Virgin Atlantic unveils UK airline services: BBC News

[BBC News] Virgin Atlantic has unveiled details of its UK domestic service, including that the operation is called Little Red.

Sir Richard promised that Little Red will have a “rock and roll spirit” Photo: Wikipedia

t will launch on 31 March in Manchester, 5 April in Edinburgh and 9 April in Aberdeen, providing a total of 26 daily services to Heathrow airport.

Virgin won key take-off and landing slots at Heathrow after the struggling carrier Bmi was taken over by British Airways’ parent company IAG.

Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said Little Red will go head-on with BA.

BA operates around 52 daily flights between Heathrow and Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. BA also runs services to Scotland from Gatwick and London City airports.

Virgin Atlantic hopes that Little Red, which will use Heathrow Terminal 1, will help feed traffic onto its international service operating from Terminal 3.

Sir Richard said on Friday that Little Red will “go head-to-head with BA to provide domestic flights that deliver Virgin Atlantic’s rock and roll spirit as well as real value for money.”

Read the original story at BBC News…..

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BBC News
1st Mar, 2013

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Cheaper BA flights – but for passengers with hand luggage only: IOL Travel

[IOL Travel] British Airways is to take on budget airline rivals by charging less if passengers travel with just hand luggage.

British Airways is to take on budget airline rivals by charging less if passengers travel with just hand luggage. Photo: Wikipedia

The airline said the cheaper fares – initially to be offered on flights from Gatwick to five destinations – will give passengers “more choice”.

Holidaymakers with luggage to check in will not pay more to compensate for the lower “hand baggage only” fares, BA insisted.

The move will be seen as an attempt to compete with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.

Peter Simpson, BA’s director at Gatwick, said: “The introduction of our hand baggage only fare is all about giving our customers more freedom to choose the kind of flying they want. Many British Airways customers on Gatwick short-haul breaks choose not to check in a bag as they’re already taking advantage of our generous two-bag hand luggage policy.

“Those who still want to check in a bag will simply pay the same price they do now.” …..

Read the full story at IOL Travel…..

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Daily Mail
21st Feb, 2013

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KLM is to charge for checked-in baggage: Business Traveller

[Business Traveller] Until now Europe’s traditional airlines such as Air France, British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa have prided themselves on not burdening passengers with ancillary charges as do the budget carriers.

Dutch carrier KLM is the first to break ranks & charge for checked baggage. Photo: Wikipedia

But Dutch carrier KLM is the first to break ranks. Reports today in the Dutch media, now confirmed by KLM, state that starting in April KLM will charge short-haul passengers fees of either €15 (when paid in advance) or €30 (when paid at the airport) for pieces of checked baggage.

Hand luggage will remain free and the charges will not apply to passengers flying long-haul. All members of KLM’s Flying Blue loyalty scheme will also escape the new fees.

At the same time, it’s understood KLM will strictly enforce rules for hand baggage. According to the reports, any bag which doesn’t meet KLM’s 55x25x35 cm, 12 kilos allowance will be placed in the hold and the unlucky passenger will be charged €30 at the gate.

In its defence KLM says that 60 to 70 per cent of its short-haul passengers carry only hand luggage. The airline says that passengers would prefer to pay less for their flights and that is why it has decided to bring in the fee.

Most large airlines lose money flying within Europe yet cannot…..

Read the full story at Business Traveller…..

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Report by Alex McWhirter,
Business Traveller
13th Feb, 2013

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British Airways Mid-flight horror as pilot becomes ‘incapacitated’ in fume filed cockpit: Daily Mail

[Daily Mail] A British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing at a remote Canadian town after suspected toxic oil fumes were reported on the flight deck.

The co-pilot started to feel nauseous before unscheduled stop was made at Goose Bay, Newfoundland. Photo: Wikipedia

The Boeing 777, carrying 158 passengers from Heathrow to Philadelphia, made the unscheduled stop at Goose Bay, in Newfoundland, in temperatures of -30C after fumes started to cause eye and throat irritation halfway through the eight hour flight. The co-pilot also became incapacitated after he started to feel nauseous nearly half an hour later.

Oxygen masks were then required for the captain and first officer, so they could make the landing last Sunday, according to the Sunday Express.

The news comes just two weeks after the first picture was released of one of two top BA pilots who died within days of each other after complaining about being exposed to toxic oil fumes on passenger planes.

Last month it was reported Richard Westgate, 43, died after instructing his lawyers to sue BA for health and safety breaches days before fellow pilot Karen Lysakowska, 43, passed away.

Both claimed they had been poisoned by the fumes that can contaminate cabin air and which regularly force pilots to wear oxygen masks.

Read the full story at the Mail Online…..

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Mail Online - James Rush
10 Feb, 2013

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BA in Ryanair deal for Heathrow slots: FT.com

[FT.com] British Airways stands to strengthen its grip on Heathrow by gaining the right to buy a large chunk of take-off and landing slots at the airport, as part of proposals Ryanair is offering European regulators to seek approval for its contentious takeover of Aer Lingus.

