Kerry Airport is preparing to offer a customary ‘céad míle fáilte’ to the passengers arriving to the county on board the inaugural Chalair flight from Brittany, France on Saturday.

The aircraft will touch down at 9.20am with visitors from Quimper and Brest while the first outbound passengers will depart from Kerry just before 10am on the same day.

The seasonal summer service will operate every Saturday with a flight time of less than 1 hour 40 minutes from Kerry to France on board a 70-seat ATR 72 aircraft.

The CEO of Kerry Airport, John Mulhern, said: “Our summer schedule has been very successful so far and the introduction of this new seasonal service to France is a welcome addition to our choice of destinations from Kerry. We are looking forward to welcoming the first French passengers to Kerry on Saturday morning. Ultimately, their arrival and those who will follow over the coming weeks, will boost the local economy during the peak tourism season.”

Chalair is an independent airline that has been operating scheduled flights in France since 1986.

Its fleet of aircraft ranges from 19 to 70 seats and is currently the reference airline for such aircraft on the French market.

These new destinations from Kerry to Quimper and Brest in Brittany will bring to nine the number of routes that will be available to passengers for the summer months.

Kerry Airport already serves Alicante, Faro, Dublin, London (Luton and Stansted), Manchester and Frankfurt Hahn with Ryanair.