London Oxford Airport will host its first commercial airline charter to Dublin next week, with onward packages being offered to New York with Aer Lingus, marking the first ever long-haul destination from Oxford.

Using the largest capacity airliner type to date for a commercial service from the airport - CityJet's BAe Avro RJ-85 with 95 seats - the flight, which departs on Wednesday December 7th, represents another significant step forward for the airport, as it looks to further scheduled airliner traffic. To date, the largest airliner operation from Oxford was with the Bombardier Q400 (78 seats) with winter ski charters to Geneva.

Oxford's executive terminal, Oxfordjet, designed in 2008 primarily for private business aviation flights, is large enough to handle occasional charters for aircraft with up to 100 seats with two dedicated check-in desks, a distribution control system (DCS) and baggage and boarding pass label printing and consolidation. The airport’s VIP lounge, normally utilised by executive jet passengers, is easily converted into a high capacity departures lounge as and when required. Few modern FBO (Fixed Based Operation) terminals in the United Kingdom can offer both the capacity and capability to handle such commercial airliner-sized flights. The facility also boasts a baggage retrieval hall sized for such flights, unique amongst typical VIP FBO terminals in the UK and Europe.

Offered as a long weekend Christmas shopping experience (the return flight is on Monday December 12th) to Oxfordshire and Cotswolds residents, for some it will the first time they have flown from their local airport and certainly the first opportunity ever to set off to New York from the regional port. 

Organised and marketed by World of Experience Tours, part of Oxfordshire-based travel agency Great Experience Travel and also trading as Oxford Airport Travel the service has been warmly received and should pave the way for further one-off, seasonal or series charters from Oxford in the coming year. For the last three years, Oxford has hosted very successful seasonal flights to Jersey and looks forward to continuing with those in the years to come whilst adding further new routes in 2012.