Overnight bag drop is now available at both Heathrow Terminals 3 & 5, but only for flights departing before 10:00 the next day.
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British Airways has, for many years, offered an overnight bag drop facility at London Gatwick and Heathrow Terminal 5.
This allows passengers to check in and drop off their bags the night before their flight. The service was reinstated post COVID-19.
There have been a few recent changes to the timings of the overnight bag drop facility and rules for checking in bags for passengers not present.
Continue reading “British Airways Overnight Bag Drop Changes”Flybe will launch a new route from London Heathrow to Newquay on Sunday 30 October 2022.
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Flybe is to launch a new route from London Heathrow to Newquay from Sunday 30 October 2022.
The airline will fly between Heathrow and Newquay twice daily on weekdays and daily on weekends.
The previous incarnation of Flybe flew between Heathrow and Newquay as a Public Service Obligation (“PSO”) route with funding from Central Government and Cornwall Council.
After its collapse Eastern Airways secured the PSO route – it now serves Newquay up to three times daily from Gatwick.
BA also serves Newquay on a summer seasonal basis from Heathrow, but there are currently no plans for this to return in 2023.
Continue reading “Flybe Launches London Heathrow – Newquay”BA ground staff at London Heathrow represented by GMB & Unite have voted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
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British Airways staff at London Heathrow represented by the GMB & Unite unions have voted in favour of strike action.
Around 700 GMB staff were balloted. They voted 95% in favour of strike action. The turnout was 81%.
A similar ballot of around 500 BA staff at Heathrow represented by the Unite union voted 94.7% in favour of strike action.
The dispute with BA is over pay. The unions claim that a 10% pay cut imposed on ground staff by the airline during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been reinstated. Check-in staff also not received a 10% bonus given to other BA staff.
Continue reading “British Airways Heathrow Staff Vote For Strike Action”How flying between the UK and Australia has evolved from the first flights in 1935 which took more than 12 days.
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Qantas will fly non-stop from London Heathrow to Sydney from 2027.
For Qantas this represents one of the final frontiers of civil aviation: non-stop flights to anywhere in Australia from the world’s major cities.
It will also mark 90 years of radical evolution of civil aviation between the UK and Australia.
From one flight a week taking 12 and a half days to up to four daily non-stop flights Australia in 20 hours, here’s how flying from the UK to Australia has evolved from 1935 onwards.
Continue reading “From Twelve Days To Non-Stop In 20 Hours”Qantas has ordered 12 Ultra Long Range Airbus A350-1000 aircraft capable of flying non-stop from London to Sydney.
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In 2017, now a lifetime ago in aviation, Qantas set Airbus and Boeing a challenge.
They were asked to design an aircraft capable of breaking one of the last frontiers of civil aviation: non-stop flights between London Heathrow and the East Coast of Australia.
Five years, a lot of PR hype, and a global pandemic later, Qantas has confirmed it has ordered 12 Ultra Long Range Airbus A350-1000 aircraft capable of flying from London Heathrow to Sydney non-stop.
This will cut the journey time from London to Sydney from 23 hours to around 20 hours.
The first aircraft are expected to be delivered between 2025 and 2028. This is some 90 years after the first passenger flights between the UK and Australia which took 12 and half days.
Continue reading “Qantas To Fly London – Sydney Non-Stop”The Flybe name will return to London Heathrow from April 2022 with routes to Amsterdam, Belfast City and Leeds-Bradford.
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The Flybe name is to return to London Heathrow.
Two years after the former Flybe collapsed into administration, the Flybe name will return to Heathrow as a new airline with routes to Amsterdam, Belfast and Leeds-Bradford.
The first flights will launch from late April 2022.
All flights operate with De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft.
Continue reading “Flybe Returns To London Heathrow In April 2022”Welcome to London Air Travel’s weekly briefing on air travel around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 GMT.
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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 6 December 2021.
Today’s Telegraph has an interesting story – not online at the time of “going to press” – that Cyrus Capital is looking to sell Flybe.
Cyrus Capital was a member of the Connect Airways consortium that bought Flybe along with Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Air. It was described at the time by then IAG CEO Willie Walsh as “a business model that doesn’t work with shareholders that have suddenly cottoned on that they’ve bought a dog”.
Cyrus bought the assets of Flybe, using a vehicle known as Thyme Opco Ltd – now renamed Flybe Ltd, after it went into administration in March 2020.
Last month, Flybe announced with great fanfare that it is to start operations from a base in Birmingham in early 2022. It also plans to have a fleet of up to 32 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft.
The Telegraph reports that the owners of Flybe are looking for a new investor to operate Flybe in partnership for around a year before the airline is sold. Airlines such as Aurigny and Blue Islands are said to have been sounded out.
It is claimed that a sale of the airline would come with the London Heathrow bmi remedy slots that that the “old” Flybe acquired from BA. These 186 weekly slots, equivalent to 12 return flights a day, were taken back by BA in June 2020 after Flybe entered into administration. They were readvertised to potential bidders, but with a warning they were subject to a legal dispute.
However, a filing with Airport Coordination Ltd from earlier this year shows that 86 weekly slots for the winter 2021 season were transferred back from BA to Flybe.
This latest development will fuel speculation that the motives behind the purchase of Flybe’s assets out of administration were primarily to realise the value of its Heathrow remedy slots.
