Virgin Atlantic announces route from Gatwick Airport to Kingston Jamaica

Virgin Atlantic has started operating flights on its new route between Gatwick Airport and Kingston in Jamaica. The direct service flys four times a week between the two destinations. Kingston is the carrier's eighth Caribbean destination adding to its list of destinations including Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia and Grenada.

BMI announces 17 new destinations from Heathrow

The British airline BMI has launched 17 new destinations from its hub at London Heathrow Airport this week. The new destinations are: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Aleppo, Syria; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Amman, Jordan; Ankara, Turkey; Baku, Azerbajan; Beirut, Lebanon; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; Damascus, Syria; Ekaterinburg, Russia; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Khartoum, Sudan; Tbilisi, Georgia; Tehran, Iran and Yerevan, Armenia.

Heathrow Airport voted the world's least favourite

Heathrow was voted the world's least favourite airport and came joint top with Chicago in a survey of 2,500 travellers carried out by the travel organisation TripAdvisor.

The poll asked travellers to rate 36 airports in terms of how easy they were to navigate, cleanliness of lavatories and the quality of parking facilities

The survey also showed that 90% of British travellers opposed plans which would allow passengers to use mobile phones during flights.

Taxi drivers banned from Edinburgh Airport

A number of taxi drivers have been banned from Edinburgh Airport for blocking an exit road for buses and coaches. 62 taxis have received a three-month ban after falling foul of the airport's rules on waiting for fares.

The rank is one of the city's busiest but has only 22 spaces. This means a number of cabs queue on the road in front of the terminal building and cause congestion and block the path of buses and emergency vehicles.

Ryanair vorted worst airline by UK travellers for second year

A third of people in Britain voted the Irish no-frills airline their least favourite citing giving delays, cancellations, unfriendly staff, uncomfortable seats and poor legroom as the main reasons.

US Airways was voted the least favourite airline worldwide over Ryanair. Ryanair flies 28 routes out of Glasgow Prestwick Airport to destinations including Paris, Rome and Dublin.

British Airways, which came top in the TripAdvisor survey last year, slipped to third place overall but was voted top airline by travellers outside the US.

Newcastle flights to Toronto next Sping

Canadian Affair are the UK’s largest tour operator to Canada and they will return to Newcastle Airport next year to offer flights to Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Weekly flights will depart every Wednesday from May 21 2008 and one-way tickets will start from £99 with child for those travelling with children under 12 years of age.

Christian Slater launches American Airlines operation at London Stansted

American Airlines is the the world's biggest air carrier and they touched down at Stansted airport for the first time today, marking the beginning of a new economy and business class link to New York JFK.

Hollywood actor Christian Slater attended the launch ceremony and cut the ribbon to mark the start of the service. The new American Airlines service will operate on a daily basis but a second daily flight is due to be addedd next spring.

This route is one of many new ones at Stansted with Eastern Airways flying to Manchester, Ryanair launching to Billund in Denmark, easyJet flying to Madeira and TACV launching a connection to Cape Verde.

Bmi announces growth in long haul services

BMI Airlines has experienced significant growth since introducing a long-haul service from Manchester to Barbados three years ago. They have added 17 additional routes to complement destinations including Chicago and Las Vegas and installed flat-bed reclining seats in the business-class cabins.

The airline has achieved on average 85% of capacity on most of its flights.

Jet2 receives Best Short Haul Airline Aware

Jet2.com has been awarded the title of Best Short Haul Airline by readers of The Guardian, The Observer and the Guardian Unlimited website for the second year running.

The airline fought off competition from a number of different airlines with the Dutch airline KLM coming second and bmi third,

Ryanair release thousands of seats for seven euros from Belfast City Airport

Ryanair is releasing 100 thousand seats for €7 five days before the launch of its new base at Belfast City Airport. This knock down price includes taxes and charges and the seats are for travel from November to January from Belfast city to East Midlands, Glasgow, Liverpool and London.

The no-frills airline says that if passengers can find a lower fare on the same routes out of Belfast or Lough Neagh airports they will pay double the difference.

Easyjet poined to take over GB AIrways at Manchester Airport

Easyjet operates 19 routes from Liverpool John Lennon airport and is now hoping to expand into Manchester Airport with a £103.5m takeover of GB Airways.

GB currently operates as a BA franchise out of Gatwick and Heathrow airports, and Manchester operates six routes to Heraklion, Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria, Malta, Paphos in Cyprus and Tenerife South.

