Tag: London Stansted

Primera Air to launch Stansted – Boston & Newark

Primera Air is to launch direct flights from London Stansted to Boston and Newark in Spring 2018.

London Air Travel » London Stansted

Primera Air
Primera Air

Primera Air is to launch direct flights frowm London Stansted to Boston and Newark in the spring of 2018.

Flights from London Stansted to Boston will launch on Saturday 19 May 2018, operating four times weekly.

Flights to from London Stansted to Newark will launch on Thursday 19 April 2018, operating daily.

These flights will be the first transatlantic operations from London Stansted in many years.

What is also noteworthy is that Primera Air will be using the Airbus A321 aircraft, in a two class economy and premium economy configuration.

Primera Air will be the first airline to use this aircraft for transatlantic flights from the U.K.   It will be interesting to see if this aircraft facilitates more expansion and more new entrants into the market, in the same way the Boeing 787 facilitated the arrival of Norwegian at London Gatwick and the launch of many new routes by BA at London Heathrow.

The airline is a relatively unknown name in the UK.  Its operations are mainly based in Scandinavia, operating short-haul flights in Europe.

Primera Air is of course not the first airline to seek to enter the UK transatlantic market.  There is a long list of airlines that have tried and failed: eos, MaxJet, SilverJet and La Compagnie.

Given that its rivals offer very high levels of frequency on this route and many of its passengers are wielded to their frequent flyer cards, a strong marketing effort will also be required to generate traffic.

If Primera Air is to be successful in what is a very competitive market then it will need to instil confidence, before and after launch, that it will have reliable operations with sufficient contingency plans if things go wrong.

Flights are on sale now at Primera Air with promotional fares from £149 each way.

Update February 2018:. Primera Air has since announced it will launch three times weekly flights to Toronto Pearson from Saturday 19 May 2018 and four times weekly flights to Washington Dulles from Wednesday 22 August 2018.

London Stansted – Boston

Flight PF043 Depart London Stansted 17:00 – Arrive Boston 20:10 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)
Flight PF044 Depart Boston 21:40 – London Stansted 09:30 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)

London Stansted – Newark

Flight PF041 Depart London Stansted 17:55 – Arrive Newark 21:20
Flight PF042 Depart Newark 22:50 – Arrive London Stansted 11:00

BA launches Milan from London City & Stansted from late April 2017

British Airways will fly to Milan Linate from London City & Stansted from late April 2017.

London Air Travel » London Stansted

BA CityFlyer Embraer at London City Airport
BA CityFlyer Embraer at London City Airport

The merry go round of route changes at London City and BA’s gradual increase of weekend services at London Stansted continues with the launch of new year-round services to Milan, Italy from these two London airports in April.

The new routes to Milan’s Linate Airport will start from London City Airport on Monday 24 April 2017 and from Stansted Airport on Saturday 29 April 2017.

There will be two flights a day on week days and one a day at weekends from London City and two a week from Stansted.

Flights will be operated using Embraer aircraft in a two class Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy configuration. Note that at some point in the summer, BA will introduce its Buy On Board “M&S On Board” catering service on these flights.

BA also flies to Milan Linate (as well as Malpensa airport) from London Heathrow up to six times a day and it is possible to “mix and match” flights if convenient.

The addition of this route at London Stansted means BA now serves nine routes at this airport: Berlin, Faro, Florence, Geneva, Ibiza, Malaga, Nice, and Palma.

Flights are on sale now at ba.com

Here’s the initial timetable at launch:
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BA launches seasonal routes from Stansted to Florence, Geneva & Nice

BA will expand its summer seasonal weekend route network from London Stansted to Florence, Geneva and Nice.

London Air Travel » London Stansted

London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)
London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)

Last year British Airways launched a series of summer seasonal weekend routes from London Stansted to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Palma. That was considered a success. This summer BA will continue to fly to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Palma as well as launching new routes to Florence, Geneva and Nice between early May and late October.

BA will fly to Florence twice a week from Saturday 20 May 2017 to Saturday 28 October 2017. It will fly to Geneva once a week from Friday 19 May to Saturday 28 October 2017. It will fly to Nice once a week from Saturday 20 May 2017 to Saturday 8 October 2017.

Flights will be operated with Embraer aircraft with a two class, Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy, service.

As BA also flies to these destinations from some, or all of, London Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports. As such, it should be possible to “mix and match” flights between different London airports if that is more convenient.

