Flights Direct

Ofcom has given its approval for using mobile phones during flights, on condition that European aviation authorities also give permission.

The decision came soon after the first phone call was made from a mobile phone on an Emirates flights, and Australian airline Qantas announced it’s installing mobile technology on all planes on domestic routes.

Mobile phones could be used once the plane reaches the altitude of 3,000 metres. Mobile phones would be connected to a base unit, which will be switched on and off by cabin crew in the correct altitude.
 
Airlines can decide whether or not to use the technology, which still has to be approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

The Airport hotel group Arora is about to buy a new portfolio of commercial properties from the UK airport operator BAA for £265 million.

Arora hotels was started by the hotel tycoon Surinder Arora, who arrived in the UK at the age of 13, and began his working life a customer service agent for British Airways.

In 2006 alone, Arora bought nine airport hotels from BAA in a exchange worth around £300 million. Arora Holdings is now thought to be the largest family-owned hotel group within the UK, and they are in the process of building a hotel for Heathrow’s new terminal 5.

BAA’s own properties include airport offices and warehouses, was last year valued at £1.1 billion last year. The down-side to these financial markets is that they have been hit just as hard as house prices, which has made it difficult for BAA to find a buyer.

Arora is now buying 33 of the 58 property sites that are owned by Airport Property Partnership (APP), which is the process of a joint cohesion between BAA and Morley Fund Management. The majority of these properties are within Heathrow Airport.

BAA is continually looking for buyers for its airport properties, which mostly consists of industrial buildings such as land and warehouses. This is in an attempt by BAA to gain more money from its airports, as they struggle for cash. Earlier this month BAA sold over is World Duty Free shops to the Italian group Autogrill for £546 million.

Wales is not a huge international destination, and as its stands, business people will travel internationally via another airport such as Heathrow or Gatwick. Although, this may change, as Patrick Duffy who is the new managing director of Cardiff Airport states that this will not be the case for much longer.

Duffy who was speaking to the Western Mail, recently commented that ‘Cardiff Airport has an opportunity to enhance its contribution to the economic and social well-being of the nation. There are ways we can look to do that – for example do we define ourselves as a regional airport in the UK, or a national airport in Wales? Can we be better connected with other capital cities in the world? Of course we can. In strict classification terms, we are just one of many regional airports around the UK. But spiritually we need to adopt more of a national outlook.’

However, this type of expansion to Cardiff will be determined by their new marketing campaign, which has been launched online at www.youwouldifyoucould.co.uk, which will attempt to find out how high the demand for an International Airport in Cardiff actually is.

The Australian airline Qantas is currently installing the latest technology within all of its domestic planes. This technology will mean that all passengers will be able to send and receive emails and SMS messages via a mobile phone or other electronic devices.

This news has been released shortly after the first mobile phone call was made on an Emirates flight last week. Qantas will be using the same technology as Emirates, which has been developed by AeroMobile.

Qantas first trialed this new mobile technology in Boeing 767-300 plane, between April 2007 and January 2008. “The evaluation of this new technology was a great success. An overwhelming majority of passengers involved in the evaluation indicated they wanted access to inflight connectivity on an ongoing basis,” states the Qantas executive general manager, John Borghetti.

AeroMobile has been able to develop this new technology, which means that passengers can use mobile phones and other electronic devices can be used safely during flight without interfering with the aircraft systems or with the communication network on the ground.

“Customers wanting to send or receive an SMS will require only a GSM phone and a global roaming account, while customers wanting to send or receive emails will need a GPRS enabled device like a Blackberry or an appropriately equipped laptop,” Borghetti added.

Qantas will not initially be allowing passengers to make voice calls on their mobiles. “Voice connectivity is a feature of the technology but will not be activated as part of the new service,” the airline said in part of its statement.

The AeroMobile technology will initially be installed on the Boeing 767-300 and Airbus A330-200 aircraft that are operated within Australia.

Flights to the moon may be available privately to everyone ‘by the end of the 2020s’, a NASA official was heard saying in London yesterday.

