Archive for the ‘airline news’ Category
Wizz Air, the largest low fare – low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe announced today that it would provide a special rescue package to passengers impacted by the suspension of Malev’s operations by offering re-routing alternatives to/from Budapest. The airline is offering passengers, who are booked on Malev’s Budapest to London Gatwick flights, rescue fares on its Budapest to London Luton service. Passengers who hold a valid Malev electronic ticket for travel between February 3, 2012 and March 24, 2012 can call the Wizz Air call centre at +36 1 358 6565 to benefit from the 9900 HUF fares (all inclusive, one way). Seats are subject to availability and flights must be rebooked by 6pm February 13, 2012. Rebooking Conditions: Passengers must have the Malev electronic ticket number available when calling the Wizz Air call centre to rebook their travel. Passengers will also need to present a printed copy of their original Malev electronic ticket (in addition to the Wizz Air itinerary), upon check-in for their Wizz Air flight. Passengers without a Malev electronic ticket will not be allowed to travel. Additional charges apply for optional services such as checked baggage, pre-boarding, etc. Please check wizzair.com for these details along with information about baggage size and weight restrictions. Vueling is set to capture a significant part of the domestic and European traffic affected by the demise of Spanair, which suspended flights on Saturday, January 28. As a result, Vueling’s Summer 2012 programme will offer as much as a 50% increase in capacity over 2011 from its home base in Barcelona, and a 25% growth overall. Speaking to media in Barcelona, CEO Alex Cruz announced that the carrier will add a total of 33 new frequencies to its existing domestic and European routes reaching, in some cases, up to 14 daily flights between Madrid and Barcelona, nine to Bilbao and eight to Seville and Palma Mallorca, among others. Vueling already flies to 72 destinations in Continental Europe, the British Isles, North Africa and the Middle East. Initial plans before the Spanair situation called for new routes as of March 25 from Barcelona to Copenhagen and Stockholm, four times per week. Given the new circumstances, these plans have been brought forward and augmented to the tune of 11 weekly flights to each of these Scandinavian airports, effective immediately. From today, 1 February 2012, Air France and KLM have changed the latest check-in time for flights from Heathrow Airport to 40 minutes. Any passengers arriving less than 40 minutes before their flight’s departure time will not be permitted to check-in.
Jet2.com is celebrating after being crowned Best Short Haul Airline at the coveted Globe Travel Awards 2012. The annual Globe Travel Awards are regarded as the pinnacle of the travel industry calendar with travel agents and industry professionals nominating and voting for the most deserving travel companies across eight different categories. The cream of the British travel industry gathered at Grosvenor House hotel in London for the ceremony where Jet2.com proudly beat bmi, British Airways, easyJet, Iberia and Lufthansa to win the Short Haul Airline category. Steve Heapy, Chief Commercial Officer of Jet2.com, said: “We are delighted to be named Best Short Haul Airline at the Globe Travel Awards beating the likes of British Airways and easyJet. This award follows a string of other award wins in recent months, making this a real highlight for us and a great start to the New Year. This industry recognition is also a fantastic testament to the on-going commitment of Jet2.com staff who make it possible for passengers to travel to some of Europe’s finest destinations. “The secret to our continued success is the fact that we take real pride in listening and responding to our customer needs. We know that with stretched finances, customers want good value for money now more than ever. Our great value flights offer allocated seating, a generous 22kg baggage allowance and a friendly service which is why our loyal customers come back time and again.” This is the latest in a flurry of awards received by Jet2.com which scooped best airline for Mainland Spain and Balearics, as well as the Canaries following a short-haul airline satisfaction survey by Which? magazine. It’s also recently picked up Best Low-Cost Airline in the Scottish Passenger Agents Association Awards and was voted runner up in the Best Short Haul Airline category of The Telegraph Travel Awards. Sister company and package holiday expert, Jet2holidays has also had its share of the glory in recent months after being named Best Tour Operator to the Iberian Peninsular and Canary Islands at the British Travel Awards.
Manx2.com has nominated the Royal British Legion IOM as their charity of the year for 2012. The support for the Isle of Man branch of the Royal British Legion will include flight tickets to help raise money for the charity and also travel support for Isle of Man-based service personnel – who are having their travel warrants withdrawn in the near future. Manx2.com staff have also committed to raise money and awareness for the charity throughout 2012 – and as in 2011 they will participate in events such as the Parish Walk and a sponsored Plane pull and for this summer they are planning a Swing Night with 1940’s music, food and a static Spitfire display. Colonel Charles Wilson, Royal British Legion IOM: ‘Following on our 90th anniversary last year we are thrilled to receive support from Manx2.com and all their staff. The contribution will undoubtedly prove a real boost to our work here in the Isle of Man and will be very much appreciated.” Noel Hayes, Chairman, Manx2.com added: “Royal British Legion IOM is a key Isle of Man charity and continues to make an invaluable contribution here providing financial, social and emotional support to those who are serving or who have served in the armed forces, and their dependants. We are looking forward to working with them to ensure Manx men and women serving in the forces are not disadvantaged when returning home from duty and also helping the Legion’s fund raising throughout 2012.”
