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This month’s route news

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of August’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

AIRBERLIN launches a four-times weekly Stansted-Salzburg service on 2nd December.

CSA CZECH AIRLINES in has announced that it is cancelling its services to the UK from 31st October, after 72 years’ operation.

EASYJET launches a twice-weekly Gatwick-Luxor service on 3rd November, and a four-times weekly service from Gatwick to Zagreb on 11th February.

MEXICANA has ceased operation, and with it its Gatwick service.

OLYMPIC AIR will now be operating its new Thessaloniki-London route into Gatwick rather than Heathrow. The thrice-weekly service starts at the end of October.

RYANAIR launches services Gatwick to Bergamo, Bologna, Faro, Oslo (Rygge), Porto, Rome (Ciampino) and Seville at the beginning of November. A Luton-Fuerteventura service is launched on 5th November. From Stansted, Verona is launched on 31st October, with Plovdiv following on 2nd November, Grenoble on 18th December, and Cuneo and Lourdes in early January.

SAS is launching a Saturday-only Lulea-Heathrow service on 6th November.

British Isles: Other Airports

AERLINGUS’ Cork-Manchester service will be replaced by a twice-daily AerLingus Express service on 31st October, operated by AerArann.

EASYJET will be launching four-times weekly services from Edinburgh to Cologne on 26th November. A twice-weekly Belfast-Malta service is launched on 11th February.

RYANAIR launches a twice-weekly service from Edinburgh to Fuerteventura on 31st October, and a thrice-weekly service to Gothenburg on 3rd November. A weekly Cork-Fuerteventura service is launched on 31st October.

Rest-of-World Developments

AEGEAN AIRLINES is cancelling several services this autumn from its Athens base. Internationally, Tirana ends on 13th September, and Belgrade, Venice and Vienna will cease on 31st October.

AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS restarts its Buenos Aires-Mexico service on 11th December, on a daily basis.

AEROSVIT begins a four-times weekly Odessa-Milan service on 20th September.

AIR ASIA X launches a daily Kuala Lumpur-Seoul service on 1st November.

AIR CANADA is to maintain some of its new North American services through the coming winter. Routes from Toronto to Cincinnati, Portland and Syracuse were originally intended to be summer-only routes but will now be flown twice daily through to next year. The carrier launches a daily Vancouver-Tokyo Haneda service on 29th January.

AIR NIGERIA has launched a daily Lagos-Brazzaville service, operated via Cotonou and Douala.

ARMAVIA is introducing a twice-weekly Yerevan-Munich service on 2nd November.

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES is resuming its service to Lagos on 31st October, with the extension of its Guangzhou-Dubai route to Nigeria’s commercial capital, three times a week.

COMAIR (British Airways franchisee) launches a five-times weekly Johannesburg-Dar es Salaam service on 2nd November.

DELTA launches a daily New York JFK-Reykjavik service on 1st June 2011.

EGYPTAIR has launched a twice-weekly service to Juba in southern Sudan, operated via Khartoum.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES is introducing its first Boeing 777 this winter on its Addis Ababa-Washington route. The service will continue to be flown via Rome westbound, but eastbound it will be operated non-stop. Frequency increases to daily.

EVA AIRWAYS is launching a twice-daily Taipei-Tokyo Haneda service on 31st October.

FLYDUBAI launches a twice-weekly Dubai-Ekaterinburg service on 31st October.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES launches a four-times weekly Honolulu-Seoul service on 15th January.

ICELANDAIR has announced three summer-only services for next year, from Reykjavik to Billund, Gothenburg and Hamburg. Flights start in June 2011.

LAN ECUADOR launches a four-times weekly Guayaquil-Miami service on 4th October, to complement its daily service from Quito.

LAN PERU is launching a fiove-times weekly Lima-Montevideo service on 1st November.

OLYMPIC AIR is dropping its Athens-Milan Malpensa service from its winter schedule.

