Ryanair has announced the launch of two new services from Gatwick Airport.

The new Gatwick flights will operate daily to Barcelona Girona and twice daily to Alicante and will increase the number of Ryanair destinations from Gatwick to five.

Both routes will start on 18 December.

The airline has also released 500,000 free seats for travel throughout Europe in December, January and February – seats are available until midnight on Friday.

For the latest Gatwick airport information and to book Gatwick meet and greet parking and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

Qatar Airways has launched online check-in for all flights departing from London Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airport.

Online check-in is available between 36 hours to 90 minutes prior to flight departure and enables passengers to check-in, select their seat and print of their boarding pass.

The High Court has approved easyJet’s application for a Judicial Review into the regulatory process that allowed a massive increase in Gatwick Airport charges earlier this year.

This is the first time that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has been subject to a judicial review for a regulatory price decision.

In March the CAA announced price controls for both Gatwick and Heathrow allowing a 21% increase for 2008/09 at Gatwick and a 23.5% increase at Heathrow.

The announcement sparked outrage by many airlines, and in April easyJet said it would challenge the increase through a judicial review.

To book meet and greet parking at Gatwick airport and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

BA has announced it is to cease operations to two destinations from Gatwick.

The flights affected are:

• Gatwick to Zurich - flights will not operate during summer and winter 2009
• Gatwick to Geneva – flights will not operate during summer 2009

BA has said, where possible, customers will be reaccommodated on services from Heathrow airport.

Passengers affected by the axing of these services should contact BA for more information.

For the latest Gatwick airport information and to book Gatwick meet and greet parking and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

Heathrow corporate parking supplier Eton Air closed its doors this month after more than 10 years of dedicated service to the corporate parking industry.

Help-me-park is proud to be able to offer corporate airport parking services to all customers of Eton Air who now need a new supplier that is conscientious, experienced and reliable for airport parking at Gatwick and Heathrow airports.

The Help-me-park sales team can be reached on 0845 272 8790, or visit www.help-me-park.co.uk for more information.

Mexicana has announced it is to launch services between Gatwick Airport and Mexico City.

The new Gatwick flights will begin on 17 January 2009 and operate twice a week (Thursdays and Sundays) until 17 February when the service will operate four times per week, adding flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To book meet and greet parking at Gatwick airport and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

From today, 6 November, Northwest Airlines will operate out of Gatwick airport’s North Terminal.

For the latest Gatwick airport information and to book Gatwick meet and greet parking and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

easyJet is to launch daily flights to Copenhagen from Gatwick Airport.

The new service will commence on 15 January 2009 and will operate in addition to easyJet’s Copenhagen flights from Stansted Airport.

easyJet’s brand new Gatwick flights to Helsinki take off today, 3 November.

For the latest Gatwick airport information and to book Gatwick meet and greet parking and Gatwick hotels click on the links.

Icelandic owned Sterling Airlines is to file for bankruptcy today, the latest airline victim of the credit crunch and high oil prices.

All Sterling flights have been cancelled.

In a statement on its website, the company explains:

“Dear customers, employees and other stakeholders,

During the last few weeks, the management, board of directors, and the shareholder of Sterling Airlines A/S have been fighting a battle to keep the company alive. Sadly, this has not had a positive outcome, and we have therefore decided to file for bankruptcy which will be done later today.

Over a 3 to 4 weeks period, the whole financial system melted down, and that resulted in our shareholder being unable to continue his support to the company. Negotiations have been conducted with several potential investors, but it was impossible to make ends meet.  The inevitable result is that Sterling Airlines A/S has no option but to file for bankruptcy.”

Information for Sterling Passengers from Sterling’s website:

Customers who have directly purchased their tickets on Sterling’s website will unfortunately not be refunded neither will their return flights. You therefore have to book your return flights with another airline company.

If you have paid for a flight by credit card, we advise you to contact your bank or credit card company to ask for a possible refund.

Customers who have booked their flights through a travel agency or tour operator should initially contact them.
Passengers who have booked their tickets through Sterling, but is flying with Norwegian, should contact Norwegian directly on one of the below phone numbers:

+47 21490015 (from outside Norway)
815 21 815 (from Norway)

Passengers currently staying abroad in hotels, or hiring a car through Sterling business partners, are still able to stay in their hotel or keep the hired car for the relevant period of time, as such services are paid for through our business partners and not Sterling. However as for your return flight, you will need to find alternatives for your final destination.

Please note that if you have booked your travel/hotel/car through a travel agency or tour operator, please contact them upon your return for possible refund of expenses for your return flight.

We understand that most travel insurance does not protect holders from airline insolvency but should you have taken insurance please contact your insurance company for clarification.

We will later put on a FAQ and hope that this will help you in this very unfortunate situation.

For the full statement see Sterling’s website (English translation at the bottom).

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has today released statistics showing that service quality at both Heathrow and Gatwick has improved over the past six months.

Service quality is now better than in the same period in 2007. Security queuing times have improved markedly at both airports since 2007, while improvements have also been seen in cleanliness and pier service in most terminals.

However, standards have not yet been achieved consistently across all services at all terminals. As a result, BAA has paid £7.34m in rebates where it has failed to meet the required standards at the airports in the six months from April to September 2008.

Some elements of performance have failed to meet the stricter standards in each of the six months so far since 1 April 2008, including:

Heathrow Terminal 3 - departure lounge seating;
Heathrow Terminal 4 - pier service;
Gatwick South Terminal - departure lounge seating; cleanliness and wayfinding;
Gatwick North Terminal - departure lounge seating and pier service

The CAA has sought an explanation from both airports of why these targets have been missed and what the plans and timescales are for meeting the targets in the future.

The CAA is planning to audit the measurement of the service quality schemes in early 2009, to reassure stakeholders that performance is reported accurately.