Cheap Flight News Europe

bmibaby has some great offers on at present. Flights to Alicante, Bordeaux, Malaga, Nice, Palma and Perpignan are on offer starting at £19.99 one way, including all taxes and charges. Bmibay flies from nineteen UK airports including London Heathrow and Gatwick, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, Leeds Bradford, Aberdeen , Inverness, Newquay and Birmingham.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Ryanair had hedged 90 percent of its fuel costs at around 49 dollars / barrel crude oil equivalent until tomorrow. It was hoping that the price would have dropped before the end of March. Instead the reality is that crude oil stands at 65 dollars a barrel. The facts are that oil is getting scarcer, political uncertainty is pushing the price higher than it would be in more stable times, but that does not alter the fact that it is rising in price and will continue to do so.
A debate on the BBC Radio 4 this morning was discussing how the UK is likely to miss its self imposed emission targets. Aircraft emissions aren't even counted in those figures.
Getting back to the point though, an expert on the programme stated that taxing aviation fuel would not make much difference to the number of passengers flying as it only made up 10% of the price of a ticket. This is not the case for the low budget airlines though. In 1992, fuel accounted for 10-12 % of Ryanair's cost base. Up until now it has been 36% but will rise significantly next week. Prices rises are inevitable.
Low cost airlines are very sensitive to increasing aviation fuel costs. One of the factors Air Wales cited was the increasing cost of fuel when it pulled its scheduled passenger services. Michael O'Leary CEO of Ryanair predicted a "bloodbath" among the budget carriers some time ago now. He was predicting that the competition between airlines would be the deciding factor. This is unlikely as there are plenty of routes without budget carriers operating on them. Eastern Europe still has plenty of under utilised routes as has North Africa. The real threat to the airlines is the increasing cost of fuel.

Ryanair have added another route bringing the count to my reckoning to 12 new routes in a week. They state on their site that they have added 13 though, so either my maths in poor or they have lost one. Perhaps they mean the new Liverpool to Ballykelly Army base route?
Best get back to the serious work of informing you about the new Glasgow Prestwick to Wroclaw, Poland route. Ryanair will commence flights on the route on 1 August 2006. There will be three rotations per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Germanwings the German low cost airline, has a sale on until 24h00 CET (23h00 UK) on Sunday 2 April 2006. Flights can be booked at 1 euro plus taxes and charges between 15 April 2006 and 31 May 2006. Routes from the airlines German bases included in this offer are:

From/to Cologne: Alicante, Antalya, Gdansk, Dublin, Edinburgh, Gothenborg, Izmir, Krakow, London, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Warsaw, Vienna, Zurich

From/to Stuttgart: Antalya, Izmir, Krakow, London, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna

From/to Berlin: Oslo, Stockholm, Izmir

From/to Hamburg: Izmir, Krakow, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Warsaw

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

We have all heard the story that Ryanair flies to out of the way unheard of airports. This story reported by the BBC proves it to be true. Today a Liverpool to Derry flight, operated by Eirjet on behalf of Ryanair, landed at an Army base on the way to Londonderry Airport.
The 39 passengers were taken by coach to City of Derry Airport in Northern Ireland.
I thought that was what they always did. lol

Ryanair today added another 5 routes to its growing route map. Ryanair will serve another five destinations up from its Shannon base. Following delivery of another Boeing 737-800 aircraft in September, which it will base at Shannon the following destinations will be added. They are:

• Biarritz, France
  
• Carcassone, France
• Faro, Portugal
• Krakow, Poland
• Venice, Italy

The emergency evacuation test in Hamburg at the weekend was deemed a success by the European Aviation and Safety Agency (EASA) and the American Federal Aviation Administration, FAA. The evacuation test was the most challenging ever done with an aircraft and the first one ever attempted on a double deck aircraft.
It was completed in 87 seconds. The goal was to be faster than 90 seconds. Only half of the aircraft emergency doors were working and crew and passengers were unaware which ones wouldn't be available beforehand. Just to make it even more interesting it was all done in a dark hangar.

The Airbus A380 is now certified to carry 853 passengers, although the current orders are only to seat about 550 passengers. Emirates have been asking the question though - "What if we fitted them out to carry 850 and entered the long haul low cost market?"

Aer Arann, the small but growing Irish budget airline will operate a new Cork to Newquay service in May 2006. The timetable isn't finished yet but it will run three flights a week on the route. Aer Arann's route count now stands at 36.
Newquay will be buoyed up by the increasing number of flights being operated from there after being snubbed by Ryanair following an increase in airport charges to develop the airport, a former RAF base.

In announcing the route Micheal O'’Callarain, Marketing Manager, Aer Arann said "“This is our fourth new route from Cork for summer 2006 representing considerable expansion from the Southwest region. We are delighted to be adding Cork to Newquay in Cornwall to our network of UK routes. Newquay is the West Counties beach paradise, with seven miles of sandy beaches and the surfing capital of the UK. We believe it will prove a popular leisure destination from Cork and look forward to working with both airports to develop the service in the coming months."