PACIFIC BLUE will be cancelling all its domestic services in New Zealand by 18th October.

TURKISH AIRLINES launches a four-times weekly service to Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok on 29th December.

VUELING launches a four-times weekly Bilbao-Milan Malpensa service on 31st October.

YEMENIA is launching a thrice-weekly service to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam from Sana’a this December.

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Get Your ESTA now!

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

If you do not already have an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation)for the USA you should apply on-line now. You do not need to have any trip planned to apply because trip details can be entered at a later date. At the moment, applying for an ESTA is free but a charge of $15 will be introduced within the next four months.

According to a deeply confused spokesperson from the Visit USA Association, this is good news for British travellers. Of the $15 fee, $5 will be taken to cover credit card and administration costs and the other $10 will go into promoting tourism.

That is a bit like saying visitors to Bucharest should be happy when their wallets are stolen because it is a means of pumping money into the local economy and will thus make the city a wealthier and more attractive destination for tourists.

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This month’s route news

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of March’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

CHINA AIRLINES launched a thrice-weekly Taipei-Heathrow service on 28th March.

LUFTHANSA is launching a daily Heathrow-Dresden service on 19th April, using bmi equipment.

SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES is launching a weekly service this summer between Minneapolis and Stansted with a technical stop at Gander. The service is scheduled to run from 11th June to 15th August.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC launches a thrice-weekly Heathrow-Accra service on 24th May.

British Isles: Other Airports

BMIBABY is launching a number of routes to Germany this autumn. A thrice-weekly East Midlands-Munich service starts on 17th September, with a six-times weekly service to Cologne following on 31st October. A four-times weekly Cardiff-Munich service and a six-times weekly Birmingham-Cologne service are also launched on that date.

FLYBE’s summer schedule offers 24 new routes (some previously mentioned), They were launched on 28th March unless otherwise stated. The new services are from Birmingham to Avignon, Limoges, Perpignan, and Rennes, all thrice weekly, and Bordeaux (four times weekly); Edinburgh to Manston (daily), and Limoges (twice weekly); Exeter to Hannover (thrice weekly); Guernsey to Belfast (twice weekly from 14th July to 28th August), Edinburgh (thrice weekly from 13th July to 31st August), Newcastle (twice weekly) and Norwich (weekly); Humberside to Belfast (four times weekly) and Malaga (weekly); Isle of Man to Bristol (four times weekly); Jersey to Prestwick (weekly from 19th June to 18th September) and Durham Tees Valley (weekly from 29th May to 18th September); Gatwick to Limoges (thrice weekly); Manchester to Avignon (twice weekly), Bournemouth (six times weekly), Bergerac (thrice weekly) and Limoges (thrice weekly); Newcastle to Hannover (thrice weekly); and from Southampton to Verona once a week.

JET2COM launches a twice-weekly Edinburgh-Palma service on 26th June.

KLM increased its Amsterdam-Edinburgh service from four to five a day on 28th March.

SPANAIR launches a four-times weekly Barcelona-Birmingham service on 20th May. A five-times weekly Barcelona-Edinburgh service follows on 21st May. A thrice-weekly service between Madrid and Birmingham is launched on 29th May.

VARSITY EXPRESS collapsed after one week’s trading.

VUELING starts a thrice-weekly Barcelona–Edinburgh service on 24th June, in direct competition to Spanair (see above).

Rest-of-World Developments

AIR FRANCE has postponed the launch of its service to Bata until 21st June. It is launching a non-stop Paris CDG-Ho Chi Minh service on 30th October, to be operated thrice weekly.

ALITALIA is resuming flights to Jordan on 10th June, with a four-times weekly Rome-Amman service.

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES is to launch a Guangzhou–Brisbane–Auckland service this autumn.

EGYPTAIR is launching a Saturdays-only service between Cairo and Paphos on 17th April, operated twice on the same day to facilitate day trips.

HONG KONG AIRLINES launches a four-times weekly Hong Kong-Moscow (Sheremetyevo) service on 28th June.

