LONDON - London Heathrow Airport tracks its "busiest December ever" - and ends 2024 with a new record of 83.9 million passengers. Strong growth rates in domestic, EU and Asia-Pacific traffic pushed the British Airways hub to new heights along with double digit increases in key international cargo markets.
LONDON - 1.05 billion GBP in 2025 and 1.29 GBP in 2026: Heathrow disclosed a 2.3 billion GBP investment plan over the next two years to upgrade the airport supported by new shareholders Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, and French investment firm Ardian.
LONDON - The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has set out its thinking on how it will oversee the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK aviation industry. The regulator laid out a "two-pronged approach" to enabling the aerospace sector’s use of AI - and using the technology to support its own operations.
LONDON - A Ryanair Boeing 737 MAX discontinued an unstable approach into Standsted Airport. During the go around procedure the aircraft entered a steep descent exceeding the speed limit for its current setup. Ryanair amended its discontinued approach procedures in the wake of the incident.
LONDON - Much of the UK airspace was designed in the 1950. Fewer delays and reduced bottlenecks could help millions of passengers each year and deliver economic growth as the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport unveil new plans to modernise UK airspace.
LONDON - "Major failure on part of the air traffic control system": Investigators published a final report on the 28 August 2023 air traffic meltdown that caused chaos across UK air traffic. The report meets air navigation service provider NATS and other parties with a total of 34 recommendations.
LONDON - London Stansted airport revealed details of a five-year 1.1 billion GBP investment programme that will "help secure links to even more global destinations" and create "extra space" for growth. The centrepiece of the plans is a 600 million GBP extension to the airport’s existing terminal.
MANCHESTER - Manchester Airport has recorded 30 million passengers in a year - putting it alongside some of the biggest airports in the world. A twelve months streak of straight growth supported by several new routes put the airport over the mark - during the final stage of a transformation plan.
LONDON - Fierce competition with Chinese carrier has British Airways suspend its London-Beijing route through 2025. The airline will deploy even more capacity on transatlantic routes next year and trial new destinations in its international network including Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur.
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.
EDINBURGH - French infrastructure operator Vinci adds another UK airport to its portfolio. Vinci Airports an agreement to acquire an effective 50.01% stake in Edinburgh Airport Limited the company that owns Edinburgh Airport - for around 1.27 billion GBP, the company disclosed in a statement.
LONDON - London Gatwick airport has completed an infrastructure project to help reduce delays and go-arounds. The new Rapid Exit Taxiway (RET) enables arriving aircraft to leave the main runway "at a more optimal location" after landing. The project has been completed after being put on hold through the pandemic.
LONDON - "Really strong start to the year": London Stansted shrugged off the cold and damp of a leap-year February to toast another record-breaking month for passengers. More than 1.92 million passengers passed through the terminal during February, beating a previous record set in February 2020 by almost 50,000.
LONDON - An interim report into the air traffic control meltdown on 28 August 2023 has been published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Heavily impacted Ryanair calls for management changes at NATS as a consequence of the broad ATC collapse over the busy bank holiday weekend.
LONDON - London Gatwick Airport increases its connectivity to mainland China: Air China will begin operating daily flights from London Gatwick to Beijing Capital Airport on A330-300 aircraft on 1 June , before China Southern launches its three-per-week service to Guangzhou on 20 June, on Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
LONDON - British Airways operates Airbus A350-1000 aircraft in its international network since 2019. The airline just received its 18th A350-1000 from Airbus marking the final delivery from the original order. The fleet renewal at British Airways will continue with additional Boeing 787-10 aircraft.
LONDON - British Airways has announced the launch of various long-haul and short-haul routes from London Heathrow, London Gatwick and Edinburgh airport for the 2024 schedule. In addition, the national flag carrier is returning to London Stansted for the first time since the pandemic.
LONDON - "High volume of complaints": Wizz Air UK stalled passenger refund requests. Eventual enforcement action against Wizz Air has now led to 1.24 million GBP being refunded to passengers, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Wizz Air will also review its refund processes.
LONDON - The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has finalised a package of improvements designed to clarify the airspace change process for airports, air navigation service providers and those affected by airspace change.
LONDON - The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a permit to Virgin Atlantic to fly a world-first transatlantic 100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) flight. Virgin Atlantic plans to fly across the Atlantic from London Heathrow to New York JFK on 28 November 2023 to test and showcase the feasibility of flying on all SAF.
LONDON - Heathrow airport raised its passenger forecast for the remainder of 2023. The British Airways hub expects 79.3 million passengers by year-end now, compared to an earlier forecast within an 70 to 78 million passengers range. The airport also curbed its losses in the first nine months of 2023.
LONDON - Summer holidays spur passenger demand across the UK. Heathrow Airport reports a 38.1 percent increase in passenger numbers for July. Holiday and intercontinental travel is showing robust signs of improvement - with one particular destination in the US proving extremely popular among Brits this summer.
LONDON - Heathrow Airport has confirmed the appointment of Thomas Woldbye, currently the boss of Copenhagen Airport, as the person to replace John Holland-Kaye when he steps down as CEO of the British Airways hub later this year after nearly 10 years in post. Discussions on current events and developments in the aviation industry
