London Luton linked with India

London Luton Airport has been connected to South Africa, Asia and India thanks to a new route with EL AL to Tel Aviv. 

The launch of the service with the Israeli airline to Tel Aviv means that passengers can now use the service to take onward flights to other destinations such as Beijing, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Mumbai. 

Flights between the Israeli city and Luton Airport will begin this weekend and are set to run six times a week. 

Glyn Jones, managing director of Luton Airport, said the launch was “very exciting” because it offered the possibility of onward connecting flights. 

“London Luton continues to offer more choice with new routes and more flight departures,” he added. 

More than ten million passengers use the airport each year and it employs 500 staff. 

The news of this new flight route comes after Wizz Air celebrated its fifth birthday at Luton Airport last week. 

Passengers were in for a treat when they were greeted with cupcakes at the check-in and were entertained by Heart FM.

Air Asia Launches Low Cost Long haul Ops to London

Air Asia launched it s Low cost long haul operations from Kuala Lumpur To London Stanstead last week. The Aircraft is a Ex- Air Canada A 340. Initial publicity suggested fares in Asia of RM499 and in the UK of £99 one way on the airline. However, checking the website now, prices have risen considerably, with a return fare from London Stansted in June costing £645 return. Additional charges are levied for all checked baggage (£4 [up to 15kg]; £12 up to 20kg and £22 [up to 25kg] each way), as well as amenity bags and in-flight entertainment. The A340-300 aircraft will be configured with 256 economy seats (with a seat pitch of 32 inches) and 30 “XL” seats (60-inch pitch)

Virgin Atlantin Suspends Mumbai-London

Virgin Atlantic is to temporarily suspend its London Heathrow to Mumbai service with effect from early May. Passenger numbers to and from Mumbai have been falling for many months, a trend which started even before the global economic slowdown hit. Despite the drop in numbers, more airlines than ever are operating irrationally and servicing the route at a loss. Virgin Atlantic intends to begin flying again to Mumbai when it is economically viable to do so.

The last flight will be VS350 on Saturday 2nd May from London Heathrow and flight VS351 on Sunday 3rd May from Mumbai. Virgin Atlantic continues to operate its successful, daily service between London Heathrow and Delhi and will explore flying to other Indian cities in future, where there is much less capacity. 

Aegean Air 3rd Daily to London

Aegean Airlines from 15DEC08 will begin 3rd Daily Athens – London Stansted service. The new timings are as follows.  From 01JAN09, all service on this route will be operated by A320

A3600 ATH0740 – 0930STN 
A3602 ATH1300 – 1500STN 
A3604 ATH1710 – 1910STN

A3601 STN1020 – 1610ATH 
A3603 STN1550 – 2135ATH
A3605 STN2000 – 0145+1ATH

Virgin Atlantic reduce Orlando in Winter 08/09

Virgin Atlantic is reducing London Gatwick – Orlando service from 2 Daily to 1 from 11JAN09 to 28MAR09.

VS027/028 will not be operating during this period

Air France to start London – New York from 2009

As a result of the cancellation of London Heathrow – Los Angeles service from 26OCT08, which frees up a pair of slot in London, Air France plans to start Daily London Heathrow – New York JFK service in addition to existing DELTA’s 2 Daily flights, from 29MAR09

Virgin Atlantic reduce Los Angeles flight

Virgin Atlantic is operating London – Los Angeles flight at reduced frequency from 19JAN09 to 28MAR09.

The reduction is mainly on VS023/024, operating 3-6 weekly service depending on the particular week

Virgin Atlantic 340-600 to Mauritius

From 05DEC08 to 10JAN09, Virgin Atlantic’s 2 weekly London – Mauritius flight is planned to be operated by A340-600, instead of A340-300

BA Cityflyer adds 5th Daily Glasgow flight

BA Cityflyer is adding 5th Daily flight on the London City – Glasgow route from 27OCT08, offering early morning flight from London and late evening service from Glasgow

The new flight is:

BA8720 LCY0650 – 0815GLA AR1 x67
BA8729 GLA2010 – 2140LCY AR1 x567

London Gatwick Airport put up for sale

The UK’s second-largest airport, Gatwick, has been put up for sale by its owner BAA.

The move comes four weeks after the Competition Commission said BAA may have to sell three of its UK airports because of market dominance concerns.

Several firms are said to be interested in buying Gatwick, which has been valued at £1.8bn by regulators.

Potential bidders include Australian company Macquarie, Germany’s Fraport, and the owners of Manchester airport.

