Archive for the ‘Birmingham airport’ CategoryTurkish Airlines has announced it is to increase its five-times-per-week service between Birmingham and Istanbul to a daily service. The increase in flights will begin on 25 March 2012 with the following schedule:
Turkish Airlines has been operating from Birmingham Airport since 2008. Ryanair has announced it is to operate 30 extra flights on the Dublin – Birmingham route for the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival. The extra flights will operate as follows:
Ryanair is set to launch flights to Budapest from Birmingham Airport. The twice-weekly flights (Wednesdays and Saturdays) will begin in March 2012, and are set to increase Ryanair passenger numbers to more than 1.3 million from Birmingham.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a new price comparison tool to enable travellers to see a summary of optional charges levied by the top airlines in the UK. The tool details information of costs of hold luggage, in flight meal charges, seat reservation and other optional airline fees. Andrew Haines, Chief Executive of the CAA said: “The diversity of UK aviation offers excellent choice and value to UK consumers with airlines adopting various business models. To really benefit from that choice consumers want to know the full price picture. For some passengers and airlines the headline ticket price will be the most expensive part of the booking, whilst for others the impact of optional fees and charges can change their view of the best overall price. “Our table allows passengers to easily compare the optional fees that airlines charge and it’s important to consider those charges alongside the ticket price and the extra charges that could be applied before making their booking.” To view the fees and charges comparison table click here: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/2200/Comparing_airline_charges_1st_Feb_2012_.pdf The CAA plans to update the charges table on a quarterly basis.
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.” Flybe has today announced the awarding of contracts for full ground handling services to Menzies Aviation, the aviation services division of John Menzies plc, at two of its biggest UK bases, Birmingham and London Gatwick. The agreement is for a period of three years commencing on 31 March 2012 at both airports. The contracts are a furtherance of an already successful relationship between Flybe and Menzies Aviation, who already provide similar services for the airline at Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Midlands and Luton airports. Andrew Strong, Flybe UK’s Director of Managing Director comments: “Flybe is delighted to extend its successful relationship with Menzies Aviation. The company has served us well to date and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future at two of our busiest bases. As well as providing a high quality service that supports Flybe’s fast turnaround provision, the deal generates significant savings for Flybe as we look to proactively manage our cost base.” Craig Smyth, Menzies Aviation’s Managing Director, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded the Flybe business in Gatwick and Birmingham. We have had a relationship with Flybe for 5 years in the UK and to add these two stations to our joint portfolio gives both companies a strong platform for our future together and extends the excellent working relationship we have. This is a wonderful start to 2012.” Flybe has grown rapidly at London Gatwick over the last five years to the point where it is now its third largest slot holder at the airport, is the largest domestic carrier by some distance, operating 10 routes and is the airport’s most punctual carrier. Flybe is Birmingham Airport’s largest scheduled airline, operating 22 routes and employs some 400 staff at the airport.
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.”
The war of words over border control strike action continues in the press and it is unknown how badly affected airport passengers are going to be by the action – reports vary from minor disruption to significant. Border control will be affected from the evening of Tuesday 29 November until midnight on Wednesday 30 November – strike action start times will depend on shift patterns. Any delays will affect passengers arriving into the UK that need to pass through passport control – outgoing flights should not be affected. Tips to help avoid delays:
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has said that it has robust arrangements in place to maintain the security of the border and that it has
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, said: ‘Securing the border is our priority and over the last weeks and months we have considered all options to ensure we are prepared for union action. ‘We always aim to minimise any disruption caused by the decision of unions to strike, but travellers could see longer waiting times at some ports and airports.’ For up-to-date UKBA information visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ Following recent issues with Comtel Air, Birmingham Airport is advising passengers that Comtel Air flights planned for the coming weekend (18-20 November 2011) have been cancelled. For more information check the Birmingham Airport website here http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/meta/news/2011/11/comtel-news-statement.aspx.
easyJet is set to trial allocated seating on selected routes. The trial, which will be introduced in the spring of 2012, will mean each passenger will be allocated a specific seat, however, if they wish to sit in a specific seat, such as in the front row they can pay to reserve them. Carolyn McCall, easyJet CEO, said, “This is another example of easyJet trying to do all it can to make travel easy and affordable for our passengers. We look forward to seeing how our passengers respond and how the trial works. We will roll it out further only if it works operationally, from a revenue perspective and increases passenger satisfaction. If it doesn’t, we won’t.” |