Proposed new routes from Aberdeen Airport

The British Airport Authority is hoping to introduce several new destinations at Aberdeen Airport after the low-cost airline Flyglobespan cut several of their routes to Alicante, Cyprus, Faro, Madeira, Palma and Prague in addition to a summer service to Jersey.

The airport is the fastest growing in Scotland with passengers in August up 10.5% on the previous year.Proposed new routes from Aberdeen include Stansted, Cardiff, Corfu, Athens or Crete, Lanzarote, Milan, Grenoble, Munich or Frankfurt, Warsaw and other eastern European cities. It is also hoped a service to Geneva can be introduced.

First Choice Holidays increase routes from Exeter Airport

First Choice Holidays will launch a new service to Rhodes from mid-July next year, and increase the frequency of flights on its Larnaca, Corfu and Palma routes from Exeter Airport.

First Choice now offer year round holidays from Exeter with three new routes to Corfu, Ibiza and Rhodes, in addition to their existing destinations including Lapland, Majorca, Portugal, Tenerife and Turkey.

Future of Newquay Airport secured

The European Union has agreed a funding package of more than £40 million to provide
better ground facilities and fire and air traffic control services at Newquay Airport.


The funding package includes money from European Objective One, the Government and the Regional Development Agency. A final figure has not yet been finalised, but it is expected to be in the region of £44 million.

Thomsonfly suspends its service from Coventry to Barcelona

The low cost charter airine Thomsonfly has suspended its service from Coventry to Barcelona because of competition from other airports in the region.

The last flight for the popular Spanish city will take off from Coventry Airport on 1st November and Thomsonfly have said that the service will not run over the winter months but will be reviewed next year.

David Gray asks Norwich Airport to stay open for him

Singer David Gray has asked his local airport to stay open 45 minutes laer than usual so a private jet can bring him home from a charity concert in Scotland.

David has sold more than eleven million albums andf will be special guest at a charity function in aid of Clyde Radio's Cash For Kids Charity in Glasgow.

David needs to be back home tomorrow night but Norwich Airport shuts at 10.15pm, but being a superstar has its advantages and airport has agreed to help out.

Ryanair launches more low fares at Belfast City Airport

Ryanair is launching a new low-fares revolution at Belfast City airport from 30th October.

The carrier will base a new Boeing 737-800 aircraft there and guarantee the lowest fares from any airport in Belfast. They have released 100,000 seats for travel in November, December and January across its new routes from Belfast City to the East Midlands, Glasgow, Liverpool and London.

Emergency landing at Exeter Airport

A Spanair passenger jet flying from La Palma to Trondheim in Norway was forced to make an emergency landing at Exeter Airport yesterday after a passenger had a heart attack.

The man had gone into cardiac arrest but was successfully removed from the aircraft and was last night fighting for his life at the Royal Devon & Execter Hospital.

Virgin Atlantic Co-pilot arrested at Heathrow

A Virgin Atlantic co-pilot has been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of being over the legal alcohol limit.

The 42-year-old first officer was arrested on Sunday morning and the 266 passengers on the Miami-bound flight were delayed while a replacement was found.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said the man was later freed on bail and it is believed he was acting as relief first officer providing cover for the captain and his co-pilot in the unlikely event that they both became unable to fly the plane.

Improved train service at Luton Airport Parkway

Luton Airport Parkway Station is the first to benefit from the £5.5bn Thameslink upgrade programme. Its four platforms are set to be extended by 80 metres over the next 12 months, enabling a 50% increase in capacity by providing longer trains and extra peak-time services.

Similar improvements will follow at the 22 other stations on the Thameslink route, aiming to improve trips to London in time for the 2012 Olympics and also to provide a direct link to St Pancras International and Eurostar services to Europe.

National Express launches new airport transfer service in London

In November 2007 National Express will launch dot2dot which is a a new airport transfer service operating between Heathrow and Gatwick airports and central London hotels.

dot2dot have been working with IT services company Concentra to develop a state of the art website which collects all the details of when and where passengers wish to travel, and prepares a tailor made itinerary to meet their requirements.

The website advises passengers when they should travel, suggested pick up times, check in time at the airport and drive times. For visitors to London, it removes the anxiety associated with planning travel in an unfamiliar city.

Flybe opens 4 more Executive Lounges

Flybe has unveiled its new flagship Executive Lounges at Manchester, Exeter, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports as well as fully refurbishing its existing lounge at Jersey.