This is particularly so when the wisdom of launching a new regional airline is questionable after many rival airlines have moved to replace the routes formerly operated by Flybe and business travel is likely to remain depressed well into 2022.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 6 December 2021”Welcome to London Air Travel’s weekly briefing on air travel around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 BST.
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Welcome to return of London Air Travel’s weekly Monday Briefing after a summer break.
Today, Monday 6 September, is the end of the Parliamentary Recess in the UK.
It is also the Labor Day holiday in the US and Canada, effectively marking the end of summer and “back to work”.
It is traditionally at this time that airlines begin announcing their plans for the next summer season. There is much to do to get through the winter first.
Over the summer Mark Kleinman of Sky News broke the story that Virgin Atlantic is seeking a listing on the stock exchange to raise new funds. The Sunday Telegraph followed this up yesterday.
Talks are said to be underway with bondholders, creditors and lenders to secure their approval. There is said to be concern amongst some about Virgin Group ceding control of the airline and what may happen if it requires further financing.
It’s worth recalling that when Virgin Atlantic undertook a solvent recapitalisation last year, its worst case scenario was that travel restrictions would remain in place until August. It’s now expected that the US will not relax travel restrictions until at least late November this year.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 6 September 2021”Welcome to London Air Travel’s weekly briefing on air travel around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 BST.
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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 14 June 2021.
Ahead of the G7 Summit in Cornwall last week, all airlines operating flights between the UK and the US issued a joint statement calling for transatlantic travel between the two to be reopened.
Curiously, it was only BA and Virgin Atlantic that really promoted the statement. The actions of their US counterparts were much more muted.
This is possibly because they have a buoyant and a substantially larger domestic market – typically five times the size of their international markets – to keep them in business. Or perhaps they knew it would fall on deaf ears. Which it did.
The government is expected to today confirm at a press conference that the planned lifting of all COVID-19 restrictions in England on 21 June 2021 will be delayed by up to four weeks. It is a safe assumption that the “green list” will not be extended during this time.
The UK travel industry appears to have few friends in government at present. There are growing calls for the furlough scheme to be extended to April next year, which would cover the entirety of the winter season.
British Airways has also called for the government to provide further sector specific support with subsidies to cover the cost of maintaining grounded aircraft.
Meanwhile in Europe, according to Politico, the European Council is expected to today formally adopt a streamlined set of travel rules for EU Member States.
In what won’t be the last airline casualty of COVID-19, last week Air Antwerp, which flew between London City and Antwerp, confirmed it will not resume flights in August as planned. Its website is still live but the airline has stopped taking bookings.
As has been widely reported Aer Lingus Regional franchise operator Stobart Air suspended operations last week after a deal to sell the airline fell through.
The South African government confirmed last week it has selected The Takatso Consortium as the preferred Strategic Equity Partner for South African Airways.
The consortium will own 51% of the airline and the state will retain 49% ownership. The intention is to eventually list the relaunched airline.
The consortium comprises Harith General Partners, which invests in African infrastructure and owns Lanseria International Airport, and South African based aviation group Global Aviation which launched the local airline LIFT last year.
A due diligence exercise is now underway and once this is complete the consortium will outline plans for the airline’s route network, fleet, brand and global partnerships.
Staying with South Africa, Virgin Atlantic confirmed last week it plans to reinstate passenger flights from London Heathrow to Johannesburg on 24 June.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 14 June 2021”Welcome to London Air Travel’s weekly briefing on air travel around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 BST.
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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 24 May 2021.
The relaunch of international travel last week was, in spite of a co-ordinated PR effort between BA and Heathrow, a fairly muted affair.
This was not helped by mixed messages from government ministers on the relative status of amber and green list countries. At the weekend Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that people should not be taking holidays to amber list countries, but is confident that the green list will be extended throughout the summer.
This weekend BA is due to restart short haul flights from London Heathrow to a number of destinations in Greece including Chania, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Preveza, Rhodes and Zakynthos.
BA also launches flights from Manchester and Newcastle to Faro. BA CityFlyer also starts services to Faro from Edinburgh and Southampton. BA will also operate a large number of flights this weekend from Heathrow and Manchester to Porto.
A new airline takes to the skies in the US this week. Breeze Airways will launch its inaugural route from Tampa to Charleston this Thursday, 27 May.
Founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman it aims to operate unserved city pairs across the US. Additional markets will be progressively added throughout June and July with the aim of operating 39 routes between 16 cities.
Flights will be operated by Embraer E190 & E195 aircraft. The airline also has 60 Airbus A220 aircraft on order which will be delivered from later this year.
Breeze has styled itself as “seriously nice” airline with fare classes branded “nice” and “nicer”. It will also introduce a dedicated premium cabin “nicest” on Airbus A220 aircraft.
JetBlue finally confirms its plans to launch flights to New York JFK at Heathrow from 12 August and Gatwick from 30 September. Time will tell whether it’s really worth the effort splitting such a small operation between two London airports. (London Air Travel)
Heathrow Airport is to open a dedicated arrivals facility at Terminal 3 for passengers arriving direct on flights from “red list” countries from 1 June 2021. This will eventually transfer to Terminal 4. (London Air Travel)
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 24 May 2021”