Thomsonfly cuts summer routes at Bournemouth Airport

Thomsonfly is axing five routes from Bournemouth Airport next summer because of lack of demand, but another two are being introduced. It means the routes in and out of Bournemouth can be catered for with one sky blue jet aircraft instead of the current two.


Thomsonfly's summer schedule starts on May 1st with cuts to Alicante and Valencia in Spain, Pisa in Italy, Salzburg in Austria and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

The new routes are Dalaman on Turkey's Mediterranean coast and Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete.

Flybe announces flight schedule for Summer 2008

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, today launches 23 new routes across the UK and Europe with over seven million seats on sale. The summer schedule is effective from 30th March to 25th October 2008, with seats on sale at www.Flybe.com.

Nine additional routes are being introduced from Cardiff, Inverness and the Isle of Man, and South West has brand new routes to Barcelona (Reus), Birmingham, Glasgow, the Isle of Man and Southampton from Newquay airport, in addition to flights from Exeter to Dubrovnik, Brussels, Inverness and Aberdeen.

There are also 12 new routes on sale from Flybe’s Scottish bases in Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow to destinations across the UK and Europe, as well as a new non-stop service to Paris from Belfast and two new services from Jersey to Aberdeen and Doncaster.

Scottish Airports to carry new tourism message

From the end of November messages proclaiming "Welcome to Scotland" will feature at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick, Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen airports.

They will incorporate a range of local messages celebrating diversity and success across Scotland from St Andrew's Day. The signs will draw on local features with Edinburgh being recognised as UNESCO's first city of literature, Glasgow as the host city for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and promote Inverness as the Capital of the Highlands.

Luggage Advice over Christmas Period

Stansted Airport is advising passengers about restrictions on hand luggage and hold baggage during the festive period. The one bag rule on hand luggage still applies to the majority of airlines at Stansted,and any Christmas presents taken on as hand luggage must fit within the standard restrictions which cannot be any larger than 55cm tall, 40cm wide and 20cm deep.

Gifts must be unwrapped so the items can be clearly identified when being security screened.

Cheap flights from Isle of Man to Blackpool

Manx2.com has launched a new low-cost winter flight promotion with fares starting at £15 between Blackpool International Airport and the Isle of Man.

More than 10,000 seats costing £15 one way have been released as part of the airline's Freedom to Fly promotion including selected flights between the Isle of Man and Blackpool.

The tickets, including taxes and charges, can be booked eight weeks in advance.

British Airways to operate four new routes from London City Airport

BA CityFlyer will operate new services between the Docklands airport and Nice next March, with flights to Amsterdam, Barcelona and Warsaw to follow in May.
There will also be also more flights to Zurich with five flights a day starting next year.

The airline currently operates flights to six European destinations from London City Airport including Frankfurt, Madrid, Zurich, Milan, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Airline workers strike threat over New Year

Holiday plans could be thrown into chaos for tens of thousands air travellers after BAA staff moved to vote on strike action in a row over pensions where there are plans to stop new entrants joining the company's final salary pension scheme from 1 December.

5,000 union members employed by the British Airports Authority will be balloted over the next few weeks on whether or not to launch a campaign of industrial action. A strike could see the BAA airports, which include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Heathrow and Gatwick, closed from 27 December and causing chaos during the New Year travel period.

Busy London Airports driving passengers to regional hubs

Regional hubs such as Birmingham Airport and Manchester Airport are currently experiencing substantial growth, partly as a result of rising congestion in London according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

42% of all UK passengers travelled through airports outside London in 2006 and annual passenger numbers at regional airports have exceeded 100 million for the first time. According to the CAA local hubs have met the demand for flights that cannot be fulfilled at airports in the capital.

Ricky Hatton flys out from Manchester for Vegas fight

Ricky Hatton has flown out from Manchester Airport to Las Vegas to take on Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand on December 8th. His coach Billy Graham says the 29 year old is mentally and physically ready for the most high-profile fight of his life and is determined to maintain his golden run.

Hatton has been training intensively in Denton, Manchester, for almost nine weeks and has bulked up to make the transition from light-welterweight to welterweight for the fight.

Plans for Stansted scrapped in favour of Heathrow development

The Government has abandoned its plans for the new runway at Stansted Airport, and is instead concentrating on almost doubling the number of flights at Heathrow and will today present a new plan to build a third runway there by 2020.