Peter Worden, the director of the NASA Ames Research Station in California was yesterday speaking to a group of physics students and faculty at the University of Western Ontario, commented that NASA is reaching its targets to return people to the moon by 2020, which would be the first people up there since 1972.

However, it might not be NASA who are the first ones who reach the moon on a visit. There are around 20 wealthy individuals, as well as companies, from all over the worlds who are expressing an interest in taking their own space flights. “I think (private interests) are going to beat us to the lunar surface,” Worden commented.

These private fliers would not just be astronomy buffs, “it’s NASA’s unstated policy that the moon is available for economic activity,” Worden stated, when answering a question about the legal frontier of space.

It looks quite likely that there will be room for regular people, and not just scientists and astronauts, for trips to the moon. As the ideas of these commercial flights move forward, Worden predicted. “We think we’re at the verge of really interesting private efforts to move forward.”

First class passengers flying to or from London Heathrow airport with Lufthansa can expect first rate treatment. A new personal assistant service has been launched by the German airline to operate on London Heathrow and City airports.

After a successful three month trial period, the airline decided to make the service permanent. Personal assistants will escort passengers from the check-in desk, through the security checks –not waiting in any queues – all the way to the Lufthansa waiting lounge.

When arriving at the airport, a personal assistant will greet passengers at the door of the aircraft and take them through passport checks and customs.

The service is available for all first class passengers as well as the Hon Circle members – who have the highest number of air miles.

“The service offers a new and exclusive benefits for our best and most loyal customers flying out of London, and strengthens our position in the premium segment,” says Marianne Sammann, Lufthansa’s general manager in the UK and Ireland.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has announced its new environmental target to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2020.

As the number of air passengers continues to grow every year, the carbon emissions must be cut efficiently to achieve reductions. One way SAS aims to cut the carbon emissions is mixing jet fuels with renewable sources.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set a target of zero emissions of harmful greenhouse gases by 2050, and SAS is aiming for to achieve this goal.

SAS is taking other steps to show its concern for the environment; for example by making sure employees’ company cars are environmentally friendly.

The long awaited Terminal 5 is due to open on March 27 and relieve the congestion at Heathrow airport.

Having battled against major problems with lost baggage, long queues for check-in and security, Heathrow Airport is more than ready for the opening of the new terminal.

The formal opening of the £4.3 billion wing will be held on March 14 with the opening done by the Queen. Terminal 5, which will be in the exclusive use of the British Airways, has taken more than 18 years to complete.

Heathrow airport has been handling 67 million passengers a year, while it’s only planned to handle 45 million passengers.

Terminal 5 will have 12,000 bags-an-hour handling system, 96 fast-bag drop counters, 96 automated check-in kiosks and 50 normal check-in counters. There are also 20 security channels compared to the 12 at Terminal 4.

The air transport industry continues to grow steadily as the demand for flights grows around the world.

Airports around the world serve 4 billion passengers every year, and it’s expected that by 2025 there will be 9 billion people passing through airports.

A report from the Airports Council International (ACI) shows that in January 2008 there was a 4 % overall increase in air traffic, and a 7% increase in international air traffic, compared to January 2007.

In the UK, new air routes are announced almost weekly, as demand for flights continues to grow. The latest announcement came from Flybe, who will be operating extra flights from Aberdeen to London Gatwick next summer.

The airline reported “unprecedented demand” for increasing the service, and have responded by adding two extra return flights at the weekend for the summer season.

Austrian Airlines has finished most of its preparations for next summer’s European Football Championship, 100 days before the games begin.

The airline will be operating much larger aircrafts on its routes as well as increasing the number of flights to and from major destinations. There are also many negotiations going on with tour operators for charter flights.

The catering onboard Austrian aircrafts will be themed to football, and some aircrafts carry special banners on the exterior.

Among the increased flights services, there are plenty of connections to the co-host country, Switzerland, with five daily connections to Geneva and three daily flights to Basle.