Eastern Airways has been named the Best Passenger Charter Airline at a prestigious industry awards ceremony in London.

The UK’s second largest regional airline achieved the air charter industry’s most coveted accolade at the Baltic Air Charter Association (BACA) Excellence Awards yesterday (Wednesday 19 October) at the Guild Hall.

This year, Eastern Airways celebrates its 14th anniversary and has significantly grown its charter business over the last two years, which also included the re-introduction of Embraer regional jets to its fleet.

More than 130 aviation/charter industry related companies attended the event and Eastern Airways secured the top award as Best Passenger Charter Airline by beating previous winner Titan Airways and also Monarch Airlines.

The awards are judged by the charter industry’s most valued professionals who nominate for the relevant categories, including Best Passenger Charter Airline.

Kay Ryan, Eastern Airways’ commercial director, said: “This award is regarded as the highest recognition in the charter airline industry, and to be the best passenger charter airline is a tremendous achievement for all at Eastern Airways. It is great testament to the outstanding efforts of our teams on the ground and in the air that work together to ensure the highest quality of service meets the high standards expected from our charter customers. The challenge going forward will be to redouble our efforts to retain this high level of achievement.”

The regional airline is consistently rated one of the UK’s most punctual scheduled airlines and has a fleet of 30 aircraft flying from 21 airports in the UK, Ireland, Norway and France.

Flybe UK’s Managing Director has called for an end to ‘double-dip’ APD where regional and domestic passengers pay twice as much APD as travellers flying abroad

In a speech to the British Air Transport Association (BATA) Annual Parliamentary Reception, Andrew Strong, Managing Director Flybe UK, told more than 50 MPs that aviation can help drive the recovery needed by UK regional economies but needs governmental help to reform Air Passenger Duty (APD)

Mr Strong said: ‘Those of us lucky enough to live and work outside of London are fully behind the government’s policy to geographically re-balance the economy and I believe that regional aviation can play a crucial role.

‘In 2010, some 86 million people flew from regional airports. They represent a powerful body of passengers who do not want to travel to London to catch a flight. In short, they are people in your constituencies, winning contracts and keeping regional economies ticking over in these difficult times’.

Mr Strong pointed out that the domestic passenger gets hit hard by the current structure of APD. He said: ‘At present, the domestic passenger suffers what has been coined the ‘double-dip’ where UK domestic flyers pay APD twice and those flying abroad pay just once. This is because APD only applies to outbound flights from the UK.

‘It is frankly scandalous that a return passenger travelling between Glasgow and Belfast City, some 100 miles, pays double the tax of someone flying between Glasgow and Dalaman in Eastern Turkey, a flight of more than 2,000 miles.’

Concluding, he said to the audience of MPs, ‘Be under no illusion – APD damages the UK economy. That’s why regional airports and airlines welcome the Chancellor’s decision to reduce the APD paid by passengers travelling from Belfast International to Newark on the Continental service. It is a clear acknowledgement that tax affects the viability of air services and we look forward to hearing the Treasury’s plans for the rest of the UK. Aviation is a British success story and we need government’s help to keep it that way.’

Flybe has unveiled its summer 2012 schedule offering a choice of 141 destinations with up to 2,938 flights per week.

As part of its summer schedule, Flybe will be offering flights to Alicante, Jersey, Guernsey, Dubrovnik, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Nice, Faro, Bergerac, Malaga and Verona, plus two new services from Manchester to Newquay and Knock.

Tickets are now on sale for its summer season which runs from 25 March to 9 September 2012.

Flybe is expected to unveil details of service from Exeter to France over the next few weeks.

Andrew Strong, Managing Director Flybe UK comments: “In continuing to keep Britain on the move, we are confident we have come up with summer travel options that are both extensive and affordable for Summer 2012. We are also pleased that, through our many codeshare partners, we are able to offer our customers even more travel choice that extends further our reach across Europe and the rest of the world.

“Flybe is committed to responding to our customers’ needs and we know that many welcome the opportunity to plan their summer travels as early as possible. We appreciate that this is especially true during these uncertain economic times as families and business travellers look to make their money go further and take advantage of the lowest fares available.”

Flybe, the UK’s Number One Domestic airline and Europe’s leading regional carrier, has been confirmed as Europe’s number one regional airline and the only UK airline to feature in the overall global rankings for regional airlines – for the second consecutive year.

The annual international aviation industry survey is published by the US-published Airline Business magazine and is based on data compiled by Flightglobal Data Research which analyses air traffic statistics for the world’s regional aviation operators (Based on UK CAA statistics ).

Flybe Highlights:

• Ranked Europe’s largest regional airline ahead of the likes of Lufthansa CityLine, Aegean Airlines and KLM Cityhopper
• Number 11 in the world measured by passenger numbers and the only UK airline to feature in the Top 50 chart
• The only regional airline in the world’s top 15 who is neither owned by a bigger airline nor operating exclusively feeder services for a bigger airline and is therefore truly independent

Jim French, Flybe’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are naturally delighted to have received such auspicious recognition in the influential Airline Business Regional Rankings and especially for the second year in succession. The results firmly validate the prominent position we have established on the international aviation stage alongside such well-known global giants as the US’ Sky West Airlines, ExpressJet and American Eagle. It is further proof of the robustness of our chosen business model and validates our commitment to not only expand our regional network but also to make regional air travel more affordable and accessible for both leisure and business passengers.”

