News Archive

St Pancras International lures more than 2m passengers to Eurostar.

The opening of St Pancras International station and the high-speed link through southern England have helped Eurostar lure more than 2 million passengers to the cross-Channel train service this year.

Eurostar said 2.17 million customers travelled between London, Paris and Brussels in the first three months of the year - an increase of more than 21.3% on the same period in 2007.

Eurostar is embarking on a marketing campaign with Virgin Trains, East Midlands Trains and National Express East Coast this summer and will tour stations in cities including Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham to advertise deals such as £77 for a return trip from Sheffield to Paris.

Dubai airport keeps on growing.Dubai International airport was the world’s fastest growing airport in 2007 and passenger numbers are up again this year.

Dubai International handled more than 34 million passengers in 2007, an increase of over 19%. But as Dubai’s popularity as a holiday destination and business centre continues to grow so does its airport. Passenger numbers for the first quarter of 2008 are up 15% on the same period in 2007.

Dubai is already in the top 10 busiest airports in the world and has grown at more than 15% a year for the last six years. On average 95,000 passengers use the airport every day.

Airlines to meet BAA over T5 delays.

Airport operator BAA will have a crisis meeting this week with airlines affected by the decision to delay the transfer of British Airways’ long haul flights to Terminal 5.

BAA and BA jointly announced last week that the transfer of BA long haul flights from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Terminal 5 would be delayed from 30 April until June at the earliest because of concerns the new terminal would not be able to cope with the extra passengers at this stage.

Virgin launches new flight to Washington.

Virgin Atlantic is launching a second daily flight to the US capital, Washington DC, following the success of the seasonal service last summer.

The new flights to Washington Dulles International airport will operate from 20 April to 25 October this year departing Heathrow airport at 17.30 and arriving in Washington at 20.55. The return flight leaves Washington at 23.10 and lands at Heathrow at 11.35 the next day.

Virgin says the new seasonal flight is aimed at both business travellers and people taking a holiday to the USA who want to make the most of the favourable dollar exchange rate.

London City airport invests in check in.

Fast growing London City airport is investing in new self-service check in kiosks as it aims to enhance the airport experience for its passengers.

From May there will be 12 self-service check in kiosks at the airport that will enable passengers to check themselves onto flights with airlines including VLM, KLM and Swiss. London City is used predominantly by business travellers.