Flights are on sale now at ba.com
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BA launches new flights to Berlin Tegel from London City & Stansted

British Airways will fly from London City to Berlin Tegel up to three times daily and operate occasional services to Stansted.

London Air Travel » London Stansted

London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)
London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)

British Airways is to fly to Berlin Tegel airport from London City and London Stansted airports from Sunday 19 June 2016.

Flights to Berlin from London City will operate up to 3x daily all year round. From London Stansted, flights will operate once-weekly at weekends for the summer season.

Flights will be operated using Embraer E-190 aircraft and BA will offer a two class Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy service.

Berlin is the fifth seasonal destination for BA at London Stansted, after it launched seasonal flights to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.

The timings below are not particularly useful for anyone in the UK flying from Stansted looking to spend a weekend in Berlin. We can only surmise that the main benefit is positioning an aircraft at Stansted to operate BA’s other weekend flights from the airport.

Flights are on sale now at ba.com
Continue reading “BA launches new flights to Berlin Tegel from London City & Stansted”

BA launches summer seasonal flights from London Stansted

British Airways is to operate summer seasonal flights from London Stansted to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Palma Mallorca.

London Air Travel » London Stansted

London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)
London Stansted (Image Credit: British Airways)

British Airways is to return to London Stansted airport after a long hiatus with the launch of weekly summer seasonal flights to four destinations: Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, and Palma de Mallorca.

Flights will operate to each destination once a week at weekends.

Flights will be operated using a single Embraer E190 jet, offering a Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy service.

Flights launch on the weekend of Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May 2016 and will run for the duration of the summer season.

Whilst not explicitly mentioned in the airline’s press release, the launch of the routes seems to be driven by a desire to use an aircraft that would otherwise be parked at London City airport.

The announcement is clearly good news for BA flyers who live close to London Stansted.

However, some of the flight times are not the most convenient.

The scheduling of flights also looks tight, with 45 minute turnarounds between most flights. Delays across the weekend could easily build up.

That said, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma Mallorca are all served by BA from London City, Gatwick and Heathrow (except Palma de Mallorca does not operate from Gatwick). It is of course possible to “mix and match” London departure & arrival airports in one booking.

Flights are on sale now at ba.com
Continue reading “BA launches summer seasonal flights from London Stansted”

Ryanair reasserts its plans to launch transatlantic flights

London Air Travel » London Stansted

The Financial Times today, 16 March 2015, reports that the board of Ryanair has given approval for the airline to launch transatlantic flights.

This has been an oft repeated ambition of Ryanair, with Michael O’Leary once notoriously promising “beds and blowjobs” for premium passengers.

Now it seems that Ryanair wants to follow in the footsteps of Norwegian and Lufthana’s Eurowings and launch low cost long-haul flights.

But what are its plans exactly?

Update 19 March 2015: Ryanair has now confirmed, this time through an announcement to the stock exchange that it has no intention to launch a transatlantic airline.

Here’s what we know from the FT article:

Continue reading “Ryanair reasserts its plans to launch transatlantic flights”

Cyprus Airways Ceases All Flight Operations

London Air Travel » London Stansted

Last year we wrote of how Cyprus Airways withdrew from London Heathrow after selling its one pair of departure and arrival slots to American Airlines for $31 million.

The airline since moved its London – Larnaca route to London Stansted. The European Commission today ruled that financial support received by the airline was deemed to be state aid and had to be repaid.

Cyprus Air has confirmed that it has now ceased operations after nearly 70 years’ flying.

When airlines do go out of business, it is standard practice for other airlines to offer assistance to stranded passengers and those with future bookings. This usually takes the form of offering seats at special fares or for the price paid for the original ticket, known as “rescue fares”.

Ryanair Rescue Fares

Ryanair has confirmed it is offering rescue fares from €49.99 on the following routes: Athens – Paphos; Thessaloniki – Paphos; and London Stansted – Paphos.

British Airways Rescue Fares

British Airways flies to Larnaca from London Heathrow (Terminal 5) and Gatwick (North Terminal). BA is offering a special fare for travel up to the end of January 2015. This can only be booked via a BA call centre or at a BA ticket desk at Gatwick, Heathrow and Larnaca airports.

easyJet also flies to Larnaca from Gatwick. We should hear in the coming days if it is willing to offer assistance to stranded passengers.