News Archive

Travel web fraudsters found guilty.

A gang of fraudsters was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court this week, after swindling innocent holiday makers of £6 million.

BA has answer to delays at Heathrow airport.

Delays at Heathrow airport caused by strong winds could be cut by up to two thirds believes British Airways.

At Heathrow planes are restricted to landing on one runway at a time. But at Gatwick airport planes take off and land on the same runway in so called ‘mixed mode’ operation. This leads to 48 take-offs and landings per hour at Gatwick, compared to 42 per hour at Heathrow says BA.

“Years of practical experience of runway operation at Heathrow and Gatwick has shown conclusively that mixed mode operation provides much better protection against delays when weather conditions are difficult,” says BA infrastructure manager, Paul Ellis.

Best airports for service quality named.

Aberdeen airport and Southampton airport are among the winners in the Airports Council International’s 2007 airports service quality awards.

Aberdeen airport won the award for most improved airport in the survey of 200,000 air travellers in 2007. Kevin Brown, MD of Aberdeen airport, told the BBC: “We have listened to our passengers, our business and airline partners and we have invested millions to bring the airport up to the high standards our customers rightly expect and deserve”.

Heathrow T5 outshone by new Beijing airport.

The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, due to open on 27 March, has been put in the shade by the massive new Terminal 3 at Beijing airport.

The new terminal at Beijing is being described as the biggest building in the world, and is twice the size of Heathrow Terminal 5 and cost about half as much to build. It has also been completed in only four years, whereas Terminal 5 has taken almost 19 years to build since it was first planned.

New Manchester airport flights from bmibaby.

Low cost airline bmibaby has announced new flights from Manchester airport to Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon.

bmibaby, which describes itself as “the airline with tiny fares”, will commence flights to Madrid on 16 June with prices starting from £24.99 one way including taxes and charges. Flights will operate on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Madrid is a great choice for a city break with superb shops, cafes, restaurants and culture, plus sporting attractions such as the legendary Real Madrid.