South West regional airline Air Southwest has launched the sale of Visitor Oyster cards on all its flights into London, giving customers quick and easy access to the capital’s public transport network.

Air Southwest is the first airline at London City Airport to offer the cards, and is also launching Oyster cards on its four times daily Gatwick Airport service from Plymouth and Newquay.

Following a deal with Transport for London, customers can buy a Visitor Oyster card for just £22, which includes £20 of travel credit.

Oyster is an electronic transport smartcard which enables passengers to pay for journeys on the Tube, Docklands Light Railway, London Buses, Tramlink, London Overground, Thames Clippers river services and on all National Rail services in Greater London.

Mike Coombes, commercial director at Air Southwest, said: “This is all about giving Air Southwest customers from Plymouth and Newquay hassle-free travel in London, whether they are flying to London City Airport or Gatwick, without having to buy tickets.”

Customers arriving at London City Airport can board the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) which puts them within minutes of the City or Canary Wharf.

Thanks to the DLR, more passengers leave London City Airport by public transport than any other airport in the country, and Air Southwest’s Oyster initiative has been applauded for improving access to the transport network.

Giles Bailey, Head of Group Marketing Strategy and Integration for Transport for London, said: “This is our first partnership into London City and we’re delighted to be working with Air Southwest on promoting the Visitor Oyster card as a quick and easy way of accessing London’s public transport network.”

Richard Gooding, Chief Executive of London City Airport said: “This is a great partnership that we hope to see repeated on other scheduled services into London City. The airport is committed to giving passengers the smoothest journey possible and this will add to that.”

Ryanair’s flights between Stansted Airport and Newquay are to stop after 30 September 2009 due to the airline’s decision to scrap 30% of its flights from Stansted this winter.

Air Southwest is reminding passengers left high and dry by Ryanair’s scrapped Newquay to Stansted service that it flies up to six times a day to London.

Air Southwest flies up to twice daily from Newquay to London City Airport in the heart of the capital and offers four flights a day, seven days a week, from Newquay to Gatwick.

Peter Davies, managing director of Air Southwest, said: “There will be a lot of Newquay passengers left high and dry by the withdrawal of the Ryanair flights and we want them to know that Air Southwest is here for them, year-round, with fares starting from just £29 with no hidden extras.

“In the heart of the capital, and just a few miles from the M11 corridor, with swift access to north London and Essex, London City Airport is a superb choice for all those passengers who can no longer fly to Stansted. Once they’ve sampled the Air Southwest experience, we’re confident they’ll never look back.”

Air Southwest is the biggest operator out of Newquay with more year-round flights to more destinations than any other airline.

Newquay Cornwall Airport is delighted by the announcement of bmibaby’s new three times weekly flights to East Midlands Airport. Services will operate for the summer season between 28 May and 12 September 2010 on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

Kevin Pickup, Senior Marketing Officer, Newquay Cornwall Airport said: “We are very pleased to welcome back bmibaby for 2010. The news that the airline will be launching a regular summer route to East Midlands Airport shows our continued commitment to reducing passenger journey times to regions where we feel there is a strong demand for speedier travel. Our research has shown that this route will not only appeal to those looking to have a relaxing break in Cornwall but also for residents of the south west looking for an alternative short-break destination or to visit friends and family in the East Midlands.”

bmibaby is the only airline to operate flights between Newquay and East Midlands Airport.

Newquay Cornwall Airport has announced its first ever direct charter flight to New York this autumn.

The four-day visit, which departs on Thursday, November 19, is being jointly organised by Cornish travel agents, Wickers World Travel and Newell’s Travel. The trip, costing from £739 per person, includes three night’s accommodation in a central Manhattan hotel, flights and transfers to and from New York Newark Airport.

“It has long been our wish to offer flights to the USA and this charter route – ideally timed for Christmas shopping – is a great start,” said Head of Commercial Development, Karen Medweth. “We hope this will be the beginning of more transatlantic services, for which there is definitely demand from Cornwall.”