Blue Air will resume services on its Bucharest to Paris Beauvais route starting 9 May 2006. The flights will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
07:45 Bucharest (Baneasa) - 09:35 Paris (Beauvais)
10:20 Paris (Beauvais) - 14:10 Bucharest (Baneasa)

Cardiff International Airport has just unveiled its plans for growth over the next 25 years. It is rapidly expanding, predicting growth of 22% to 2 million passengers this year. It predicts that there will be 5 million passengers using the airport by 2015 and 8 million passengers by 2030.

It has set out its expansion plans in its draft Master Plan. This will go for public consultation. The airport expects to have limited affect on the local environment as it has good road and rail links, does not require extra land for expansion and flights take off over the sea minimising noise pollution.

What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that airports and airlines can make predictions based on the stupendous growth of air travel due to the low cost boom and predict a four fold increase in traffic by the year 2030. By then oil will be scarce and very expensive. I wonder if they realise that the Earth has only finite resources in terms of fossil fuels etc and that continuous growth assumes unlimited resources.

Ryanair has today revealed six new routes from its Pisa base. The six new routes served by the Irish low fare airline are:

• Pisa <> Doncaster from 15 September 2006 (4x / weekly)
• Pisa <> Friedrichshafen from 14 September 2006 (3x / weekly)
• Pisa <> Karlsruhe Baden from 15 September 2006 (4x / weekly)
• Pisa <> Oslo from 14 September 2006 (3x / weekly)
• Pisa <> Trapani from 14 September 2006 (Daily)
• Pisa <> Valencia from 14 September 2006 (Daily)

Flights are available for booking immediately. The new routes brings the total number operated by Ryanair from Pisa to seventeen.

Flybe has a sale on at present. Domestic flights start at £19.99 one way fully inclusive of taxes and charges. The remaining domestic routes are on sale at £21.99 one way inclusive. They have also released their Summer 2006 schedule with destinations such as Alicante, Angers, Avignon Provence, Bergerac, Brest Brittany, Cherbourg, Faro, La Rochelle, Malaga, Murcia, Perpignan, Palma being added.

Flybe have also joined easyJet and Ryanair in offering cheap tickets for customers stranded by Air Wales' closure of its scheduled passenger services on 23 April 2006. They are offering tickets from Bristol to Belfast City Airport for £25 one way inclusive of taxes and charges. To be eligible passengers must have Air Wales booking confirmations.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Flybe, the Southwest's first budget airline has taken a slot at Newquay International Airport and will commence flights to Edinburgh on 27 May 2006. Flights will start at £34.99 one way including taxes and charges. This is the first Scottish connection for the airport that has seen Ryanair slash its services citing the increased airport taxes.

The new route will drastically cut down the travel time from Cornwall to Scotland that can take a full day by rail. It will also allow Scottish surfers to sample the breakers at the UK's mecca for surf.

Mike Rutter, Chief Commercial Officer, Flybe said: "We have big plans in the South West. Whilst many of our competitors are route cutting and retrenching back to London, Flybe is expanding in the regions and is committed to bringing flights to your door."

"The new route to Edinburgh shows us responding to consumer demand for a link from the Cornwall to Scotland. The new route will provide a convenient, low cost travel option to the popular UK destination which was previously only accessible by a long and inconvenient train ride. We are committed to delivering on our promise to offer a first class, low fares service from convenient regional airports across the South West."

myair has some really cheap seats on its flights at present. The offer is open until 16h00 CET on 30 March 2006. The cheapest offers being found on their new routes:

• Bologna - Sofia
• Milan Orio al Serio - Sofia
• Milan Orio al Serio - Timisoara
• Venice - Timisoara
• Rome Ciamino - Bucharest
  

These routes are available at 9.99 euros one way, plus taxes and charges for the period 13 April 2006 to 31 May 2006. Domestic routes are also on sale for the same price but for travel taken between 1 April 2006 and 31 May 2006.

Older international routes are on sale from 19.99 one way, plus taxes and charges. The flights must be taken between 1 April 2006 and 31 May 2006.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

There will be a general strike in France on Tuesday. It will affect air, domestic rail and metro traffic, but not Eurostar services. French Air Traffic Controllers are on strike from Monday 27 March at 18h00 CET to Wednesday 29 March 06h00 CET. Most airlines have cancelled flights on this day. FlyBe is hoping to operate as near normal service. Jet2 have asked passengers to check in as normal but to expect delays. EasyJet have made mass cancellations as have Ryanair.

There will also be a strike at Leeds Bradford Airport on Tuesday 28 March 2006. It is expected to close the runway for two hours but check in and other activity will be able to proceed without disruption.

Centralwings the low cost arm of Poland's Lot Airways is having another sale starting Monday 27 March 2006. Flights offered at £1 GBP each way plus taxes and charges are:

Edinburgh <> Gdansk, Katowice, Warsaw
Leeds <> Warsaw
London <> Krakow and Warsaw

Flights for €1 euro each way plus taxes and charges are:

Dublin <> Lodz, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Katowice
Shannon <> Warsaw

These prices are available on flights taken between 18 April 2006 and 8 June 2006.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Aer Lingus, the Irish legacy carrier has a sale on at present. Flights from London to Dublin, Cork and Shannon are on sale for £1 GBP each way, plus taxes and charges. In addition the flights to Dublin from the following Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey, airports are also being sold for £1 each way plus taxes and charges. Aer Lingus is learning to copy Ryanair. Their flights work out a little more expensive than Ryanair. The example I looked up was flight from Liverpool to Dublin in 10 May 2006, returning 11 May 2006. Aer Lingus returned a total price of £33.18 GBP while Ryanair produced £25.18 GBP. Not a lot in it when you consider the seats recline on the Aer Lingus
aircraft!