KLM will launch a thrice-weekly Amsterdam-Hangzhou service on 8th May.

LUFTHANSA launches a daily Munich-Chisinau service on 22nd April, its first route to Moldova. On 25th April it will launch a four-times weekly Frankfurt-Erbil route, marking the resumption of service to Iraq after 20 years’ suspension.

ORENAIR is launching three summer-only routes to Dusseldorf, from Chelyabinsk, Omsk and Orenburg, starting in mid May.

PIA PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES is launching a twice-weekly Lahore-Dhaka-Guangzhou service on 29th April. The airline last served Guangzhou over 30 years ago. The airline is also resuming services to Chicago in June.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES launches a twice-daily Singapore-Tokyo (Haneda) service on 31st October.

TAP PORTUGAL operated its last service to Paris CDG on 31st March. From 1st April, all operations to/from Paris will be consolidated at Orly. On 1st June, the airline launches a thrice-weekly Lisbon-Algiers service, some months later than previously announced.

TRANSAERO launches a twice-weekly Moscow (Domodedovo)-Beijing service on 4th June.

US AIRWAYS launches a daily Charlotte-Ottawa service on 31st May.

VIRGIN AMERICA is planning to launch its first international routes this June, from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Toronto.

VLADIVOSTOK AIR commenced twice-weekly services to Tokyo (Narita) from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok on 28th March.

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AirlineMeals.net returns!

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

After a hiatus of nearly three years, one of the web’s most compelling “roadkill” websites is back on line. If you aren’t familiar with AirlineMeals.net and have nothing to do for the next couple of hours, you could do worse than click through to revel in the photographic evidence (over 17,000 pix!) of the culinary offerings being made by the world’s airlines. Meals can be searched by airline, class of travel, dietary requirement, and more. They range from utter swill, through visually dire but possibly quite tasty, to pretty marvellous-looking.

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Oman Air claims first place with in-flight wifi

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Oman Air has become the world’s first long-haul airline to offer mobile phone access and broadband internet to its passengers in flight. The company has just announced that passengers can now use wifi internet and their mobile phones on its Muscat-Heathrow service, and is planning to extend the service to other routes.

Onboard communications will be charged by the home mobile service provider at international roaming rates, as is the case when using mobile phone abroad.

British Airways currently uses a similar but less versatile system on its London City – JFK premium service. At the other end of the market, Ryanair in Europe and US LLC Southwest are also ahead of the game in developing connectivity for their fleets.

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New UK airline slips under the radar – almost

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

With very little publicity beyond the a story in the Oxford Mail, a couple of travel industry mags and blogs, and a short item in the Sunday Times business section, the UK begat a new airline earlier this month in the form of Varsity Express. Martin Halstead is the character behind the enterprise. Now 23, he was dubbed “Baby Branson” when at 19 he founded the short-lived Alpha One Airways. Hopes are higher for this new venture. Service kicks off with a weekday Oxford-Edinburgh service launching on 1st March, which goes to double weekday from 15th April,  the second flight routing via Newcastle. The opening offer is an all-in one-way fare of only £49. The pundits suspect that this will soon be going up given the constraints of the 15-seat Jetstream being used.

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Qantas to scrap A380 First-class

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Despite this blog’s consistent evangelism for the future of First-class, news from Down Under suggests our confidence may be misplaced. This Qantas press release reports that the airline is to start removing first class cabins from its B747-400s and installing business class flatbed seats as used in its A380s from the end of 2011. The first 12 A380s in the fleet will keep First-class, but those being delivered from 2012 will have only economy, premium economy, and business classes.

Why this move? Well the explanation given is on the wooly side, but the nub of it is, according to CEO Alan Joyce that

“While some travel markets are recovering from the economic crisis, our assessment of longer term travel trends, which pre-dates the economic crisis, shows that international premium travel demand is changing.”