Ruth Kelly told The Times that it was much more important to expand Heathrow than Stansted because of the economic benefits of adding capacity at Britain’s hub airport. This reverses the Government’s White Paper in December 2003 which stated that Stansted should gain a new runway before Heathrow.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport unveils new Beatles theme

Images of the Beatles have been unveiled to ensure Liverpool John Lennon airport is a “fab not drab” experience for passengers. Seven huge (eight foot high and 23 feet wide) images charting John, Paul, George and Ringo's time in India in the 1960s are taking up permanent residence in the departure lounge.

They are displayed in illuminated boxes along the main wall of the departure lounge above the duty free shops and launch the airport’s Collection 08, which includes other popstars of the 60s, 70s and 80s and a giant yellow submarine built by apprentices at the Cammell Laird shipyard in 2005. This is all in the run up to next year’s Capital of Culture celebrations.

New route announced from Bristol Airport to Toronto in Canada

Flyglobespan has announced weekly flights from Bristol to Toronto starting in May 2008.


The connection will open on May 26th, with services leaving Bristol every Monday for Toronto's Hamilton airport.

JONATHAN RHYS MYERS INVOLVED IN BREACH OF PEACE

Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, recently seen as Henry VIII in BBC Two's The Tudors, has been charged with public drunkenness and breach of the peace following an incident at Dublin Airport where was stopped from boarding a flight to London Heathrow. He had been in Dublin promoting his latest film, August Rush. The movie opens in the UK on Friday and also stars Robin Williams.


The 30-year-old was released on bail and is due to appear before Dublin District Court on 5 December. Earlier this year Irish-born Meyers was admitted to a Californian rehab clinic but checked out after a month.

"Revolutionary" car park due to open in T5 at London Heathrow

BAA has claimed that the airport parking facilities at Terminal Five which is due to open at Heathrow in March 2008, will offer "revolutionary" services with over 7,000 parking spaces in three new car parks, which are designed to take the 'guesswork' out of finding a space at the airport.

One of the main objectives is to bring passengers as close to the terminal as possible, with a new 3,800 space short-stay car park within walking distance of check-in. There will be business parking options and a long-stay car park a short distance from the terminal, served by frequent courtesy buses.

Thomsonfly announced new route from Doncaster Robin Hood Airport to Geneva

Winter holidaymakers taking winter breaks this year will benefit from the addition of a new route between Geneva and Doncaster Airport, which Thomsonfly will starting operating from 13th December.

The route will provide a boost for the 80,000 passengers who fly away on winter sports Holidays from the South Yorkshire region every year.

Amy Winehouse causes throws major tantrum at airport

Troubled singer Amy Winehouse threw a massive strop at Glasgow airport yesterday.

The drama happened as the singer’s delayed flight from London City Airport touched down in Glasgow where she performed a concert last night and is due on stage again tonight. Anti-drugs campaigner John Plott approached the star and asked her to sign a blue striped football shirt bearing the name of a player stabbed to death in the street which celebrities from all over the world including Pele, Sir Bob Geldof, Maradona and Sir Alex Ferguson have already autographed.

Miss Winehouse's response was that she started swearing and shieking: and one onlooker described her as "going completely nuts".

Pôlice presence increased at Edinburgh Airport

A police unit is to be created at Edinburgh Airport for the first time with airport operator BAA paying the £2.5 million annual cost. The new unit will have more officers and support will no longer be taken from other parts of the Lothian and Borders force. Five extra officers will be added to the current 39 on duty, with an increase in those authorised to use firearms.

The move is in response to the increased terror threats to the airport and growing number of flights.

BA flying empty planes from London to North America

British Airways has been flying planes from the UK to North America without a single passenger aboard because of a cabin crew shortage. Since November 1st, about one BA flight a day from Britain to the United States or Canada has left Heathrow or Gatwick airport carrying only pilots and cargo so that they could up passengers in those countries who were due to fly to Britain.

BA said it is working hard to resolve the problem which is caused by the difficulty it sometimes has co-ordinating the separate schedules of its 15,000 full-and part-time cabin crew members, 3,000 pilots and 240 planes operating around the world, which sometimes leads to a lack of cabin crew for a specific flight.

Ryanair launches Doncaster to Alicante Route

Ryanair has launched a new three-times weekly route between Doncaster Sheffield Airport to Alicante on the Costa Blanca.