The new lounges offer panoramic views of the airport runways,plasma TV screens, Wi-Fi facilities, work stations and a café lounge seating area serving refreshments.

GB Airways Purchased by Easyjet

GB Airways flys to destinations across Southern Europe and North Africa under a franchise agreement with British Airways. It operates 39 routes (28 from Gatwick, 6 from Manchester and 5 from Heathrow).

The acquisition of GB Airways will strengthen easyJet's operations at Gatwick which is the airline’s biggest base. Following the purchase easyJet will operate 24% of Gatwick’s slots and will fly approximately 8 million passengers across 62 routes.


GB Airways will continue to operate all routes under the British Airways banner until March 29th 2008: after which flights will come under the easyJet brand. It is anticipated that by winter next year GB Airways will be fully consolidated into the easyJet business

Trials for opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport

When it opens in March 2008 Terminal 5 will be able to cope with 35 million passengers a year, enabling Heathrow to handle many more flights than the 480,000 take-offs and landings that are at present allowed by the Government. BAA hopes that this limit will be increased once Terminal 5 is fully operational and are recruiting 15,000 volunteers to take part in 100 trials of the £4.3 billion terminal’s check-in, security search and baggage systems. The trials began this month and the biggest which due to take place in Decemberwill involve 2,000 volunteers.

New routes from Exeter Airport

First Choice Holidays are offering year-round routes to the sun by basing an Airbus A320 at Exeter all year round, rather than just in the winter as before. They are opening up three new routes to Corfu, Ibiza and Rhodes, in addition to existing destinations including Lapland, Majorca, Portugal, Tenerife and Turkey.

First Choice is also considering flying the new Boeing Dreamliner 787 plane from Exeter to long-haul destinations including the USA and Far East. There are already long-haul flights from Exeter on two routes to Toronto, but the introduction of the Dreamliner would open up new long-haul destinations from the region.

Exeter airport was purchased from Devon County Council by Regional and City Airports in January and there are plans to redevelop the airport with new terminal facilities and a new departures building by 2010.

Spain most popular choice for half term holidays

Officials at Gatwick have said that Malaga is the most popular holiday hotspot for families taking advantage of the week-long break from school, with other popular Spanish destinations including Tenerife, Palma de Mallorca and Alicante. Almost 500,000 passengers passed through the Gatwick between Friday October 19th and Monday 22nd, with Friday being the busiest of the four key days for half-term travel

Edinburgh, Faro in Portugal, Dalaman in Turkey, Orlando in Florida and Amsterdam were the other top destinations.

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics illustrate that Britons heading overseas rose by one million in the 12 months to August, with trips to long-haul destinations rising by 7%.

British Airways ban on carrying surfboards between Gatwick and Newquay Airports

Surfers are calling on British Airways to reverse a ban on carrying boards which is due to start on 6 November and include BA flights between London Gatwick and Newquay in Cornwall which is one of the UK's main surfing destinations.

BA says that due to handling complexities it will no longer carry surfboards, hang-gliders, javelins, canoes and pole vaults. Members of the Newquay-based British Surfing Association (BSA) are appealing against the decision and have said they find it extremely hard to believe that the average surfboard would be more difficult to handle than a double bass.

Easyjet celebrates ten years at Liverpool John Lennon Airport

The carrier's first route from the Merseyside hub took off on October 27, 1997 - two years after easyJet was originally established. Now Easyjet has eight aircraft based at the airport and flies 2.5 million passengers on 19 different European routes ever year.

Celebrations will go on at Liverpool Airport all this week, including competitions, parties and champagne for passengers.

Ryanair and AerLingus launch new routes at both Belfast Airports

Belfast is set for more destinations as Aer Lingus and Ryanair start flights from their new bases at Belfast International Airport and Belfast City Airport.

Ryanair is launching a four times a day service from George Best Belfast City airport to London Stansted on 30 October. The airline will also fly from there twice daily from Liverpool, and daily to East Midlands and Prestwick airports.

Aer Lingus is launching a new hub at Belfast International Airport in December which is its first base outside the Republic of Ireland. Eight routes will commence over a three month period, including three flights a day to Heathrow from 14 January.

The other new routes are Amsterdam, Barcelona and Geneva from 10 December, and Rome, Budapest, Malaga and Faro from 25 February.

New V Room at Gatwick Airport

Virgin Holidays have announced a new concept called the V Room which is due to open in spring 2008 at Gatwick Airport. It will occupy 7,340 square feet and be for the exclusive use of Virgin Holiday's customers - changing the concept of VIP lounges forever.

