LONDON - Emirates has opened its doors to a new lounge at London Stansted. The airline has invested more than 4 million GBP to design a spacious 900-square-metre lounge that can accommodate up to 125 guests at a time, including First and Business Class customers, as well as Emirates Skywards members.»
LONDON - As Virgin Atlantic withdraws from Shanghai the airline has been looking for 2025 network opportunities beyond its US catchment: Virgin Atlantic will add the two new destinations of Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Accra (Ghana) to its network for summer 2025 and restore an idle Canada route.»
LONDON - The UK Government has approved a London City Airport plan to ease its annual passenger cap from 6.5 million to 9.0 million passengers and to fly three extra flights in the first half hour of operations during the week, but rejected the airport's application to extend the Saturday curfew.»
LONDON - A registration scheme for passengers takes a toll on Heathrow traffic. The airport estimates it lost around 90,000 passengers from the Middle East alone to other hubs since the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) charge of 10 GBP was introduced in November 2023. And things could get worse.»
LONDON - European Airlines struggle with adverse market conditions on routes to China. British Airways will suspend its London - Beijing service for a year citing commercial reasons. Overcapacities triggered by Chinese airlines present a yield challenge to all competitors on international routes.»
LONDON - Heathrow airport faces a regulatory setback as its watchdog cuts and caps passenger fee increases even further. UK Civil Aviation Authority outlined new curbs for the 2025 and 2026 periods at Britains largest airport in response to a recent ruling from the Competition and Markets Authority.»
LONDON - London Stansted passed the rolling 29 million passengers a year milestone for the first time in its history following its busiest ever June on record. Stansted handled 2.8 million passengers in June, an increase of 8.3 percent on the same month last year - and 153,000 more passengers than the previous busiest ever June in 2019.»
MANCHESTER - A "major power cut in the area" affected terminal and flight operations at Manchester Airport Sunday morning. Flights from Terminals 1 and 2 were cancelled, passengers were asked not to come to the airport. Only Terminal 3 flights were expected to depart as scheduled.»
LONDON - London Heathrow Airport attracts new investors from France and Saud Arabia. French private equity manager Ardian acquires just under 23 percent of the share capital in the airport company, while the Saudi state fund is taking a 15 percent interest in the Europe's most frequented airport.»
WASHINGTON - The United States Department of Transport (DOT) has cleared an extensive codeshare between JetBlue Airways and British Airways. The airlines will connect their networks to numerous destinations in the United States and Great Britain through reciprocal codeshare arrangements.»
LONDON - Severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight from London-Heathrow to Singapore left one person dead and 30 other injured. Singapore Airlines confirmed the May 21st incident, which is under investigation, and its tragic outcome.»
LONDON - International passengers are set to face long queues at the immigration lanes at Heathrow Airport this week. An unsolved dispute on duty rosters between the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and the UK Government escalates to a strike of border force officers at Britain's largest international airport.»Discussions on current events and developments in the aviation industry
