Life science trade visit bound for Boston, USA on new direct flights from London Stansted

More than 20 businesses from across the Life Science sector are set to bang the East of England drum with a trade visit to celebrate the launch of Primera Air’s direct flight between London Stansted and Boston, USA.

The delegation, in partnership with Life Science membership organisation One Nucleus, includes representatives from businesses such as O₂h Ventures, Global Regulatory Services and Invest Essex. They headed off from Stansted yesterday to BIO 2018, the annual global Biotech and Pharma convention being held in Boston, Massachusetts this year. The international convention is attended by over 1,000 bio-technology companies, academic institutions, UK Department for International Trade and related organisations from across 30 nations and is one of the biggest and most closely-watched gatherings in the Life Sciences industry.

The delegation was joined by James Palmer, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, who is keen to help open up new trade links between the two life-science hubs in Cambridge and Boston to boost growth, investment and productivity across the region following a previous visit to the US earlier in the year.

The East of England region, including the London – Cambridge innovation corridor, is one of Europe’s leading life sciences clusters employing over 25,000 people across more than 600 businesses. The success is built on the strength of 37 research institutes and notable firms, including AstraZeneca in Cambridge, GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage, Public Health England in Harlow and the new Francis Crick Institute in London. It is hoped the direct service to Boston from London Stansted will drive large-scale growth by linking businesses across the region with investment and new trade opportunities from the US East Coast.

The new flights by Primera Air operate four times a week from London Stansted Airport to Boston Logan Airport on brand new 196 seat, two-class Airbus A321NEO aircraft.

Ken O’Toole, Chief Executive, London Stansted Airport said:

“We know that business leaders have long lobbied for a direct service to Boston, the world’s leading location for the life science sector. That is why we are pleased to be offering this new route with Primera Air, which will stimulate the vital flow of knowledge, investment and expertise between both locations, creating jobs and wealth in the process as well as saving vital time and costs by avoiding other London airports.

“It is the perfect illustration of the role direct connectivity plays in driving growth in high value sectors and will make a key contribution to realising the Government’s ambition for a Global Britain.”

Tony Jones, Chief Executive, One Nucleus said:

“The fact the annual BIO gathering is in Boston this year and we have a new direct flight from Stansted was an opportunity not to be missed for the life science community. Like Boston Route 128, the London-Cambridge Corridor is a leading centre of life-science creativity and innovation. Creating direct air links between our two clusters will provide better market access and collaboration, new trade opportunities and importantly improve business productivity by reducing travel times to other London airports.”

Sunil Shah, Chief Executive, O₂h, a leading company based at the Cambridge Science Park and specialising in nurturing and investing in emerging life science and tech companies said:

O₂h is one of the region’s most exciting communities of entrepreneurs in life-science, technology and social enterprise but what is critical to our success is international reach. We compete on a global scale with offices in India and the UK and investments across the world. New direct services from our local airport at Stansted to the US and the Middle East are gamechangers and a massive boost to our business.”

Mayor James Palmer, Mayor of Cambridge and Peterborough said:

“I am delighted that Primera Air has launched its direct flights between our deeply innovative region and our counterpart, Massachusetts in the US. I wish the airline every success and am keen to support it and Stansted’s ambition to attract new long-haul destinations to serve the East of England.”

Anastasija Visnakova, Primera Air, Chief Commercial Officer said:

“We are very pleased to see how well our new Boston route has been received by businesses from across the East of England. We already seeing very encouraging indicators in terms of load factors and overall demand for this service. With the quality of our Premium product we expect to see even more business travellers in future due to the strong cultural and growing science connections between Cambridge and Boston.”