Wizz Air has recently registered the 100,000th member of its newly-launched Wizz Xclusive Club loyalty discount program.

The program was introduced only five months ago on the 31st of March 2011.

To date, 100,000 Wizz customers have joined the Wizz Xclusive Club from more than 50 countries around the world, with one third of them living in Poland or in the United Kingdom. The Wizz Xclusive Club is also very popular in Hungary, Romania, Italy, Germany, Ukraine and Sweden.

Club members enjoy the following benefits and advantages:

• Exclusive access to a pool of promotional tickets that can be cheaper by up to 10 EUR per one way flight than regular prices.
• Instant access to discounted member fares is available to all members immediately upon joining the program.
• Up to 9 passengers can be booked together with the Xclusive Club member on the same reservation and benefit from the discounted fares.
• Wizz Xclusive Club members receive exclusive member-only promotional offers via email if they sign up to the Wizz newsletter.

Renowned artist, Pascal Anson has been commissioned to create a piece of artwork for the Olympic Games which will be used on 12 British Airways aircraft.

The 12 aircraft will be used to transfer guests and teams in and out of the UK.

Mr Anson was selected as the artist of choice after winning a competition run by BA to nominate a UK designer.
Artist, Tracey Emin, will also work on the project, mentoring Pascal, whose design will run the entire length of the plane.

At 38, Pascal Anson is also a Senior Lecturer at Kingston University.

BA Launch Addition to ‘Perfect Days’ Facebook App

A new Facebook app has been launched by British Airways as part of its Perfect Days app.

The app invites BA passengers to join in and contribute to an online collection of ‘Perfect Day’ itineraries for cities on routes offered by the airline. The airline’s staff, including cabin crew have already uploaded a wide range of city breaks, including London, New York, the Caribbean, Madrid, Mumbai, Florida, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and San Francisco.

Simple and easy to use, passengers choose a city and create an itinerary for a stay in the chosen city for 24 hours. With the help of Google Maps, creators of an itinerary can then add restaurants, shopping and general places of interest of their choice on the route.

Facebook then allow other Perfect Day users to ‘like’, ‘share’ and comment on the individual itinerary.

A new service by Ryanair means that passengers will be able to change their bookings, even after they have checked in online.

The new service, chargeable at €15 per person, per flight, is available via the airline’s premium rate telephone reservation centres and allows passengers to change names and even flight dates. Changes can be made up until 5pm, CET, the day before the passenger is due to fly.

The service has been created as the airline sees a benefit of such a service to its frequent flyers and those travelling on business.

The Air Travel Advisory Bureau (ATAB) is teaming up with law firm Barker Gillette to launch a coordinated legal claim against UK airlines that have not refunded Air Passenger Duty (APD) to passengers who have booked flights and not flown.

Since the tax was introduced in 1994, ATAB estimates that consumers have lost out on millions of pounds in un-refunded APD. In fact, Which? Estimated that in 2003 alone Ryanair retained more than £5 million in un-refunded taxes.

ATAB Chairman, Tony White said, “It is a scandal that some airlines hang on to this money. It never belonged to them. It’s a tax collected on the behalf of the Government. With a couple of exceptions, most of the UK airlines make it as difficult as possible to get your money back. If you don’t actually fly, for whatever reason, you are entitled to get the APD refunded. The airlines already have your credit card details, they should refund your card immediately. They make it difficult or expensive in the hope that you’ll go away – and most people do just that”.

“It is truly shocking, we’ve found some airlines that will charge an “administration fee” greater than the value of the refund. This is a complete rip-off and it’s our intention to put an end to it. If you have booked an airline ticket out of the UK anytime since 1994, and not flown, then we want to hear from you” said White.

For more information in reclaiming APD on unused flights visit www.atab.org.uk/action-now/reclaim-your-taxes/

CityJet has today launched the UK’s first interactive Concierge service.

The service, which is currently being run as a trial, will operate for two hours per day – 2pm – 4pm – Monday to Friday, via its Twitter feed @cityjet.

The Concierge service will offer customers the latest service information, answer travel-related queries, provide travel advice, information on its destinations, offer hotel and restaurant reservations and organise taxi pick-ups.

Christine Ourmieres, CEO CityJet, says “Twitter has become the ‘go to’ tool for customer service within the travel industry but we wanted to add value to the experience and offer a personal service where possible. The majority of our passengers are business travellers and the Twitter Concierge taps into their need for a swift, efficient and seamless travel service.

It sits comfortably alongside our 15-minute check-ins and convenient flight schedules. If the trial proves successful, we will extend and build on the Concierge service.”