Flybe can now offer passengers an even greater choice of routes to France through its Air France codeshare agreement. With the addition of new routes from Aberdeen, Bristol and Newcastle to Paris Charles de Gaulle and from Birmingham Airport to Lyon. In addition to Flybe’s 11 UK departure points serving the French capital, passengers can now connect seamlessly to a selection of 19 new European destinations. The new codeshare routes onward from Paris, and operated by Air France, are available for booking in conjunction with a connecting Flybe flight between the UK and Paris. They are as follows:
Andrew Strong, Flybe UK’s Managing Director, comments: “Flybe is once again opening up the UK regions by providing new and better travel options. For example, a customer from Newcastle can now book in one simple transaction a flight to Paris and onward to Madrid. Similarly, someone booking a flight to Paris from Bristol can now choose to fly seamlessly to Budapest, Vienna or a number of other attractive destinations. This is an exciting step forward in the relationship between Flybe and Air France.” Vueling has developed an application for purchasing flights for the Google Android operating system, which enables access to Vueling’s Premium services in addition to the purchasing of tickets. From a simple, intuitive interface, the application offers a fast and flexible purchasing and management of flights. It also enables online check in, seat assignment, flight changes and offers geolocation technology. Vueling aims to increase the success achieved with the release of its first mobile application, for Apple devices, last July, which, within just six months of operation, has accumulated more than 600,000 downloads – it has led the travel category in Apple’s “Essential Apps” section and is part of the special collection “Rewind 2011″, which collects the year’s best applications for iphone. The iphone app was widely considered as an advanced app, as it was originally the only one in the aviation sector that enabled the purchasing of tickets without leaving the application. The new Vueling Android app will offer the same facility and is available in Spanish and in English.
Flybe has announced the introduction of an additional six brand new routes from the start of the 2012 summer season. The news adds up to an extra 34 flights a week from 25 March, further expanding the airline’s schedule to a total choice of 208 routes across its extensive network. There are two brand new routes from Newcastle to Newquay and Bergen (Norway); and new routes from Belfast City to Newquay; to Knock and Waterford (Republic of Ireland) from Leeds Bradford and Birmingham respectively and from Southampton to Tours in France. The six additional new routes have been chosen so that both leisure and business travellers have a wide variety of travel options available to them and, in the case of the Newcastle- Bergen route, re-instates a much-awaited link between the two twinned cities. The six new services, which commence on 25 March 2012:
Flybe’s Managing Director, Andrew Strong, comments: “Flybe is committed to developing our route network throughout the regions and to keeping business and leisure travellers moving during these continued economically challenging times. The introduction of these six attractive destinations to our already extensive schedule for summer gives our passengers a large choice of affordable travel options and we look forward to operating our first flights to these new destinations.” Flybe has taken delivery of its second full flight simulator that enables its Training Academy in Exeter to offer a full range of pilot training, including recurrent and type training, for both the Bombardier Q400 and the Embraer 170/190 family of aircraft. The new Level-D E-Jet device, built by US-based FlightSafety International, is convertible between both the Embraer 170 and 190 series and will be available to airlines for both wet and dry lease from March 2012. It is equipped with FlightSafety’s industry-leading VITAL X Visual System and electric motion and control loading technology: and is being located alongside the existing Dash-8 Q400 simulator at Flybe’s Training Academy, a new £14-million purpose-built facility that was officially opened in April by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. “We are delighted to have taken delivery of our second brand new flight simulator that complements the Bombardier Q400 simulator that arrived back in March,” says John Palmer, MD Flybe Aviation Support. “Our latest arrival means we will now be able to carry out all types of pilot training here at our Exeter headquarters for the aircraft in our fleet. Staff previously had to travel to multiple locations namely Farnborough, Gatwick and Amsterdam for this essential training so having both type simulators on-site will save us considerable time and money. Our pilots, and those from the other operators who use the devices, will appreciate the quality, reliability and scheduling flexibility these new simulators can offer.” In addition to offering full-flight simulator training, the Academy delivers technical, pilot, cabin crew and customer service courses to airlines worldwide together with a range of non-aviation training to other organisations and individuals. Apart from the flight simulators, the facility features 25 classrooms, an engineering workshop, cabin simulator and cabin door trainer complex. Flybe and AirDat LLC, a private US-based weather forecaster, have announced a partnership to provide real-time metrological data for Europe directly from Flybe’s 83-strong fleet of aircraft. Flybe aircrafts will be the first in Europe to carry AirDat’s proprietary Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) sensor. The sophisticated airborne weather sensor streams atmospheric data in real time from the aircraft to AirDat’s data centre. From there, the information is quality checked, processed, and assimilated into TAMDAR-optimised, high-resolution forecast models for European weather customers. The initial phase of the installation will see 20 aircraft equipped by May 2012collecting more than 1,000 unique weather observations each day. AirDat’s TAMDAR system will, in turn, provide weather data and operational benefits to Flybe, including enhanced Iridium-based satellite voice and data communications capability, automated weather reports and real-time flight and departure information for passengers. The combination of AirDat’s advanced proprietary weather modelling capabilities and Flybe’s extensive route network – which covers 96 airports and 17 countries – will enable AirDat to offer substantially improved weather data, modelling, and forecasting capabilities to customers throughout Europe. The partnership will ultimately equip up to 100 Flybe aircrafts with the TAMDAR system, generating nearly 20,000 daily weather observations (up to 1200 vertical ‘soundings’ when equated to the weather balloon system) throughout the UK and Western Europe. The system will provide Flybe with expansion opportunities in the areas of volcanic ash sensing and data transmission, as well as on-board Wi-Fi, credit card processing and aircraft data management and communications. This will be possible via the concurrent integration of US-based Avionica’s satLINK integrated communications module. |