The airline estimates that 40,000 passengers will travel on the new route, adding to the 350,000 customers already handled by the Irish budget airline from this airport.

Arrests made for thefts from passengers' luggage at Stansted

The number of thefts from passengers' luggage by baggage handlers has led to an enquiry by Essex police. An investigation by "BBC Inside Out" in the East found 22 handlers have been arrested since December 2006. A former worker for the handling company Swissport told the BBC that a colleague went through every bag on every flight.

On Wednesday the last offender was jailed for eight months.

Flybe cut flights from Norwich Airport

Flybe is to terminate the operation of four flights from Norwich International Airport, claiming the levy being applied on passengers makes it too expensive. The £3 Airport Development Fee (ADF) was introduced in April this year to raise £5m to invest in facilities, but Flybe has said that it is being forced to end three flights to Spain and one to Exeter because of the levy and demand for flights falling by more than 15%.

Monarch introduces new self service check in at Birmingham

flyMonarch has announced that it is introducing a self-service check-in option at Birmingham Airport to speed up the check-in process and reduce the amount of time passengers spend in queues.

Travellers will be able to use new common use self-service kiosks (CUSS), situated in the middle of the concourse of terminal one at Birmingham airport on all scheduled Monarch flights by swiping their passport through a machine.

Passengers with baggage can then take it to the fast bag-drop point, where the items will be tagged as normal and placed on the belt to be loaded on the aircraft

Third time lucky for celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli

Top celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli is to get married for a third time to a girl he met at Luton Airport.

He popped the question to promotions executive Michelle Kennedy last week and says it is the first time he has ever proposed. He saw Michelle when he was waiting for a flight and gave her his number in case she ever wanted a job. She called three months later and as they worked together they became closer.

John Lennon's glasses stolen from Liverpool Airport

A souvenir hunter has stolen John Lennon’s famous round glasses from his statue at Liverpool John Lennon Airport which stands on a plinth overlooking the check-in desks.

They formed part of a 7ft bronze of the ex-Beatle unveiled by Yoko Ono in March 2002, and were attached to the statue which was damaged when they were taken off. At the moment the statue is sporting a temporary pair until new ones are recast.

Prince Andrew's plane in emergency landing at Edinburgh Airport

Prince Andrew was on his way from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray to attend a dinner at Holyroodhouse hosted by Scottish Development International when his pilot had to radio for help because of problems with the elevator trim on the Hawker Siddeley HS-125 twin engine executive jet. Seven fire engines were sent to the terminal at Edinburgh Airoprt but were soon stood down as the plane landed safely.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at Luton Airport

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had a quiet night on Saturday enjoying Japanese food at Roka in London after arriving at Luton Airport earlier that day. They were in town to promote Jolie's part as Grendel's mother in Robert Zemeckis'new film "Beowulf".

Most of Luton Airport's business comes from budget carriers like easyJet and Ryanair. (but the all-business class airline Silverjet operates there, too.)

New Shannon to Leeds route from Bradford Airport

Ryanair is operating a new low-cost route from Leeds Bradford International Airport to Shannon three times a week, building on its existing popular routes to Ireland. The new flight route has begun carrying passengers this week.

The addition of Shannon means that Ryanair passengers now have the choice of six entry points when travelling to Ireland from the heart of Yorkshire.

New Flybe Flights to France from Norwich Airport

Flybe, the main low cost airline company operating from Norwich International airport, have just confirmed that a number of new destinations in France were expected to begin in the coming months. But there are no plans to reinstate winter flights to Malaga and Alicante in Spain which were controversially axed in July.

Details of the new destinations are due to be announced at the end of this month.

Airline business travellers "lose" 400 laptops every year

Business travellers are being warned to keep an eye on their belongings after a new survey revealed 8,500 mobile devices are lost in UK airports annually.

Security firm SafeNet have published figures showing that travellers through London airports Heathrow and Gatwick were most likely to lose their mobiles or laptops and are misplacing 400 laptops and 2,500 other mobile gadgets every year.

Those travelling through airports in the north-west including Liverpool's John Lennon airport lose 100 portable computers and 800 mobile devices (including BlackBerrys and USB sticks) every 12 months.

