Expat Feedback: Readers suggest new routes for Eindhoven Airport

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(Editor’s note: This post was updated on 6 September with new suggestions from Eindhoven expats.)

Wow, we didn’t see this coming! When we posted about Eindhoven Airport planning to add routes and service  – and maybe even transatlantic flights – we thought the story would attract modest traffic.

As as we always do with relevant information, we posted it on the Eindhoven Expats Facebook page.

The post not only got tons of engagement, it got a LOT of people’s attention, and it started a conversation about where expats would like to fly. Reader reaction to “Eli Lejeune: Eindhoven airport is small, and small is the new big” indicates there’s what we call incredible “latent demand,” as they teach in Economics 101.

Much of that demand is from the estimated 70,000 highly skilled internationals living in Eindhoven and the surrounding Brabant and Limburg regions.

Indian and Turkish expats led the comments on the Eindhoven Expats Facebook page. Top requested destinations in India include Mumbai and Bangalore, while Turkish expats requested flights to Istanbul and Izmir. (Full disclosure: My two favorite cities!)

When we tackle any subject, we always ask, “Is this front of mind with readers?” I think we can safely say the expat community uses the Eindhoven airport and wants to see more service and connectivity to the world. More than that, the volume of comments proves to me that we expats have the numbers to impact markets and to influence decision makers. Sadly, we rarely exercise our economic muscle.

Finally, if there’s a “winner” in this story, it’s the airport itself.

The Eindhoven Airport post was a positive take on a place most people dread: the airport.

When you write about hot-button issues, there are usually dissenting comments … people saying, “I had a bad experience, and here’s what happened.” Think about it … thousands of people per day pass through Eindhoven, where the majority of flights are discount routes to tourist destinations across Europe, at the peak tourist season.

Yet, there was not a single negative comment about the airport itself or operations there.

We chose Eindhoven for our headquarters city because of its central location. And as you can read from the comments below, our expat audience is ready to travel to all points of the compass. And thanks to everyone who responded for your great suggestions.

Just some of the places Eindhoven’s expats want to go:

ASIA

Yolanda Huijts Maybe I am dreaming, but at least one connection to Asia would be perfect. Singapore or Kuala Lumpur would be perfect for connecting flights!

Hayley Chung Hong Kong would also be a good Asian airport with good onward transport links.

AUSTRIA

Vienna (Magdalena Muhr)

CANADA

Juliana Langen Canada! Preferably Calgary  🙂

CROATIA

Zagreb (Sanja Mesic, Erika Szilagyi)

FINLAND

Helsinki, Tampere, and Turku (Tero Pajunen and Tea Laiho)

FRANCE

Biarritz in France and Bilbao in Spain nearby

Egoitz LarraZuga Nice beaches, mountains, gastronomy. Nice destinations!

GERMANY

Frankfurt (Pius Bentgens)
Munich (Chrissi Schlueter The flights to Munich are going to be removed from November onwards. They should definitely keep them.)

GEORGIA

Tamara Pharadashvili
Margarita Melnikova-Sharova Armenia, Georgia or Moscow

GREECE

Elizabeth Ax Thessaloniki Greece. There are so so many people from this city living in Eindhoven.
John Kakoussis Let’s get another airline to Athens, Greece because now only Transavia makes it there. Ryan perhaps? That would be nice.
Katerina Tzigianni I suggest cheaper flights to go to Greece! It seems like Transavia knows when Greeks want to go to Greece and they raise the prices up to the sky. It is unfair! 

Elpi Mylona Araxos is an airport in the Peloponnese near many many touristic foundations and near many islands including Zakinthos and Kefallinia.

INDIA

Ritesh Agrawal Yes, I agree. Eindhoven needs more flights to India, with so many Indian expats flying in every day through Amsterdam. If someone is keen to work on the data, I don’t mind taking it to the airlines.

Bangalore (Vishwanath Ng, Rich Chalz, Suraj Kc and others)
Cochin (Rifat Kamarudheen, Chitra Arun, Reshmi Rajan)
Chenai
Hyderabad/Jaipur (Kalpesh Kashyap)
Mumbai (Jayant Pol, Zeeshan Shaikh, Bindu Upadhyay, Rupa Sangameswaran, Vivek Jaiswal, Sangeeta Rao and 10 others)
New Delhi (Arnica Aggarwal)

IRELAND

Dublin (Abby Gayle Sweeney, Declan McArdle)
Colin De Burca More flights to Dublin would be nice but I’ll be happy with flights to Greece or India too.
Shannon or Mayo (Be Ni Ceileachain)

ITALY

Giulia Spezzati Northern-west Italy. The Ryanair flights to Turin stopped long ago, and it seems that Ryanair will not start the Milano Malpensa ones, unfortunately….

Bari (Valentina Cass, Mariateresa Berardi, and six others.)

PHILIPINES

Liza Van Linder Quintos If you want to visit an archipelago of 7,100 islands, and the most beautiful beaches in the world, Manila has got to be on the list. The North was not even featured, rice terraces built by hand 2,000 years ago! Definitely a holiday destination!

ROMANIA

Bela MiraMe More flights to Cluj Napoca, Romania ????

RUSSIA

Hanna Kondrashova Moscow, St Petersburg, Minsk would be cool! I know many people who would enjoy it!

Moscow (Georgi Dinev and others)

SPAIN

Yolanda Treviño What about Northern Spain? For instance Bilbao, but there are other small airports around like Pamplona or Logroño.

SRI LANKA

Columbo (Samilus Puvirajesinghe and others)

SWITZERLAND

Anywhere in Switzerland (Nina Maurer)
Geneva (Jennifer Moiles)

TURKEY

Rana Ulusoy Flights to Turkey have been removed from the schedule, which I cannot really understand… So many Turkish families in the city! Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Ankara could be a few options.

Adana (Işıl Avcı Karaca)
Dalyan (Beste Sönmez)
Istanbul (Ufuk Erol, Berkay Elbir, Merdan Levent, Dürdane Jacobs, Beste Sönmez and 20 others.)

 UKRAINE

Lviv and Kiev (Lucia Lobont, Iryna Dovbush, Olga Alyeksyeyeva, Dana Shumanska, and 12 others)