Virgin Atlantic said it would also be interested in bidding as part of a consortium.

Singapore Airlines takes delivery of sixth A380

Singapore Airlines has taken delivery of its sixth Airbus A380 aircraft. The world’s largest commercial passenger plane arrived in Singapore today (18 September 2008) at 0823 hrs, following a delivery flight from the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse.

The delivery of the sixth A380 allows for a second daily flight between Singapore and London, starting on 20 September 2008. The Singapore – London route is the first in the world to be operated twice a day by the superjumbo.

The second daily A380 service will depart Singapore as flight SQ 318, and return from London as flight SQ 321. This is in addition to the current daily service operated by SQ 322 (Singapore-London) and SQ 317 (London-Singapore).

Singapore Airlines was the first airline in the world to operate the A380. Since its entry in service in October 2007, the aircraft has been progressively utilised on routes from Singapore with high capacity demand. Aside from London, the airline operates daily A380 flights between Sydney and Singapore, and Tokyo and Singapore.

Following the delivery of its sixth A380, Singapore Airlines has 13 A380s remaining on firm order, and options on another six. The only other airline in the world to currently operate the A380 is Emirates.

Air India to end LHR-JFK flights

Air India is to discontinue its daily service between London Heathrow and New York JFK from 10 September. The service is one of the longest continually operated transatlantic services between the two airports. The carrier has operated flights on the route since 14 May 1960, when it started a one-a-week flight from Bombay to New York via London, using a Boeing 707.

The airline had special dispensation to operate its so-called fifth freedom services, as were Kuwait Airways, El Al and IRan Air (the latter two no longer operate), under the Bermuda II aviation agreement between the UK and the US. The bilateral Bermuda II agreement was swept away by the Open Skies agreement earlier this year.

Kingfisher gets govt nod to fly abroad

Kingfisher Airlines has secured permission to fly abroad starting with flights to London.

The civil aviation ministry granted the traffic rights to Deccan Aviation in which Kingfisher Airlines merged in 2007, to operate services to London and other global destinations.

The airline, which has already firmed up plans to launch its Bangalore-London (Heathrow) flight from the first week of September, would be starting its international services on the rights granted to Deccan Aviation on the India-UK sector.

The mnistry on Mondayconveyed its approval to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for granting traffic rights to Deccan Aviation, an official spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Traffic rights of seven services per week have been granted with effect from August 26 between Bangalore and London and the airline permitted to utilise a large aircraft, Airbus A-330 for the long-haul operation.

The ministry has also advised DGCA to grant operating clearance to Deccan Aviation after due diligence of the airline’s ability to operate on the long-haul sector, the spokespersons said.

According to guidelines an Indian carrier can fly abroad only after serving the domestic market for five years and having a fleet of 20 aircraft.

First Kingfisher international flight on Sept 3

Kingfisher Airlines plans to launch its first international flight on September 3 with a direct Bangalore-London flight. “The countdown has begun. We are all set to fly to London from Bangalore on September 3,’’ a Kingfisher Airlines official said here. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had last month granted permission to Deccan Aviation to fly to 13 countries from August 26, the day the airline will complete the mandatory five years of domestic operations to become eligible for overseas operations. Kingfisher and Deccan Aviation have now merged. Under normal circumstances, Kingfisher would have to wait for two more years to complete the five-year term mandatory to become eligible for overseas flying. But now the government has let Kingfisher fly overseas under both brands—Deccan and KF.

Singapore Airlines marks 1,000th flight of A380 superjumbo

Singapore Airlines (SIA) marked its 1,000th flight of the world’s largest passenger jet since the carrier became the first in the world to operate the Airbus A380 in October, SIA said Tuesday.

SQ322 departed from Singapore Changi Airport for London’s Heathrow Airport close to midnight.

Since the airline started operating the Airbus A380 superjumbo in October last year, the aircraft has clocked 8,500 flying hours and carried almost 400,000 travelers, SIA said in a statement.

The carrier currently has five A380s in service and is due to receive further 14. Now, these A380s fly out of Singapore to Sydney, London and Tokyo. Flights have also been added to Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games.

To meet increasing demand from customers, SIA has stepped up training for crew, so that more are qualified to operate the A380 in the coming years. About 140 pilots and 2,000 cabin crew have been trained to fly and serve onboard the aircraft, said the carrier.

Dubai’s Emirates Airline became the second carrier to fly the A380 after launching its service on Friday, ending SIA’s nine- month solo reign.