Economy Class & Beyond

BMI Regional sold to Sector Aviation

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In what can be described as some good news, BMI Regional has been sold by International Airlines Group to a company called Sector Aviation Holdings. The price: A cool £8 million. The sale is pending CAA approval, but IAG anticipates this will be completed within two weeks. For that cool £8 million, Sector Aviation Holdings will get: All of BMI Regional's fixed … [Read more...]

AirBerlin: We’ll stay at Tegel for a bit, but we’re annoyed…

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For those of you who missed yesterdays news, Berlin Brandenburg Airport won't be opening on the 3rd of June as planned, and has been put back to late 2012. Air Berlin have been.. well seething to put it blunt. A new PR from the company came out regarding the chaos, with an operation task force to try and make Berlin-Tegel work. For passengers, nothing changes for now, … [Read more...]

Oh great. Big UK Border Fun as one of the unions goes on strike….

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Arriving on the 10th May? Well you're probably going to have more of a wait to get into the country as the Immigration Services Union (who represent 4500 members) are going out on strike over pensions and retirement ages. The 24 hour strike is set to start at 00:01 on 10 May for 24 hours. BAA who operate London Heathrow, Stansted and other some other UK airports … [Read more...]

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport is now delayed….

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It seems plans to open Berlin Brandenburg Airport have gone into the air, with the start date of 3rd June 2012 cancelled and a new start date will be set for some point "after the summer holidays" For Lufthansa and Air Berlin, this is a major setback, with both carriers promoting the new BER airport heavily. Both carrier have planned a major resource attack at the new Berlin … [Read more...]

EVA Air to expand 777 operations

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EVA Air is gearing up for an expansion of its Boeing 777-300ER fleet, with announcement of seven more aircraft to join the fleet Deliveries will begin from 2014, and the airline expects to receive all of the aircraft by 2016. Looking at the EVA Air fleet, it's clear to see what the 777-300ER's are going to be used for - there are currently 7 Boeing 747-400's of two … [Read more...]

UK Border chaos spreads to Stansted

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In what should be no surprise to anyone, the border wait times have extended to London Stansted. Last night entries into the United Kingdom on a European Economic Area Passport were taking from 90 minutes to two hours. Which for a mainly European port of entry for low cost carriers is again... disgusting. The UK Border Force states: "We flexibly deploy staff to meet … [Read more...]

BAA: Heathrow Queue Targets Missed, Government Minister yet to stand in line for 3 hours

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In what it turning into a case of he said/she said, BAA has released its latest waiting times for immigration into the United Kingdom at London Heathrow. Some highlights: Most passengers from outside the EEA (European Economic Area) were NOT seen to within 45 minutes - over 95% of the time!  The longest wait time was at T4 on 30th April for a grand total of 3 hours and … [Read more...]

BMIBaby Fallout – Birmingham and EMA recover… Belfast City less so…

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More response today from the fallout of BMI Baby being wound down. Birmingham Airport has announced that they will be bringing two aircraft to join it's local base, and will add more flights to  Malaga, Alicante, Rome, Palma, Faro and Barcelona; all destinations served by bmibaby. Meanwhile, Flybe will continue to operate to Belfast City, with EasyJet joining them in the … [Read more...]

Scoot to scoot off to Bangkok

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Scoot is making headway as it progresses towards operations - and as well as planning to fly to Sydney and the Gold Coast, Bangkok is now on the radar. This put Scoot in all sorts of fun as there is major competition on this segment. A short list of who fighting for passengers Singapore Airlines Tiger Airways (who are part owned by Singapore Airlines) Thai Airways … [Read more...]