Tag Archives: london heathrow

Virgin Atlantic wins all of the Heathrow slots, will launch new routes to Scotland

Virgin Atlantic Airways (London) has been awarded all of the London Heathrow slots vacated by British Airways (London) due to the BMI takeover according to this report by Reuters. Virgin Atlantic intends to introduce new intra-UK routes to Scotland to compete against BA.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough. Smaller Airbus narrow bodies are expected to join the Virgin fleet for these new routes. Airbus A330-343X G-VRAY (msn 1296) prepares to arrive at Washington (Dulles).

Virgin Atlantic Airways:

British Airways launches London Gatwick-Las Vegas flights

British Airways (London) today (October 29) began its second London-Las Vegas service, helping high rollers travel from London Gatwick to the Nevada city.

The three-times-a-week service will be operated by a three-class Boeing 777 offering three cabins: Club World (business class), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and World Traveller.

Together with the Heathrow service, British Airways will operate 10 flights a week from Las Vegas.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing. Boeing 777-336 ER G-STBF (msn 40543) completes its final approach into London (Heathrow).

British Airways:

AeroMexico to launch nonstop Mexico City-London (Heathrow) flights on December 14

AeroMexico (Mexico City) is planning to launch nonstop Mexico City-London (Heathrow) service starting on December 14. The route will be operated three days a week.

Read the full story from lainformacion.com (in Spanish): CLICK HERE

AeroMexico:

The mess in South Africa

South African Airways (Johannesburg) is again having financial problems and has requested and reportedly received a loan from the government to bail out the company according to local media reports. Additional loans are expected to keep the airline flying as it continues in its “turnaround plan”.

The other independent carriers in South Africa, in competition domestically with the government flag carrier, are rightfully angry about the on-going state aid.

SAA will report a loss for the past year according to Business Day. The airline gave no comment to the local media.

Read the full report from BDlive: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Wingnut. SAA operates a predominate Airbus fleet. Airbus A340-642 ZS-SNI (msn 630) taxies across the ramp at London (Heathrow).

South African Airways:

Cyprus Airways expands with new domestic routes in Greece

Cyprus Airways (Larnaca) is adjusting its route map. On October 28 the flag carrier of Cyprus dropped all service to Milan (Malpensa) and Vienna and instead expanded domestic operations in neighboring Greece. Following the successful launch of the Athens-Thessaloniki route, the airline decided to expand operations in Greece on the following new routes:

• Athens-Heraklion, two daily flights.

• Athens-Rhodes one daily flight.

• Rhodes-Heraklion four flights a week.

• Athens – Thessaloniki now three flights daily (instead of two).

• Heraklion-Rhodes, four weekly flights (instead of three).

Cyprus Airways believes it has now built a long-term relationship in Greece. The airline has served the Greek market since its inception in 1947 from Cyprus.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing. The airline added its first Airbus A321 (the pictured 5B-DCO) on June 14, 2012. A321-231 5B-DCO (msn 2730) prepares to land at London (Heathrow).

Cyprus Airways:

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Virgin Atlantic to offer Manchester-London Heathrow service with Airbus A319s starting on March 31

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd (London) has announced plans to fly from London Heathrow to Manchester Airport from March 2013 – providing competition to British Airways’ short haul service. The new route is the airline’s first foray into domestic flying; signaling the start of a new network which will provide regional feed to its long haul service as well as providing choice for important point to point passengers.

Sir Richard Branson’s airline is going to apply for all of the remedy slots being awarded by the European Commission following the IAG takeover of bmi, but is using some of its existing slots to service the Manchester to London route. The airline believes competition on this route has been neglected in the remedy process and aims to provide choice for the 650,000 passengers* who travel between the two cities.

The airline will operate three daily flights to Manchester using Airbus A319 aircraft from March 31, 2013.

The A319 will be a new type for Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Atlantic Slide Show:

Qatar Airways to introduce the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the Doha-London Heathrow route

Qatar Airways (Doha) has 30 new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners on order. The fast-growing Persian Gulf carrier is planning to take delivery of the first Dreamliner in early September 2012. The first revenue flight will be from Doha to London (Heathrow), making Qatar the first airline to operate the new type regularly at LHR according to this report by Travel Weekly.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Royal S. King. The pictured 787-8DZ N10187 (msn 38320) was the star of the recent Farnborough Airshow. It will become A7-BCB on delivery.