Ryanair is trying to secure regulatory approval for its third takeover bid for the Irish flag carrier. Photo: Wikipedia

The UK flag carrier, the largest airline at Heathrow, has struck a deal with Ryanair to purchase more than 85 per cent of Aer Lingus’s slots at the airport, which are currently used to provide services to Dublin, Shannon and Cork, said three people familiar with the agreement between Ryanair and British Airways.

Heathrow is running at near full capacity, so the opportunity to buy Aer Lingus’s slots at the airport could provide British Airways with an important means to eventually expand its long-haul services

Last month, the European Commission objected to Ryanair’s bid on competition grounds. The commission prohibited Ryanair’s first bid for Aer Lingus in 2007, and Brussels has never cleared a merr that it previously rejected.

British Airways is offering to take responsibility for many of Aer Lingus’s services out of Heathrow for at least three years.

With British Airways operating these services, Ryanair is privately saying that a combined Ryanair-Aer Lingus would not be dominant on those routes, said people familiar with the Irish budget carrier’s stance.

However, British Airways would run these services in place of Aer Lingus for between three and five years – after that it would have the right to buy the Irish flag carrier’s Heathrow slots and reallocate them to different destinations, such as New York.

Aer Lingus is the third-largest airline at Heathrow, and British Airways would be able to purchase up to 20 pairs of slots for daily flights that are held by the Irish flag carrier at the airport…….

Read the full story at FT.com…..

 

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Financial Times
By Andrew Parker in London and Alex Barker in Brussels
Dec 14th, 2012

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Heathrow confirms Terminal 2 airline occupancy: BAA Press Release

Heathrow Airport today announced that the new Terminal 2 will be home to STAR Alliance and Aer Lingus flights as well as Virgin Atlantic’s domestic routes when it opens in 2014.

The decision on which airlines will operate from the terminal follows a nine-month consultation with airlines which was prompted by the sale of bmi to IAG, the owner of British Airways. Photo Courtesy BAA Media Centre

The new Terminal 2 will give Heathrow the best passenger facilities of any major hub in Europe. 75% of passengers at Heathrow already rate their experience as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ following the opening of Terminal 5 and the refurbishment of Terminals 1, 3 and 4 (up from 41% in 2006). The airline moves announced today would enable the early closure of Terminal 1 which would allow all passengers to travel through new or refurbished terminals from 2016.

The new terminal marks the latest phase of an £11 billion transformation of Heathrow. 20 million passengers a year will eventually use the new terminal, which consists of a main terminal building plus satellite building and aircraft parking stands. The £2.5billion development is the largest privately-funded construction project in the UK and has been delivered at no cost to the taxpayer. 35,000 people will have worked on the terminal over the lifetime of the project.

The decision on which airlines will operate from the terminal follows a nine-month consultation with airlines which was prompted by the sale of bmi to IAG, the owner of British Airways.

Since the review began in March 2012, Heathrow has met with airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority on a regular basis to agree the terms of reference and evaluation process and to listen to feedback. All the relevant data has been shared with all parties to ensure a fair and transparent process. Heathrow is required to treat all airlines equitably, and 18 separate options for the new terminal were considered and assessed against agreed criteria. The process has led to the decision that the following airlines will operate from Terminal 2:

STAR Alliance. The STAR Alliance network is one of three global airline alliances, and the second largest alliance operating from Heathrow. Its airlines currently operate from Terminals 1, 3 and 4. Globally, STAR has the highest number of member airlines, daily flights, and destinations of any airline alliance. Its airline members operating from Heathrow include: Aegean Air, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss International Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways International, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.

Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland and Heathrow’s fourth largest airline. Aer Lingus currently operates from Terminal 1.

Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic is the UK’s second largest long-haul airline with a fleet of 40 aircraft. From summer 2013, Virgin Atlantic will operate domestic routes from Heathrow to Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen following the award of ‘remedy slots’ as a result of IAG’s acquisition of bmi. These flights will initially operate from Terminal 1 (where bmi was based) before moving to Terminal 2 in 2014. Virgin Atlantic’s international flights will continue to operate from Terminal 3. Heathrow will continue to work with Virgin Atlantic on how its services might be co-located in the future.

Heathrow is still in discussion with those airlines which currently operate from Terminal 1 and are not members of the Star Alliance (El Al, Icelandair, Cyprus Airways, Germanwings and Transaero), about their future location when Terminal 1 closes. We expect to conclude these discussions in early 2013.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow Development Director, said:

“Terminal 2 will offer a significant improvement for passengers travelling through Heathrow. Providing all airlines and their passengers with great facilities is a key part of our vision for Heathrow. Terminal 5 was recently voted by passengers as the best airport terminal in the world and the opening of Terminal 2 will mark another major step forward.”

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BAA Press & Media Centre
11th Dec, 2012

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Virgin Atlantic unveils second wave of domestic flights : Flightglobal

[Flightglobal] Virgin Atlantic Airways has fleshed out further details of its upcoming entry into the UK domestic market, confirming plans to operate “multiple daily flights” from London Heathrow airport to two Scottish cities.

Virgin will add new Heathrow services to Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Photo: Wikipedia

The airline had previously announced that flights from Manchester to Heathrow will begin on 31 March 2013, becoming its first domestic feeder service.

In the “second stage” of its domestic expansion, Virgin will add new Heathrow services to Edinburgh and Aberdeen. International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of rival British Airways, currently has a monopoly on both routes following its acquisition of BMI.

“At least 1.8 million Scottish passengers, equivalent to a third of the population, have been left without a choice on these routes since IAG’s takeover of BMI,” says outgoing Virgin chief executive Steve Ridgway, who will leave the company next spring.

“As a monopoly operator, BA has the opportunity, the incentive and the means to increase fares and reduce the number of flights available.”

BA is reducing Heathrow-Aberdeen flights by almost one-third and Heathrow-Edinburgh flights by one-quarter when compared with the number of combined services previously operated by the flag carrier and its one-time rival BMI, Virgin claims.

Ridgway had earlier acknowledged that Scottish routes will likely form the backbone of its upcoming domestic operations – to be served by leased Airbus A319s.

IAG has been forced to relinquish 14 slot pairs at Heathrow in order to trim its market share at the hub following the BMI acquisition. Competition RX, the company monitoring the slot auction, says at least seven of those slots must be used for Edinburgh or Aberdeen flights.

Virgin is bidding for 12 of the slots, with the remaining two earmarked for Transaero’s Moscow route. Tickets for Manchester went on sale last month and Virgin says the route will be operated irrespective of how many slots it ultimately secures.

However, no such assurance has been given for flights to Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Moscow – also tentatively announced by Virgin – and with tickets yet to go on sale it appears that all three routes are predicated on its success in the slot auction.

Read the original story at Flightglobal……

 

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Story by Martin Rivers
14th Sept, 2012

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Burst pipe in Heathrow T5 covers 100 bags of passengers’ luggage in raw sewage: Daily Mail

[Daily Mail] British Airways passengers were left stuck without their luggage after a pipe burst in Heathrow Terminal 5 – drenching their bags in sewage.

Many passengers are still waiting to be reunited with luggage after the airport sent it off to be cleaned. Photo: Wikipedia

British Airways passengers were left stuck without their luggage after a pipe burst in Heathrow Terminal 5 – drenching  their bags in sewage.

About 100 suitcases were covered in the raw filth when a pipe in the sewage system burst in Terminal 5′s baggage hold on  Monday.

Many passengers were still waiting to be reunited with their suitcases today after the airport sent them off to be  cleaned

A source told The  Sun:  ‘The smell was absolutely foul, as was the mood of the passengers who had to  leave without their bags.’

It has been suggested the leak could be linked to the Terminal being built on a former sludge works

A spokesman for the airport operator, BAA Heathrow, said: ‘There was a leak from the sewage system in the baggage area of  Terminal 5 on Monday which affected around a hundred bags.

‘We appreciate this will be upsetting for passengers. The bags have now been cleaned and are being reunited with……

Read the full story at the Dail Mail…..

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Daily Mail
5th Sept, 2012

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Body found on British Airways flight to Heathrow: BBC News

[BBC News] A body has been found inside a jumbo jet landing at Heathrow Airport.

It is believed the dead man could be a person who was spotted scaling the fence at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday night. Photo: Wikipedia

The body was discovered in the landing gear bay of a British Airways Boeing 747 after it arrived at the London airport from Cape Town, South Africa.

BA said it was liaising with South African authorities over the discovery, which was made at about 06:25 BST on Thursday.

A spokesman said: “This is a very rare and sad event and our thoughts are with the individual’s family.”

He continued: “We are liaising with the South African authorities and Cape Town airport after a body was found in the landing gear bay of one of our aircraft.

“They are investigating how this incident took place, which involved a Boeing 747 which arrived this morning from Cape Town.”

The death is being treated as non-suspicious.

Inquiries are being made to establish the man’s identity.

Read the full story at BBC News…..

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BBC News
23rd August, 2012

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Huge fire rages near Heathrow, flights affected

[Airport Informer] A huge fire is currently being tackled by Fire Services adjacent to Heathrow Airport. The nearby main A4 road has been closed and diversions are in place.

This image taken from the Terminal 1 car park shows the plume of dense smoke rising high into the sky. Photo: John Jefferies

The fire is raging in a tyre depot which is next to the main road and is causing delays to passengers bound for the airport.

It is thought by airport insiders that the density and proximity of the black smoke plume to the runway will cause problems for air traffic at the Heathrow.

A huge plume of black smoke can clearly be seen for miles across central London and can even be spotted from the area near the Olympic stadium.

Updates can be found at LBC – lbc.co.uk…..

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The Airport Informer
21st Aug, 2012

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