Travel News
Arik Air re-launches London to Abuja route
Since terminating its 5 services per week between London and Abuja in October, Nigeria's flag carrier has announced it will re-commence the route with increased capacity as early as mid December. The airline discontinued the service back in October without providing formal justification but now plans to re-connect the two cities on a daily basis.
Passengers can expect to fly on a B737-800 aircraft consisting of a 2-class configuration (16 seats in business class and 126 in economy). Arik Air also links London Heathrow to Lagos on a daily basis, Nigeria's largest city.
The airline has since explained the reasons behind the initial termination of the route, which involved “extraneous factors including operational considerations to support the regional programme ahead of the airline’s launch to new destinations in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali"
Industrial Strike Action Weds 30th November 2011
Passengers due to arrive into a UK airport on Wednesday 30 November 2011 are likely to experience significant queues and delays at passport control as a result of industrial action by public sector staff, including the UK Border Agency staff and Immigration Control.
The management of the UK Border Agency will do everything they can to minimise disruption for passengers travelling to the UK whilst ensuring that the UK Border remains secure.
How you can help:
- Passengers are being advised to have passports and any travel documents available and out of wallets
- Use automatic e-passport gates where available
- Check the airport website for live flight information and updates on how the industrial action is affecting local passenger traffic
It is anticipated there will be less UK Border Agency Staff on duty at the airports therefore fast track channels will not be available. Some airlines are permitting changes to be made to flights arriving into the UK during this 24-hour period. Should you wish to change your flight to avoid possible disruption to your travel plans please contact one of our consultants who will be able to advise if your airline has implemented a policy to permit changes as a result of the industrial action.
For further information on the planned industrial action, please visit the UK Border Agency Website:
Virgin to launch Twitter Flight Update Scheme
In a brand new scheme to gain access to up-to-date flight information, Virgin Atlantic passengers are able to tweet their flight number and departure date in exchange for their flight status on the microblogging site Twitter. The service, which is available to passengers at twitter.com/VAAInfo, is hoped to be of use for those customers who just simply require a real-time update on their flight or for friends/relatives who want to know when a flight is due to arrive. For a multi-leg journey, passengers will be asked the airport code of their most recent departure. This new and innovative service is likely to take some of the weight from the Virgin Atlantic Customer Service Team for simple queries regarding flight information.
Qatar Airways to serve 7 new destinations in 2012
Qatar Airways has recently announced it is to add a further 7 destinations to its rapidly-growing existing network, highlighting the airline’s plans for global expansion during 2012. Spreading across 4 continents, the destinations to be served by Qatar Airways are Perth, Helsinki, Zanzibar, Gassim, Zangreb, Kigali and Mombasa. Flights will be operated from the airline’s hub in Doha and will be available as of 1st February 2012. The CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, further emphasises the expansion plans and states ‘We are continuing what we started back in 1997 when Qatar Airways was launched with new routes and new aircraft being introduced at an unprecedented rate to further strengthen what is truly a global network airline.’ These new routes will join the recently announced Baku and Tbilisi destinations that are also available as of early next year.
Increase in BAA Traffic throughout April
BAA has recently published figures which highlights an increase in passenger traffic through its airports in April compared to the same period last year, which saw the UK market devastated by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud crisis. The group announced that 9.1 million passengers travelled from its UK airports in April, an increase of 31.1% from the same period in 2010. Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, explained that "the underlying trend is obscured by the severe disruption in air travel in April 2010 caused by the volcanic ash cloud, by the Easter holidays falling entirely in April this year and by the extra... holiday for the Royal Wedding."
Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, saw a vast surge in passenger numbers compared to the previous year, rising 31.5 % to 5.8 million whilst Stansted Airport and BAA’s Scottish airports have also seen a sharp rise in passenger numbers.
Iberia announces connection between Madrid and Moroccan capital
One of Spain’s leading airlines has recently announced plans to link Madrid to the Moroccan capital of Rabat. Iberia plans to launch the route from 1st July and will offer 2 flights per week, consequently making it the only airline that connects the 2 capital cities. Flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays using an Airbus A320 and will consist of economy and business cabins. According to Iberia, the convenient departure times facilitate easy connections via Madrid for short haul cities such as London
Iberia currently serves 3 other destinations in Morocco (Casablanca, Marrakesh and Tangier) and carried 220,000 passengers there last year alone. The news will be welcomed by UK holidaymakers as the announcement suggests that tourists will have a wider variety of travel options to the resort, allowing airlines to enter into a price battle to win custom.
Free 24hr City Card with Scandinavian Airlines
Discover the Scandinavian capitals with free transport, free entry to museums and attractions simply by booking a return SAS flight to Copenhagen or Stockholm in March.