Monarch Airlines introduce new on board recycling system

Monarch is the first UK airline to roll out a full recycling programme onboard its flights, meaning that all recyclable items, such as aluminium drinks cans, plastic wine and water bottles, glass wine and champagne bottles plus newspapers/magazines placed into a separate recycling bag by cabin crew during the flight. This will subsequently be passed over to cleaning staff at Gatwick Airport on the flight’s arrival for recycling.

New routes from Luton Airport

XL Airways is offering a new service from Luton airport to Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt and also adding extra flights to Cyprus from next May. They will operate 10 weekly flights to Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus and the increasingly popular resort of Sharm. There will be 5 flights a week to Larnaca, 3 to Paphos and 2 to Sharm.

Ryanair opens new base at Bristol Airport and announces new routes

Ryanair has opened its base at Bristol Airport with flights launched to Budapest, Derry, Knock, Milan, Porto, Riga and Wroclaw. On November 8th new Ryanair services will operate to Poznan and Rzeszow in Poland, Bratislava in Slovakia and Dinard in France. Flights to Katowice in Poland will begin on November 10th.

Two more ski destinations will be available from Bristol Airport next month when Ryanair commences services to Salzburg on December 19th and Turin on December 22nd.

The airline expects to handle one million passengers at Bristol Airport in 2008.

Staff Shortages at Gatwick Airport cause BA to cancel fights

Staff shortages have caused British Airways to cancel some flights from Gatwick, including one transatlantic service.

A flight to Houston in Texas was among those axed and one of the passengers said: "I've heard that BA is about 200 crew staff short and there is huge disruption to its flights.

New route to Cyprus from Durham Tees Airport

There will be a new route from Durham Tees Airport to the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus next year with new flights provided by Glyglobespan.

The weekly service to Paphos will commence at the beginning of April and operate every Wednesday until the end of October 2008.

Paul Gasacoigne lives on "pocket money"

Football legend Paul Gascoigne confided in staff at London Heathrow Airport that lives off pocket money from his mum so he doesn’t spend his cash on drink. She pays instalments of between £700 and £800 a time directly into his bank account because she fears he could self-destruct if left in control of his own finances.

Gascoigne, who has battled alcohol addiction for years, was banned from a flight to London last Sunday night after allegedly getting drunk following a charity football match in Malta. But he denied he was drunk, blaming a hip problem on arrival at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday evening.

Stansted Airport to fly to JFK in New York

London Stansted Airport has announced it will operate flights twice daily to JFK Airport in New York from April 2008. This is a direct result of American Airlines' decision to up its daily flight service.

East Midlands Airport Most Eco-friendly in the World

The World Travel Awards have named East Midlands Airport the most eco-friendly airport in the world. The new green award category was voted for by more than 165,000 travel agencies and professionals in 200 countries worldwide.

East Midlands was commended for its plans to be carbon neutral by 2012, a new environmentally friendly pier with ground heating pumps, wind catchers and water recycling facilities together with its future plans to install wind turbines to generate 10% of on-site electricity.

Improved facilities at Bristol Airport

A new security system, two restaurants and a retail outlet are all part of a £7.5million project to improve facilities to cope with increasing passenger numbers at Bristol Airport.

The security search area needs to be extended because of enhanced security measures introduced by the Department of Transport and another X-ray machine has also been introduced to ease congestion at the busiest times of day.

Developments mean that Burger King will be expanded and there will be enough room for a new seafood bar and restaurant.

Passengers arriving at the airport will not face disruption over the next 16 weeks, which will see the mezzanine level extended as a temporary arrivals facility will be operating.

Thomsonfly cuts flights at Doncaster Airport

Thomsonfly are Robin Hood Airport's main operator and they have decided to cut flights from Doncaster to some of Europe's biggest cities, scrapping its daily flights to Amsterdam with services to Prague and Jersey also due to be dropped in the coming months.

The news comes as Robin Hood Airport celebrated an 18.9% per cent rise in passenger numbers for October 2007 compared to the same time last year.

The loss of more Thomsonfly flights to major European destinations (Paris was also dropped earlier this year) has caused serious concern for the area's business managers.

Heathrow Airport hiring more staff to reduce queues

Heathrow Airport has a recuirment drive aimed at reducing queues for passengers.

One of the most problematic areas for the build-up of queues is the security checkpoint and more workers are being brought in to deal with this issue. Money is also being spent on technology improvements to keep delays to a minimum.

