Flights Direct

Brussels Airport has decided to build a new terminal dedicated to operating low-cost airlines’ flights. To accommodate the new airlines, the airport will open an old part of the passenger terminal which will be modularly extended.

The new terminal means more cheap flights to Brussels from many European destinations. At first the low-cost terminal will be able to handle six aircrafts at a time, but will later expand its capacity to 15.

“Low Cost is the fastest-growing segment in intra-European air traffic. It is expected that by 2015 low cost will account for half of the traffic within Europe.

“Low-cost carriers are increasingly opting for large international airports, on the condition that they can use facilities tailored to their specific needs.

“Today three percent of the flights to and from Brussels Airport are operated by low-cost carriers, whereas the low-cost share at comparable large European airports is over 10 percent.” says Wilfried Van Assche, CEO of Brussels Airport.

Air travel will grow considerably in the next 20 years despite worries of the effect of air travel on the environment. It is estimated that Britain alone will need 1,100 new airliners in the next 20 years to be able to respond to the demand for flights.

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus also predicts that over a 100 seat aircrafts will double in numbers by 2025; from 14,980 to 33,000. In total 24,300 passenger and freight planes will be ordered, worth $2.8 trillion, Airbus estimates.

“Air transportation is definitely a growing industry contributing to economic development and generating wealth around the world,” said Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy.

“We are committed to being a key player in making this industry eco-efficient by providing the most technologically advanced products.”

Two new routes are taking off from East Midlands airport; bmi will fly to Cologne starting Febryary 11 and easyJet has already started flying people to Palma.

The route to Mallorca operates three times a week at the moment, but starting in April easyJet will fly there and back daily. “Palma is a favourite destination for families looking to explore the island of Mallorca, as well as a popular city break destination,” David Osborne, easyJet UK General Manager said.

The bmi flights to Cologne can be expected to be popular with both business travellers and holidaymakers. “It will provide the quickest link between the Midlands and Germany”, said commercial director Peter Kenworthy.

The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport will impose a 45 minute deadline before the flight to check in. This is despite the fact that the terminal is equipped with state-of-the-art security and luggage handling systems.

This deadline is applied to all passengers. British Airways, who operates from Terminal 5, promises check-in will be done in five minutes and security checks won’t take more than ten minutes.

But to insure all passengers can make it to the departure gate in time, the check-in will be closed 45 minutes before flight departure.

British Airways will start a new service for business-class passengers only. Flights will run from London City airport to New York. It’s a part of BA’s nine month plan, and flights are due to start next year.

BA has bought an Airbus A318 for the service, and the plane will be equipped with 31 business class seats with lie down beds.

“This niche service will fly passengers between the heart of the two largest financial centres in the world,” said Robin Hayes, BA executive vice president of the Americas, in a statement.

“London City airport is located minutes away from some of our key corporate customers and is in one of the fastest growing areas of the British capital.”

Those planning a trip to space can now see what the Virgin Galactic mother ship and spaceship look like. Virgin Galactic unveiled the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo designs to the public, and the new environmentally kind launch system.

Virgin has announced it’s very close to completing the two spaceships, and is expecting to do the first test flights next summer. Virgin Galactic is the first company to offer individuals the chance to buy tickets to a flight to space. Over 200 have already signed up, and 85,000 have registered their interested in a flight to space.

Astronaut training has been started with 80 future passengers for SpaceShipTwo – medical checks and centrifuge training have been completed.

Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic, says: “The designs of both the mothership and the new spaceship are absolutely beautiful and surpass any expectations for the future of commercial spaceflight that we had when first registering the name Virgin Galactic in 1999.”

Budget airline Ryanair has announced a raise in the charges for checking-in luggage and using check-in desks at airports.

For all new bookings, passengers have to pay £6 for checked bags, up from £5 per bag. And the use of the check-in desk now costs £3 instead of £2.

Ryanair’s Peter Sherrard says: “These will not be the last increases in Ryanair’s checked in baggage or airport check in fees.” He says Ryanair will increase its charges until half of its passengers use the online check-in service, and only take hand luggage onboard their planes.

If more people use the airport services, Ryanair can reduce the number of check-in desks and staff, and so continue to offer low fares, Mr Sherrard explains.

Scandinavian Airlines will add a new daily flight from Heathrow to Copenhagen for next summer. This will bring the number of daily flights to seven from March 30 to October 24.

SAS also operates two daily flights from London City to Copenhagen.

UK and Ireland general manager Lars-Ove Filipson said: “We are delighted that SAS has been able to secure an additional slot from London Heathrow Airport.

“In recent years it has become increasingly difficult for airlines to add additional Heathrow routes to their networks, and so typically service expansion depends on the introduction of larger aircraft which SAS has also implemented on its services to Scandinavia.

“The addition of the new service now also takes the number of SAS flights out of London airports to Copenhagen to 50% more than our competitor BA.”

KLM Airlines made a pricing mistake on its website, offering people flights from Helsinki to Singapore for as little as 59 Euros (£44), when the normal price is 610 Euros (£457).

Dozens of people took advantage of the super cheap tickets to Singapore. A similar mistake was done on the Helsinki-Manila route, offering tickets for as little as 67 Euros (£50).

Information about the mistake was spread over the internet on travel discussion forums. The mistake happened only on the Finnish KLM site. Oliver Hours from KLM admitted that a programming mistake had been done when entering prices to the system.

The mistake was noticed in less than two days after it was made and corrected immediately. Hours says KLM will not ask for more money from people who purchased the cheap flights, as it was their mistake.

Leeds Bradford International Airport starts its first direct flights to Pakistan on February 7. Shaheen Air International’s twice a week service to Islamabad is the first direct service from Yorkshire to Pakistan.

Chief executive at Leeds Bradford International Airport, John Parkin, says: “Whether it’s for business or pleasure we are sure that this service will be extremely popular, and we also look forward to welcoming passengers from Pakistan to Yorkshire.”

So far flights to Islamabad have been available from Birmingham, Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester airports.