Qatar quit Gatwick
Qatar Airways are set to pull out of Gatwick this summer due to “commercial reasons”. It has been suggested that the flights from Gatwick have failed to attract a sufficient number of business travellers in order to sustain the route.
Qatar’s final flight will take place on 31st May and their departure follows two other Middles-Eastern airlines (Etihad and Oman Air) leaving just Emirates as the airports only major east-bound, long-haul carrier.
Qatar will still have a London presence and operate, unchanged, out of Heathrow. Meanwhile Manchester will see an increase in flights from 1st June whereby a double-daily service will operate.
Etihad double Manchester flights
Etihad have announced that flights between Manchester and Abu Dhabi are set to increase from 7 to 14 flights a week.
The airline previously announced flights on this route would increase to 10 weekly but have since decided to further increase the frequency. This move follows the opening of a First and Business class lounge at Manchester Airport late last year.
Stansted gains approval
Stansted Airport has taken a leap in prominence after being awarded Code F status by the Civil Aviation Authority. This change in status now gives Stansted the approval to handle the larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-87. This will definitely attract different carriers to the airport such as Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Air France and Emirates who are currently using the Airbus A380. Emirates have already expressed an interest by naming Stansted as their alternative airport.
The Civil Aviation Authority has recently awarded Stansted Airport the authority to land Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-87.
Air Berlin to join Oneworld
Air Berlin are officially set to Join the Oneworld airline alliance. They will start flying as a member of Oneworld in early 2012, just in time for the opening of the airline’s new hub “Berlin Brandenburg International”.
Air Berlin will now be able to offer many more destinations by code sharing with other members of Oneworld. It has been suggested that code sharing will be carried out with American Airlines/Finnair and agreements with BA and Iberia will hopefully follow.
Thai Airways joint venture low cost carrier
Thai Airways and Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd will join forces in order to launch a new budget airline named “Thai Tiger Airways”. This new airline is expected to begin flying within the first quarter of 2011. Thai Tiger Airways will be based in Bangkok and offer both domestic and international flights, travelling up to five hours away from their hub.
The Far East has seen a rapid expansion in the low cost carrier market with airlines such as Air Asia and Jetstar already offering low cost fares. The competition in this market is always expanding, Japan’s All Nippon Airways have also expressed an interest in setting up a budget airline within a similar time frame.
BA expands network from London City
The 12th September will see BA launch a new service from London City Airport to the Danish capital Copenhagen, going into direct competition with the Danish carrier Cimber Sterling. Copenhagen is a popular destination for both leisure/business travellers alike and has seen an increase in demand.
The service will be operated by BA’s CityFlyer service and will run twice daily on weekdays with one flight from London city on Saturdays and one from Copenhagen on Sundays. BA claim that this will offer a quicker service (due to the aircraft used) at double the capacity than the current competitor.
This announcement comes just one week after the news that BA will begin operating a twice daily route to Gothenburg from the central London airport.
British Airways' Biofuel Plans
British Airways has announced plans to power part of its fleet with biofuel from 2014. The carrier is working in partnership with the Solena Group, “a next-generation, zero-emission, bioenergy company based in Washington DC”, to open a factory in East London that will convert organic waste into biofuel.
BA claims that the volume of biofuel it will produce annually would be more that twice the amount required to make all of its flights from London City airport carbon neutral – the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road per year.
New Manchester service to Athens and onwards to Iraq
Greek carrier Viking Hellas has started scheduled flights from Manchester to Athens, as well as several services to destinations in Iraq.
The new airline – a subsidiary of charter carrier Viking Airlines – commenced three times-weekly flights (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from Manchester to the Greek capital on February 1, and plans to increase this to four times per week from the start of March.
The carrier has also launched weekly scheduled services to Erbil, Sulaymanyiah and Baghdad in Iraq, and says that timings have been designed to provide onward connection opportunities for UK passengers looking to reach Iraq.
Brussels Airlines expands into Africa
Star Alliance member Brussels Airlines will offer four new African routes to Accra (Ghana), Cotonou (Benin), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Lome (Togo) from this July. The airline already offers an extensive African network, and the new routes means it will operate a total of 18 destinations on the African continent. The routes will be served by A330 aircraft, with four flights per week to Accra, and two per week to each of Cotonou, Ouagadougou and Lome.
Scandinavian Airlines speeds transfers in Copenhagen
Scandinavian Airlines has announced the introduction of its World Class Transfer at Copenhagen Airport. The project objective is to enable passengers to travel with SAS via Copenhagen and connect to another flight within 30 or 35 minutes making connections to their onwards connections to Scandinavia and its entire network more seamless.
