News Archive

New airport lounge opens at Terminal 5.

British Airways is opening a new airport lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5.

The Galleries lounge will open in Terminal 5’s satellite B building on Wednesday September 17th. This is the sixth lounge to be opened at T5 by BA, at a total cost of £60 million.

The Terminal 5 B Galleries Club lounge has been finished to the same high standard as the other airport lounges in the main T5 building. The new lounge includes work and entertainment zones, the Elemis Travel Spa, a shower suite, kids zone, Silver bar, and wine gallery.

British Airways customers travelling in First, Club World or Club Europe cabins, plus Gold and Silver Executive Club members, will be able to use the new Galleries Club lounge.

First class passengers will also continue to be able to make use of the Concorde Room, while Gold Executive Club members will still be able to use the Galleries First lounge. Both of these are located in the Terminal 5A southern Galleries lounge area.

BA recommends that customers flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 B leave Terminal 5 A at least 35 minutes before departure to make sure they reach the boarding gate no later than 20 minutes prior to their flight leaving.

Luton airport offers new flights to Rotterdam.

New flights to Rotterdam from Luton airport will start on October 27th with Dutch airline transavia.com.

There will be flights twice a day, at times which will enable business travellers to enjoy a full business day at their destination. As well as being conveniently located for the city of Rotterdam and its world famous port, Rotterdam airport is also only 20 minutes by taxi from political centre of The Hague and the holiday hotspot of Delft.

Flights home for XL customers going well.

Repatriation flights for XL customers stranded abroad are operating smoothly and all passengers due to return by the weekend should be back in the UK today.

Over 22,000 XL customers have already been flown home, and thousands more are expected to arrive today.

Airlines including Astraeus, British Airways, bmi British Midland, First Choice Airways, Jet2.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomsonfly, Virgin Atlantic and a number of overseas airlines have been providing planes to fly the stranded passengers home.

Heathrow needs new runway say businesses.

One hundred companies and organisations are giving their support for a third runway at Heathrow airport.

They say that a new runway at Heathrow is vital if UK businesses are to compete internationally. Since 1990 the number of desinations available from Heathrow has fallen from 227 to 183, so the UK's only hub airport now offers 50 less destinations than Amsterdam, 60 less than Paris and 100 less than Frankfurt.

"Heathrow Airport is vital for business. It offers the direct connections which make our companies globally successful, and which will be all the more important as India and China grow," the 100 organisations say in a joint statement appearing in national newspapers today.

Among the organisations backing a new runway at Heathrow are Barclays, British Chambers of Commerce, London Stock Exchange, Tate & Lyle, TUC, and Whitbread. Together the 100 organisations employ over 825,000 people and have a combined revenue of more than £480 billion a year.

Future Heathrow, a coalition of businesses, trade unions and aviation companies including BAA, British Airways, London First, GMB, TGWU and Virgin Atlantic, is also one of the signatories to the campaign.

Businesses fear that flights to destinations such as Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Beijing and Shanghai could be under threat unless a new runway is built.

bmi offers lower fares from Heathrow.

Heathrow’s second largest airline, bmi, is offering lower fares to all destinations this month.

The airline’s ‘better for business’ sale has been launched and will carry on until September 30th. Sale prices will apply to both business and economy fares on bmi’s flights across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia and Africa.

Fares during the sale period include return flights from London Heathrow airport to Moscow from only £199 economy or £999 business class; Heathrow to Damascus from £279 (£1,099 in business); Heathrow to Cairo and Tel Aviv from £299 (£799 in business); and Heathrow to Amman from £399 (£1,299 in business).

Passengers travelling with bmi from regional airports including Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Edinburgh airports, will be able to take advantage of quick connections through Heathrow Terminal 1. bmi says the newly redesigned terminal offers passengers a quicker and smoother transit through Heathrow.