The V ROOM will offer runway views from floor to ceiling windows and will feature three areas: kids, adults-only and family. The family-friendly space will offer soft play area, telescopes and some exciting games which are currently under wraps.

Swissport job cuts at Stansted Airport

Ryanair's decision to reduce its flights from Stansted by 20% over the winter months means the amount of staff Swissport now require to supply ground handling services to the airline will decrease. This could possibly result in up to 60 redundancies.

137 passengers have narrow escape at Edinburgh Airport

A Centralwings Boeing 737 carrying 137 passengers averted disaster after a security officer spotted a hole in its fuselage and radioed the control tower to give the warning as the flight prepared to take-off from Edinburgh Airport. The jet had been damaged when a tow truck pulling it away from the terminal building backed the plane against an airfield blast barrier yesterday morning.

A hole the size of a football was torn in the fuselage near the wings of the plane which was bound for Gdansk in Poland.

Bristol Airport Expansion allows new routes to be introduced

The expansion of Bristol International Airport has broadened the routes available to local people, with Ryanair's recent announcement of new services from Bristol to Bergerac (Dordogne), Beziers (Languedoc) and Pau (Pyrenees-Atlantiques) next month.

This should boost the accessibility of France to holidaymakers in the south-west of England, and also open up new investment opportunities for foreign property buyers

Gatwick named as best UK Airport for fourth time

Gatwick Airport has been named the UK's Best Airport at the Travel Bulletin Awards. It was the fourth time that the airport had received the award made by travel agents across the UK.

The Best UK Regional Airport was named as East Midlands, which beat off competition from Birmingham and Manchester.

East Midlands Airport also scooped the World's Leading Eco-Friendly Airport prize at the recent World Travel Awards, because of initiatives including aiming to be carbon neutral by 2012, installing environmentally friendly features such as ground heating pumps, and planning to install wind turbine

New route to France from Southampton Airport

Travellers using Southampton Airport will have greater access to France with a new service to be provided by Eastern Airways.

The UK regional carrier Eastern Airways will fly from Southampton to Angers Loire on its first scheduled route to France. The flights will commence on November 15th and depart on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Eastern Airways' fast track security channel at Southampton Airport means that passengers will be able to check in just 30 minutes before boarding


This air service is important to businesses in the Hampshire region with links to the Loire Valley, as well as those travelling on holiday.

Kylie Minogue jets off from Heathrow

Kylie Minogue was spotted boarding a plane at Heathrow Airport on Friday with her friend William Baker. They are apparently are headed to Marrakech for a much needed vacation before the promo for Kylie's new single Two Hearts is officially released.

Passenger planes collide at Heathrow Airport

Passengers were evacuated after a British Airways Boeing 747 clipped the wing of a Maldives-bound Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus A340 as they taxied on a runway in preparation for take-off

The London Fire Brigade said nobody was injured in the incident.Three months ago two British Airways planes were involved in a similar collision when they ran into each other while one was reversing.

The latest incident once again raises concerns over safety procedures at Heathrow which is one of the world's busiest airports.

Expansion of Bristol Airport halted

The plans to expand the terminal and car park at Bristol International Airport have been delayed to carry out more research into the airport's effect on the environment. Airport bosses wanted to submit a planning application to the local council this autumn but now hope they can do this by the middle of 2008 in the hope the expansion will still happen within three years.

Anti-airport expansion campaigners welcomed the move and said it showed the success of their operations.

Virgin Atlantic discussing purchase of 10 new long haul planes out of Gatwick Airport

Virgin Atlantic is in talks with Boeing and Airbus about ordering 10 next-generation fuel-efficient aircraft to operate Virgin Atlantic services out of Gatwick Airport

The order could be for 747-8s or A380s which would start operating around the time of the Olympics in 2012. Virgin Atlantic will take a decision by May next year."

In April, Virgin placed an order for 15 of Boeing's new carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner jets worth around $2.8 billion (1.37 billion pounds) to be mostly based at Heathrow airport.

Virgin currently has six A380s on order from 2013.

Polish plane hits blast barrier at Edinburgh Airpor

More than 130 passengers were taken off a Central Wings plane bound for Poland after it accidentally struck a blast barrier at Edinburgh Airport. The flight was due to leave for Gdansk in Poland.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said that a tug had pushed the plane into a barrier resulting in damage.

