Flights Direct

Over half of travellers say the worst thing about travelling abroad is the slow processes at airports. The slow processes include check-in and security queues and luggage collection.

The 1,000 people surveyed said the biggest improvements to airports would be;
Quicker check-in facilities, 63%
Quicker queues in security, 54%
Being able to escape the crowds in an airline lounge, 36%

One third would welcome a larger baggage allowance, and 20% say they stress about the possibility of lost luggage. The biggest worry for air travellers is flight delays. If airports were able to cut the waiting times, customer satisfaction would clearly go up.

The survey was conducted by add-ons company Holiday Extras on different UK airports.

New flight routes are announced almost weekly. Here is a quick roundup of the new flights so far to be expected for 2008:

Easyjet will start 25 new routes this year, most from Gatwick and some from Manchester.
From Gatwick to: Ajaccio, Bastia, Biarritz, Crete, Corfu, Cyprus, Dalaman, Gibraltar, Gran Canaria, Hurghada, Innsbruck, Lanzarote, Madeira, Malta, Montpellier, Mykonos, Nantes, Rhodes, Sharm El Sheikh, Tenerife and Thessaloniki.
From Manchester to: Crete, Cyprus, Malta and Tenerife

BMI will start a twice-daily service from Heathrow to Moscow on March 30.
 
Ryanair is offering 19 new routes in 2008.
From Birmingham to: Girona, Marseille and Pisa
From Durham Tees Valley to: Alicante
From Edinburgh to: Alicante, Bremen, Frankfurt, Marseilles and Pisa
From Liverpool to: Malaga and Nantes;
From Manchester to: Girona, Bremen, Marseilles and Milan
From Newquay to: Alicante and Barcelona
And from Stansted to: Angoulême and Faro

SAS will fly from Bristol to Oslo starting in April and will re-open Bristol-Stockholm route in June.

Zoom Airlines will take you to Fort Lauderdale and San Diego from Gatwick. The Fort Lauderdale route will open in May and run twice a week.

BA is opening routes from Paris and Brussels to New York in June, after the Open Skies agreement takes force at the end March, allowing US and EU planes to fly from anywhere and to anywhere in EU and US.

Many more flights have been announced and are expected for 2008.

Budget airlines are charging up to £32 extra from passengers for checking-in luggage or using check-in desks, a survey by Which? found.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) says airlines ticket prices must include all compulsory charges in the advertised prices. The prices are not allowed to be misleading.

Ryanair defended itself by saying the extra charges are easily avoidable, and Easyjet said that Which? did not understand the business model of the budget airlines.

Ryanair has the highest extra charges, with a £4 cost of using a check-in desk and £20 for luggage check-in. The airline says this is to get people to travel with just hand luggage and use the online check-in facility.

Considering all possible extra costs, Ryanair can charge £32 (including credit card charges) after final ticket price. Easyjet can charge almost £30 and BMIbaby almost £25.

Monarch and Flybe can charge up to £23 from customers.