Qatar Airways is to lease a daily slot pair at London Heathrow to JetBlue for the summer 2022 season.
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Qatar Airways is to lease a daily slot pair at London Heathrow to JetBlue for the summer 2022 season.
JetBlue is currently flying from London Heathrow to New York JFK. This flight launched late last year.
It is not clear whether this slot trade is to cover its existing daily flight – where there has been no previously published slot trade – or to allow for an additional frequency at Heathrow.
Continue reading “Qatar Airways Leases Heathrow Slots To JetBlue”British Airways is to automatically refund all unused Future Travel Vouchers.
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British Airways has made another significant change of policy in connection with vouchers issued to passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday 22 March, BA advised that passengers who had requested an eVoucher after a flight had been cancelled up to 19 November 2020 are now eligible for a cash refund.
BA has today, Wednesday 23 March, announced another change of policy.
Continue reading “BA To Refund Unused Future Travel Vouchers”BA will add many seasonal and year round routes at London City airport this summer.
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British Airways will operate its largest schedule at London City airport this summer since 2019. A number of new seasonal routes launch this year.
Here are the main schedule changes for the summer season, which officially runs from Sunday 27 March to Saturday 29 October 2022.
As ever, this subject to change – not only due to possible travel restrictions, but also operational resources.
Readers can keep up to date with network changes throughout the season on our dedicated page for London City airport.
Continue reading “British Airways’ Summer 2022 Schedule at London City”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”Some British Airways passengers can now request a refund of flight bookings exchanged for eVouchers.
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British Airways is offering some passengers the opportunity to exchange eVouchers for a cash refund.
Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, BA has offered passengers who hold flight bookings and do not wish to travel, the chance to exchange the value of their ticket for a voucher.
These vouchers were initially called Future Travel Vouchers. These could not be used to purchase new tickets online. BA subsequently issued eVouchers, which would be used online. Many Future Travel Vouchers were batch converted by BA into eVouchers.
Once a voucher had been issued it could not be converted to cash.
The practice has attracted criticism because many passengers were unaware that if their flight was cancelled they were entitled to a full refund.
BA had disabled the function to request a refund for a cancelled flight on ba.com. BA claimed this was due to the volume of flight cancellations.
Continue reading “British Airways Offers eVoucher Refunds”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 21 March 2022.
This coming Sunday 27 March, marks the start of British Summer Time and the summer travel season.
With many travel restrictions lifted, airports and airlines will be hoping for a return to normalcy. This is, of course, subject to economic and geopolitical events.
It remains to be seen whether all have sufficient resources to see themselves through the season. Some could be facing a long hot summer.
Here is a run through of some major route changes. Separate articles on BA at London City, Gatwick and Heathrow will follow later in the week.
In terms of airports, the South Terminal at Gatwick reopens this Sunday. As does Terminal 3 at Manchester. Heathrow aims to reopen Terminal 4 by July.
Turning to airlines, Air Canada will restart flights from Heathrow to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 1 May. Flights to Ottawa and St John’s, Newfoundland remain suspended.
American Airlines will move flights to Dallas / Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Miami to Heathrow Terminal 5 for the summer season. Seattle is suspended due to aircraft delivery delays.
Delta will reinstate flights from Heathrow to Minneapolis Saint Paul from 12 April. Salt Lake City follows on 7 June. Portland and Seattle remain suspended.
Finnair will operate Airbus A350-900 flights up to twice daily between Heathrow and Helsinki.
To Gatwick, Iberia Express will reinstate twice daily flights to Madrid from 27 March. Icelandair also returns to Gatwick from 25 March.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 21 March 2022”IAG has secured an exclusivity period of one year to pursue potential structures to acquire Air Europa.
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International Airlines Group, the parent company of Aer Lingus, BA, Iberia, LEVEL and Vueling, is not giving up on Air Europa.
Before Christmas 2021, IAG terminated its planned purchase of Air Europa from Globalia.
The transaction, first negotiated before the COVID-19 pandemic, was under review by the European Commission and the Competition & Markets Authority in the UK. It was clear that the planned deal would not pass either regulator without a significant divestment of airport slots on overlapping routes.
As part of this, IAG agreed to pay Globalia a break fee of €40 million and an additional €35 million.
IAG also agreed to explore “alternative structures” with Globalia that could work for all sides.
During IAG’s annual results presentation, IAG CEO Luis Gallego indicated that Globalia was exploring offers for Air Europa from other European airline groups.
Continue reading “IAG Secures Exclusivity To Pursue Air Europa”The South African Civil Aviation Authority has ended the suspension of Comair’s operating licence with immediate effect.
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British Airways’ franchise partner in Africa, Comair, is set to resume flights from Thursday 17 March.
The South African Civil Aviation Authority suspended Comair’s operating licence on Saturday 12 March 2022 following a number of safety related incidents at the airline.
The SACAA is now satisfied that its enquiries into the “Level 1” incidents that required an immediate response are closed.
The suspension of Comair’s operating licence has now been lifted with immediate effect.
Whilst Comair has been grounded, BA has offered passengers whose connections on Comair to its long haul flights are cancelled the option to rebook on to AirLink or South African Airways.
Continue reading “BA’s Africa Franchise To Resume Flights”British Airways has terminated its frequent flyer partnership with Oneworld alliance member S7 Airlines.
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British Airways has suspended indefinitely its frequent flyer relationship with S7 Airlines.
Members of the British Airways Executive Club can no longer earn or redeem Avios on S7 Airlines with immediate effect.
S7 Airlines has been a member of the Oneworld alliance since November 2010. This ordinarily entitles members of the BA Executive Club to reciprocal frequent flyer recognition when flying with S7 Airlines.
Continue reading “BA Suspends Partnership With S7 Airlines”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 14 March 2022.
In the 1990s, a time when BA had ambitions to be what it regarded as the first global airline, franchising was seen as means to extend its brand around the world.
At its peak, there were more than 10 franchises, carrying nearly 6 million passengers a year to around 100 destinations.
Over time, these have whittled down to just two airlines. In the UK, BA chose to allow British Mediterranean Airways and GB Airways to be sold to bmi and easyJet.
BA terminated its last UK franchise agreement with Loganair, with a terse statement from then CEO Willie Walsh that franchises had outlived their purpose.
Internationally, an attempt to set up a franchise airline in India never came to pass.
Whilst franchise agreements no doubt contain many protections for BA, allowing your brand on aircraft you don’t actually operate does carry risk.
Over the weekend the South African Civil Aviation Authority suspended Comair’s operating licence following a number of safety related incidents. Comair had expected the matter to be resolved swiftly, but that proved not to be the case. You can read extracts of their respective statements here.
South Africa is obviously an important market for BA and Comair helps provide connecting traffic, but these incidents will be reviewed by BA and its parent company IAG.
Staying with another franchise, there appears to be no immediate prospect of SUN-AIR resuming flights to Billund. These have been off sale for some time.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 14 March 2022”