Newquay Cornwall Airport has welcomed the arrival of Jet2.com and the launch of its three times weekly flights to Leeds Bradford Airport in Yorkshire and twice weekly services to Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Philip Meeson, CEO at Jet2.com said: “Newquay has always been a favourite UK destination and it is now incredibly easy to get to for people in the north, with flights taking just 70 minutes, departing three times weekly during the summer.”

Newquay to Leeds flights depart Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays (from 3 July) until 6 September 2009.

Newquay to Belfast International flights depart Sundays and Wednesdays until 6 September 2009:

Flight codes for Air Southwest are set to change on 31 May 2009. From this date all Air Southwest flights will be prefixed by ‘SZ’ instead of the current ‘WOW’.

The change comes as the airline seeks to make its flights available to a global audience and feature in travel agent computer systems and flight booking engines worldwide.

Peter Davies, managing director of Air Southwest, explained: “Our website www.airsouthwest.com will continue to be our main source of bookings, but we now see great opportunities in being able to use global sales systems. And it means we can work more closely with other airlines in the future.

“For us to do that we needed a two-letter code assigned by the International Air Transport Association.

“The only difference for customers is that from May 31 when they are catching an Air Southwest flight they will need to look out for SZ rather than WOW on the departure board.”

Air Southwest has announced an adjustment to the departure times for its morning flight to London City airport from Newquay and Plymouth airports.

The earlier departure time for the service, which starts on 20 April, is designed to give business passengers a longer working day in the city.

For more London City Airport information and to book London City airport parking and London City airport hotels click on the links.

Ryanair has announced it is to remove its airport check-in desks and plans to go 100% web check-in from October 2009.

The airline will phase in online check-in in three stages:

1. From 19 March 2009, Ryanair’s web check-in service will be extended to (a) non EU/EEA citizens, (b) passengers travelling with checked baggage and (c) reduced mobility customers.Customers without hold luggage can check-in free of charge; those with checked in baggage will be charged a web check-in fee of £5/€5 per person/per flight; customers checking-in at the airport will pay a fee of £10/€10 per person/per flight at the time of booking.
2. From 1 May 2009, all new bookings will be required to use web check-in and the use of airport check-in desks will be phased out over the summer months. A web check-in fee of £5/€5 per person, per flight will apply to all new bookings (except promotional fares) from 1st May 2009. Passengers still requiring airport check-in will see the fee doubled to £20/€20 per person/per flight payable at the time of booking.
3. From 1 October 2009, Ryanair airport check-in desks will no longer be available. All passengers will be required to use web check-in – checked in bags will be deposited at the “bag drop” desks.

Ryanair’s online check-in is available from 15 days to 4 hours prior to the scheduled flight time.

Newquay Cornwall Airport has announced the return of Ryanair and its daily flights between Newquay Cornwall Airport and London Stansted from today, 2nd March.

To celebrate the return Ryanair is offering 1 million seats for travel across Europe in March, April & May beginning at £2 today Monday 2nd March and increasing by £1 every day until Monday 9th March when they will reach £9. These seats include taxes and charges and will be snapped up fast.”

To book Stansted airport parking using an online parking price checker, or Stansted airport taxis click on the links.

Air Southwest customers flying with just hand baggage from Newquay and Plymouth can now take advantage of a new express service, allowing them to check-in just 20 minutes before their scheduled flight departure time.

As the main airline operating from the two airports, Air Southwest has already developed a range of services to help South West travellers, including free hold-baggage allowance, a hand baggage allowance of up to 7kg plus a laptop, and a “Business Plus” product tailored to meet the needs of business travellers.

Air Southwest operates year round flights from Newquay Cornwall Airport and Plymouth City Airport to Bristol airport, London Gatwick, Leeds Bradford airport, Manchester airport, Glasgow airport, Newcastle airport, Cork and Dublin. The airline also has regular flights from Plymouth to Jersey.

Last December, Air Southwest launched new flights from Newquay and Plymouth to French skiing destination Grenoble which run until the end of March.