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Qatar Airways:

Aer Lingus wants to fly domestic routes in the United Kingdom

Aer Lingus (Dublin) is planning to launch a domestic route in the United Kingdom between London (Heathrow) and Edinburgh according to the Irish Independent. The route is up for grabs after British Airways (London) took over bmi (East Midlands) and was forced to give up the appropriate LHR slots as ordered by the European Commission. Virgin Atlantic Airways (London) has also expressed an interest in serving the UK domestic route. The projected expansion comes after Ryanair (Dublin), which owns 29.8 percent of the Aer Lingus stock, launched its hostile bid to take control of the Irish carrier.

Read the full report from the Irish Independent: CLICK HERE

In other news, Aer Lingus today announced its schedule for winter 2012 along with the addition of six new routes and increased frequencies.

Dublin to Verona and Stockholm and Cork to Brussels are set to continue right throughout the winter, owing to their continued popularity. Other exciting destinations on offer include Copenhagen, Bordeaux and Venice.

Frequencies will be increased on a further eight popular routes such as Berlin, Vienna and Amsterdam. There will also be extra flights to Lanzarote and Tenerife which will be music to the ears of those seeking out a winter sunshine holiday in the Canary Islands.

Aer Lingus:

British Airways announces its winter schedule

British Airways‘ (London) winter 2012 schedule, beginning on October 28, 2012, has been unveiled, with UK regions set to benefit thanks to parent company IAG’s purchase of bmi (East Midlands).

The airline will add extra frequencies and use bigger aircraft on flights to Scotland enabling it to offer nearly 27,000 more seats a week between London and Scotland. This includes two extra flights a day between London Heathrow and Edinburgh and two extra flights per day between Heathrow and Aberdeen.

In addition British Airways is also starting a three-per-day service between London City and Aberdeen on September 24 to connect the two business hubs.

From December 9, British Airways will start four flights per day between Heathrow and Leeds Bradford, connecting Yorkshire with the airline’s extensive global route network at Heathrow and increasing consumer choice in the North of England. The airline has already taken over bmi’s six daily flights to Belfast, and will be launching a new timetable of seven flights a day between London and the Northern Irish capital on October 28.

A new London City to Isle of Man route has also recently launched.

At the time of EU approval for the bmi deal, IAG committed to launching new flights to important trading nations and delivering on that, British Airways is to begin flying six times a week to Seoul (Incheon) in South Korea from December 2, 2012.

Brand new, three times a week Las Vegas flights from London Gatwick start on October 29.

In Europe, Zagreb in Croatia will benefit from new daily flights to Heathrow from December 9 and six flights a week to Venice will be added to the London City route network on September 17. Customers looking for holidays in Barcelona will benefit from more choice with a new three-per-week service from London Gatwick to Barcelona will launch on February 23, 2013.

From October 28, former bmi routes from London Heathrow to Agadir, Bergen and Stavanger will become new British Airways routes from Terminal 5, while former bmi routes to Belfast and Hanover will become new British Airways Terminal 1 routes.

British Airways aircraft and crew will operate these routes, and customers will receive the full-service airline’s on-board experience.

A number of existing British Airways routes including Basel, Dusseldorf, Luxembourg, Lyon and Toulouse will move from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1 on October 28.

There will be an increase in frequencies in winter 2012 (versus winter 2011) from Heathrow to Aberdeen (from six to eight flights per day), Edinburgh (from 10 to 12 flights a day), Manchester (from 10 to 11 flights a day), Oslo (from four to five flights per day), Zurich (from six to seven per day) and Phoenix (from six to seven flights per week). Flights to Bologna will be consolidated at Heathrow, with an increase in frequency on the existing Heathrow service from seven per week to 21 per week.

At Gatwick, services will increase to Faro (from four to five flights per week), Malaga (from seven to ten flights per week) and Marrakech (three to seven flights per week) from October 28, and extra services will be added to Salzburg and Turin for the winter ski season. Flights to Marseille will move from Gatwick to Heathrow on October 28.

British Airways: