News Archive

Virgin wins best airline awards.

Virgin Atlantic has won no less than three awards for best airline, including best business class and best economy class airline, at the British Travel Awards.

In the best business class airline category, Virgin pipped Emirates. Runner up in the best economy class category was British Airways. Virgin was also triumphant as best scheduled long haul airline, again beating Emirates into second place.

The other airlines winning top honours at the British Travel Awards were easyJet, British Airways and Monarch. easyJet was voted best low cost/no frills airline ahead of Monarch. But Monarch triumphed in the best leisure airline category, with Thomsonfly in second place. British Airways was named best scheduled airline Europe, with Monarch again scooping second place.

In the airport categories, Gatwick airport was voted best UK airport for leisure travel ahead of Manchester airport. Heathrow airport won best UK airport for business travel, and Manchester airport was again runner up.

Airport hotel bus raises prices.

The Heathrow Hoppa, which operates from Heathrow airport to and from airport hotels at Heathrow, has announced an increase in fares.

The new fare on the Heathrow Hoppa is £5 per person one way, an increase from £4 each way. Tickets for children aged 3-15 are 50p, while children under three travel free when accompanied by an adult fare paying passenger.

Tickets for the Heathrow Hoppa can be bought from the ticket machine found at all stops used by the service or on board from the driver if paying in pounds sterling. A bus timetable for the Hoppa service can also be found at each stop.

The Hotel Hoppa runs from Terminals 1, 2 and 3 at Heathrow airport and now from the new Terminal 5 as well. Buses stop right outside the terminals providing an easy journey for customers with heavy baggage. Passengers using Terminal 4 can catch the free Heathrow Connect train to Terminals 1,2 and 3.

The bus serves most of the hotels near Heathrow including the Comfort Inn, Crowne Plaza, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Ibis, Jurys Inn, Novotel, Park Inn, Premier Travel Inn, Ramada Jarvis, Radisson Edwardian, Renaissance, Sheraton, Thistle, Travelodge and Quality Hotel.

Airline body says no to Thames estuary airport.

The airline association which represents the interests of all British registered airlines has voiced its opposition to proposals backed by London Mayor Boris Johnson to build a new airport in the Thames estuary.

The British Air Transport Association, whose members include British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, has said it believes the so-called Boris Island is a non-starter.

Airline LTE in talks with buyer as Norwich flights cancelled.

Troubled Spanish airline LTE which suspended all its flights last month before resuming charter flights two weeks later is now in talks with a buyer and has cancelled all flights from Norwich airport until the end of March.

At the end of last month LTE said it hoped to re-launch scheduled flights from Norwich in December. But the resumption of the flights from Norwich to Palma, Alicante and Barcelona now appears to be dependent on LTE finding a buyer.

BAA backs Crossrail to benefit Heathrow.

Airport operator BAA has pledged £230 million to the Crossrail project that will link Heathrow airport to central London, the City and Canary Wharf.

Crossrail will provide a fast train service to Heathrow four times an hour for most of the day, cutting journey times and significantly improving rail access to the airport for thousands of passengers and airport workers.

Legislation allowing the scheme to progress was approved in July this year, and work is due to start in earnest in 2010. The £16 billion project is to be funded by both the government and businesses such as BAA that will benefit directly from it.

As well as improving journey times to Heathrow, the government says Crossrail will provide a boost of at least £20 billion to the UK economy and generate 30,000 new jobs.