Posh and Scary Spice arrive at London Heathrow Airport

Spice Girls Victoria Beckham and Melanie Brown were spotted arriving at Heathrow hand in hand to commence shooting the video for their new single Headlines.

There are rumours that trouble is brewing up among the five members of the Spice Girls while they prepare for their reunion tour

Bookmakers Ladbrokes are offering odds of 1-4 that the group will be ruling the charts before the New Year, and 3-1 that the band will be this year's Christmas Number One.

The band start their global tour in the United States on 7 December which is 10 years after they last performed in public together

Exeter Airport on full alert when plane lands with burst tyre

A pilot radioed Exeter Airport's air traffic control after the plane's front inner tyre burst on take-off from Amsterdam and passengers were told to adopt the brace position while the Flybe flight. The airport was placed on full alert, with emergency services on stand-by.

A Flybe spokesman said the Bombardier Q400 landed safely and none of the 56 passengers or four crew were injured.

Special Olympics Games team arrive back at Edinburgh Arport

Athletes from the Capital and West Lothian who took part in the Special Olympic Games games in China were given a rousing welcome when they returned to Edinburgh Airport from Shanghai earlier this week.

The games featured more than 10,000 athletes and coaches from 170 countries, competing in more than 20 different sports. The team from Great Britain won an incredible 224 medals which included golds won by Edinburgh's David Fergus in the aquatics, and those won by Andrew Brown, Kenneth Bryson, William Clark, David Dodds, and Richard Hendry from Westfield, West Lothian, in the football squad.

Problem with Flyglobespan flights to North America

Flyglobespan has had its ETOPS licence (which lets it fly over large expanses of water with two engines) suspended. This has come about as a result of serious concerns about its operations with several of the Edinburgh-based firm's services to North America being affected.


The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it is the first time in 15 years a UK operator has lost ETOPS approval, but a spokesman for Flyglobespan said that the approval has only been suspended on a temporary basis because of an isolated problem with subcontractors.

The airline mainly flies from Scottish Airports including from Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh airports and from northern England, including Durham and Newcastle. North American destinations include Calgary, Toronto, Boston and New York.

Public rally to save flight slots from Shannon to Heathrow

A major public rally to save the Heathrow Airport slots at Shannon is being held in Limerick City on Saturday, October 20.

The rally is part of a campaign organised by the four Mid West local authorities which aims to show public anger at the Government's abandonment of Shannon while protecting Dublin and Cork's connections to Heathrow airport.

Fog causes flights to be cancelled from Manchester Airport

Manchester's Hilton Tower which has many famous residents, including Everton footballer Phil Neville,recently disappeared in a haze of fog.

The fog also caused misery at Manchester Airport as a number of flights had to be cancelled with Flybe scrapping all seven of its early morning services including flights to Exeter, Jersey, Southampton, Isle of Man, Edinburgh and Paris. Bmi cancelled flights to Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Thomsonfly withdrawing routes from Luton and Cardiff to Jersey

Thomsonfly will withdraw its flights from Luton and Cardiff to Jersey from 28 October and to Doncaster from March 2008. Coventry flights continue through next summer.

The company said it was because their new Boeing 737-800s require longer runways and there are "operational limitations" in Jersey.

Delta Air Lines and Air France today announced an agreement that will give US passengers new flight choices to Europe.

Starting in March Open Skies will allow airlines from the USA and the European Union to fly from anywhere to anywhere across the Atlantic.

Atlanta-based Delta will use some of Air France's takeoff and landing slots to gain immediate access to London Heathrow which is a favorite with US business travellers and is the busiest European gateway to the rest of the continent, the Middle East and Asia.

Glasgow Airport operating flights between Edinburgh and Barcelona

The Spanish budget airline Clickair start permanent flights between Edinburgh and Barcelona following a successful trial run this summer. They will operate four flights a week during the winter, and next summer it expects to increase this to a daily service.

Clickair is planning to introduce flights to Spain from Glasgow International and also trialled flights from Edinburgh to Barcelona in August.

Prince William and Kate Middleton fly into Aberdeen

Prince William and Kate Middleton are taking a short break together in Scotland.




The couple rekindled their relationship recently and are said to be staying at the Queen's Balmoral Estate. The couple arrived at Aberdeen Airport on a scheduled flight from London on 11th October.

More seats available from Cardiff Airport for Rugby World Cup Final

The airline Flybe has made a number of extra tickets available on flights to Paris this weekend for rugby fans hoping to get to the World Cup final, with Cardiff Airport among