

easyJet says it will be the only carrier on Birmingham to Milan, Liverpool to Murcia, Gatwick to Ajaccio and Bristol to Montpellier, among others. "We are pleased to announce additional new routes for the summer of 2027, and to keep offering our customers across the United Kingdom more options and connectivity from their local airport," said Kevin Doyle, easyJet's managing director in the UK.

Apollo takeover in the background

The route announcement came as easyJet moves through its takeover. In August the airline agreed to be acquired by US fund Apollo for about £5.7 billion, or £7.15 per share, after rival Castlelake withdrew from the bidding. The document setting out the terms was published on 15 October, the same day the routes went on sale. Shareholder meetings are scheduled for the week of 9 November, and the deal should close before the end of the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval and to the company staying majority-controlled by European interests.

Reuters reported that Apollo plans to expand the low-cost model with a loyalty programme, premium products and new revenue streams. easyJet, the UK's largest airline, flies from 22 British airports on more than 650 routes to 139 destinations and carried 100 million passengers in 2025.