London Stansted launches sew sevice to Munich

Stansted Airport hosted the launch of a new service provided by short-haul carrier Air Berlin to Munich.

It is the eighth direct connection provided by Air Berlin between Stansted and Germany with flights also available from the London hub to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Nuremberg and Leipzig.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport closed due to fog

Thousands of passengers flying via Liverpool faced flight cancellations due to fog – less than a week after two premiership footballers launched the airport's new £2m runway lighting system designed to reduce the number of cancelled flights.

Some passengers waited 10 hours for alternative flights with 27 flights cancelled and 13 subject to lengthy delays.

Passengers travelling from Scottish Airports at all time high

The number of people flying abroad from Scotland has soared to a new high with international traffic through the three main airports reaching a record 8.4 million passengers in the year to October 2007. This is a rise of nearly 750,000 (almost 10%) on the previous year.


Overall passenger numbers recorded at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen grew to 21.2 million in the 12 months to October, a rise of 3.6%. The three gateways reported a 2.2% growth in traffic last month, with total passenger numbers for October rising to 2,005,996. Glasgow was Scotland's busiest airport for the month with 866,346 passengers.


Edinburgh Airport handled 820,248 passengers in October (up 5% on last year) and Aberdeen Airport had another busy month, with passenger numbers up 6.6% to 319,402.

NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING DESTINATIONS

New York and Los Angeles are two of the most visited destinations for travellers over the festive season flying from Heathrow airport due to their excellent shopping facilities - especially as the UK pound has climbed past the $2.10 level against the US dollar – the highest it has been in 26 years.

Heathrow claims that recent changes to baggage restrictions would not adversely affect queuing times for those travelling over the Christmas period, quoting that in August this year (which was one of the busiest on record) 95% of the time passengers queued for less than ten minutes.

New passenger facilities at Isle of Man Airport

The Isle of Man Airport has opened a new departure lounge featuring a glazed walkway and improved seating, allowing the airport to handle around 1.25 million passengers a year.

In October the airport also put forward plans to create a new terminal building for private jet owners and VIPs. The proposed new terminal will be a two-storey building featuring floor-to-ceiling glass panels, with a VIP lounge and conference centre and private-parking. If planning permission is granted it would see the £4 million development open by the end of next year.

Stansted Express services set to increase in 2008

Passengers at Stansted Airport next year will be offered more transport services to Liverpool Street station with the Stansted Express adding 13 extra services in a new timetable that will begin on January 2nd.

There will be a daily service travelling from Stansted to Liverpool Street at 00:30 as well as additional departures from Stansted at 01:00 and 01:30 on Monday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

These changes are designed to ensure that passengers with arrivals and departures early in the morning or late at night have the option to travel seven days a week.

Long queues at Edinburgh Airport

At Edinburgh Airport at noon on Monday only two of the eight security scanners were in operation, causing a queue of more than 300 people which stretched out of the security area and past the row of shops on the first floor.

It took 25 minutes to clear security, causing inconvenience to everyone and discomfort and distress to the many young mothers with babies and elderly people waiting in the queue.

Edinburgh Arport now offers flights to over 100 destinations

Edinburgh airport now offers flights to 100 destinations around the world following the announcement of a new service from Flyglobespan to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik next year.

BAA Scotland claimed that this is a result of its multimillion pound investment in route development which led to the announcement of 29 new routes in 2007 alone.

The airport operator claims that it has invested more than £20 million in support of new and expanding airlines over the past twelve months.

No more push starts for motorists

The management at Cardiff Airport have banned their car park attendants from giving motorists a push start when they break down.

A Cardiff Airport spokesman said staff are able to provide jump starts but workers were no longer able to help with push starts because of the risks. This news follows a similar ban at Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon Airports.

New routes from Belfast International Airport

Belfast International Airport will operate 23 routes from easyJet by the end of this week after the airline launches four new services.

Easyjet claims to be Northern Ireland's largest low-fares airline and starts a service to Gdansk in Poland on October 30th, followed by flights to Prague and Venice on November 1st.

A new connection to Barcelona will open on November 3rd and will be the final addition to easyJet's services from Belfast International Airport with over 140,000 passengers expected to use the services in their first year of operations.

New Onward Travel Centre at Gatwick Airport

The new travel centre at Gatwick Airport which opened on 29th October is designed to make travelling easier for passengers as it brings to