Meaning: while routes to London and Los Angeles will continue to offer First-class, don’t expect it to survive on any of their other services.

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Upbeat noises from BA

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Business Week reports that British Airways is considering expanding its all-business-class service to the U.S. from London City. CEO Willie Walsh is quoted as saying that new destinations such as Boston and Washington are being considered now that the City-JFK service is achieving load factors of  75%, at high yield.

In other news, BA’s new  first class cabin has just been launched this week. Featuring seats that are “60% wider at the shoulder, a personal wardrobe, leather-bound writing tables that convert into dining surfaces, a 15″ entertainment screen, noise-cancelling headsets and the first electronic blinds on a commercial airliner”, it’s the airline’s first redesign in a decade. And apparently Openskies is expanding as well. All good news indeed from an airline that was in the pits over Christmas. it’s  just a shame Willie hasn’t got an agreement with the unions yet.

Read the article.

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This month’s route news

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of January’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

Aer Lingus is cutting many of its Gatwick services, less than a year after opening a new base at the airport. From the end of March, only Malaga, Dublin, Knock and Cork will be served. Routes to Knock, Faro, Nice, Malaga, Zurich, Vienna, Munich, Bucharest, Eindhoven, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Warsaw and Vilnius will cease.

Air Seychelles launches a weekly service to Gatwick from Mahe on 19th April. The airline will continue to serve Heathrow twice weekly.

Bmi is reducing its Heathrow–Dublin frequency from seven services a day to four from 28th March. On that day it will be launching a twice-daily Heathrow–Vienna service, one of which will be replacing one previously operated by fellow Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines.

China Eastern plans to resume its four-times weekly Shanghai–Heathrow service on 28th March.

Easyjet has announced four new services from Stansted, to Dalaman, Bodrum, Split and Dubrovnik, all to be launched this May.

Emirates has announced a new start date of 1st July for a second daily Airbus A380 service between Heathrow and Dubai.

British Isles: Other Airports

AirBaltic is launching services from Vilnius to Dublin and Manchester this summer.  From the end of March, Dublin will be served four times weekly, and Manchester twice.

CSA Czech Airlines is resuming its Prague–Manchester service six times a week from 28th March.

Flybe has announced plans to increase the frequency of its Southampton–Dublin service to four per day on Friday and three per day on Sundays from 14th May. It also plans to launch a three-times weekly summer service between Birmingham and Perpignan.

Emirates will be offering first class on its Dubai–Manchester service from September, with the introduction of the Airbus A380 on the route.

Pakistan International has terminated its Lahore–Glasgow service.

Rest-of-World Developments

Air China launches a twice-weekly Shanghai–Chengdu–Bangalore service at the end of February.

Austrian is cancelling its Vienna–Ekaterinburg and Vienna–Odessa services on 28th March. Odessa, however, will still be available as a codeshare service operated by Ukraine International.

Hainan Airlines launches a thrice-weekly Shanghai–Brussels  service on 28th May.

KLM launches a thrice weekly Amsterdam–Hangzhou service on 8th May.

Royal Air Maroc launches new services from Casablanca to Bangui and Pointe Noire on 28th March.

Qatar Airways launches a four-times weekly Doha–Copenhagen service on 30th March.

Yakutia is launching a four-times weekly summer service between Omsk and Hanover on 12th June.



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Esoteric route watch – Vanity Flying

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Wales’ one and only domestic air route is under threat. Highland Airways‘ twice weekday service between Cardiff and Anglesey has a question mark hanging over it because its operator is facing “difficult trading” conditions. Online booking is currently suspended, according to the BBC. The Beeb also reports that the Welsh Assembly has been supporting the service to the tune of £800,000 per year – that’s over £44 for for every seat available, sold or otherwise, on the 18-seat Jetstream that flies the route. Daft or what? One doesn’t have to wear woad or have hippy parents to sympathise with Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams when she says “[i]t is now time to end this costly debacle before even more public money is poured into a service that is both economically and environmentally unsustainable.”

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