Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, is to start operating out of at Stansted Airport from March next year.

The schedule will feature year-round services to the Isle of Man, with up to three flights a day, and double daily flights to Newcastle, together with seasonal part-week summer flights to Newquay.

Stansted Airport’s managing director, Andrew Harrison, said: “Today’s announcement is not only great news for our passengers but is a significant step forward on our ambition to transform Stansted and provide a richer mix of flight connections for the region we serve.

“When MAG acquired Stansted we set a clear ambition to transform the airport and the arrival of Flybe on to the departure boards for the first time in the airport’s history, and launch of these new direct services to Newcastle, the Isle of Man and Newquay, is another significant milestone in achieving that ambition.

“There is great support from across the business community to see Stansted grow, attract more airlines, offer a broader range of destinations and increased flight frequencies to provide the choice and connectivity that business passengers rely upon to compete and win more business.

“These new services deliver that for the business communities we serve and will also be very popular additions to the route network for leisure connections. We’re looking forward to giving Flybe our full support as they prepare to launch these new connections from Stansted.”

Paul Simmons, Flybe’s chief commercial officer, said: “We are pleased to launch three new routes to/from London Stansted.

“Bolstering regional connectivity is our number one aim at Flybe and we’re always looking for ways to improve connectivity within the UK.

“We’re really thrilled to be able to bring a year-round offer to Stansted Airport and look forward to welcoming passengers from the Isle of Man, Newcastle and Newquay who are seeking easy access to Hertfordshire, Essex and London.”

News of the new routes from Stansted came as Flybe reported a pre-tax loss of £15.4million for the six months to September 30, against a profit of £13.6m for last year’s first half, after taking a near-£10m hit from writing down its 60% stake in Flybe Finland which it has sold to its joint venture partner Finnair for a nominal one euro.

One-off items also included provisions to cover restructuring and flight delays. However, Flybe said that it had achieved an 8.7% rise in passenger revenues per seat during the first half.

A recent drive to cut unprofitable routes meant total UK passenger revenues fell 9.1% to £283.9m but the figure per seat grew to £54.75 and its load factor - a measure of how full its planes are - also improved, by 8.6% to 77.2%.

Last month, Flybe launched new routes from London City Airport to Dublin, Belfast, Exeter, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.