Cornwall land airline deal that Super League lacks

Cornwall have been boosted by the signature of an official airline partner to help their significant travelling during the League 1 campaign.

The south west outpost club will rack up the mileage once again this season on the road, and that’s before the consideration of northern based players travelling for training and home matches.

The partnership with Loganair includes complimentary flights between Newquay and Manchester for “players travelling for training and match days in Cornwall”. The route has been relaunched this year, operating from February 10 to October 28.

Cornwall’s Rob Butland said: “We know that many away supporters will once use Loganair when visiting the us for games and we are grateful for their assistance in transporting a small number of our squad who, for professional reasons, will remain in the North during the week and connect with us for games and key training sessions.

“It is because of Loganair’s commitment to regional connectivity that these players are able to fulfil their potential as professional rugby league players whilst continuing their careers in other parts of the country.”

Should Super League be able to get an airline deal of its own?

Toronto boasted a similar deal with Air Transat to help support their flying back and to from Canada, and it’s a partnership that seems logical.

Unfortunately, despite entering its 18th year of cross Channel competition, Super League is still lacking the sort of airline partner deal that is a staple of many cross-country sports competitions. The United Rugby Championship has Qatar Airways, Euroleague basketball has Turkish Airlines and KLM sponsor European Tour Golf.

There has been a boost for Super League fans this year with the news that RyanAir will be running flights from Leeds-Bradford airport to Perpignan on Mondays and Thursdays from March to October.

But it’s still more complicated than it needs to be given there are two French teams, and have been for several years, meaning two sets of players, officials and fans are required to fly each way from one side or another every week.

Cornwall have showed the way forward when it comes to travel and logistics, and they seem to have ticked the right boxes for Loganair too.

Luke Lovegrove, Loganair’s chief commercial officer, added: “Supporting and connecting communities across the UK is really important to us at Loganair.

“With that in mind, it is great to announce this sponsorship and be appointed as Cornwall RLFC’s official airline partner as they benefit from our newly relaunched route to Manchester.

“We are committed to serving Cornwall and are very much looking forward to working with the team this season and wish them the best of luck.”

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