If you would like to buy some of these offer seats for Aer Lingus then you have a lot more time as the offer is open until 31 May 2006 for travel up to the same date.

* As usual the asterix means that the price advertised is only the price of the seat, not what you will pay to get to your destination.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Airbus carried out an emergency evacuation of its new double decker A380 aircraft today. The test was carried out in a pitch black hangar in Hamburg. Only 8 of the 16 exits were used and the 18 Lufthansa flight crew who were in charge of the evacuation were not told beforehand which ones would be closed. Reportedly the 853 volunteers and 18 aircrew were evacuated in 80 seconds, 10 seconds less than the target 90 seconds. The emergency procedure was filmed using infra red cameras and will be analysed before test can be confirmed as a success or otrherwise. It appears that there were some minor injuries and one broken leg. This Bloomberg Article gives more information

It must have been like some sort of adventure park ride to jump on a slide from the top deck of an A380 in a totally dark hangar.

BA Connect the lower cost British Airways division that has taken over the old CitiExpress service, started operating for real today. I wonder how many other flag carriers will follow also follow suite. Lufthansa has made a determined bid to offer low cost flying with its 99 euro returns. Iberia has expressed an interest in running a low cost airline as has Alitalia. The old saying goes "If you can't beat them, join them".

Lufthansa, Germany's flag carrier is to expand its "betterFly" fares to cover all European Union countries plus Switzerland, Norway and Turkey. BetterFly fares are currently only on offer on German domestic routes at 99 euros (approx £70) return including taxes and charges. Lufthansa saw a growth in traffic on the routes where it introduced the "betterFly" fares, this has prompted an extension of the scheme.

"After our successful experience on domestic routes in Germany and the launch of our "betterFly"fares in Hamburg, we have seen that an attractive starting price can have a very positive effect on the market. We want to make our customers appealing offers and open up further growth for Lufthansa," explained Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Lufthansa will sell "betterFly" fares on 181 routes to 76 destinations in 25 countries. The airline will offer 350,000 tickets a month at the new fare.

The new tickets can be booked from 3 April 2006. There is a 10 euro charge for booking online.

Ryanair and easyJet have both stepped in offering cheap tickets on routes affected by Air Wales' retreat from scheduled passenger services.
Ryanair is offering tickets on its Cardiff <> Dublin route for £2.49 plus taxes and charges (about £31 return, inclusive).

EasyJet meanwhile, is selling flights on its Bristol <> Newcastle, Bristol <> Glasgow and Bristol <> Belfast for £25 (inclusive) each way. The rate applies to travel made from 24 April 2006 to 30 September 2006. The fares are available to Air Wales passengers with Air Wales booking confirmations by phoning 0905 821 0905 in the next 6 days. They will also need to present their Air Wales booking confirmation at easyJet check-ins where a maximum of £25 will be charged for the flight. Passengers must provide the agent with their Air Wales booking reference number and present their Air Wales booking confirmation at check-in as further proof of booking.

Finally, bmibaby was "shocked and disappointed" by Air Wales' decision to stop scheduled services. They had been marketing Air Wales flights and are still trying to find out what to do regarding Cardiff <> Paris flights.

Sterling are adding another 10,000 seats to their sale for flights up until the 15 June 2006. The proce remains the same at 600 DKK (£56 GBP) one way including all taxes and charges. The sale ends 28 March 2006, flights over Easter and holiday periods are not included in the sale.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Disneyland Paris have been running a "kids stay free" promotion this Spring. It ends on 30th March 2006. Thomsonfly have decided to run a similar offer of their own, so that up to 2 children can accompany an adult on a flight from Coventry or Doncaster to Paris Orly and travel for free. The flights must be booked by 24 March 2006 and can be undertaken between 19 April and 26 May 2006.

Air Wales has just announced that it will end passenger operations. A notice on its home page states that passengers holding reservations for flights after 23 April 2006 will get a refund. They will have to phone Air Wales' reservations call numbers in the UK and Ireland as no refunds can be arranged by e-mail.

Aer Arann an Irish low budget airline continues to expand its services from Cork, Ireland. Today they announced that they will operate a Cork - Cardiff service from 24 April 2006. The full timetable for the route is likely to be issued next week.

This route will be taken over from Air Wales who are ceasing passenger operations on 23 April 2006.

The route brings Aer Arann's total to 35. Micheal O'Callarain, Marketing Manager Aer Arann said "Our commercial team is continually looking for opportunities for expansion and as such we are delighted to be announcing this new service from Cork to Cardiff today. Cardiff has just celebrated its centenary as a city and its 50th year as Wales' capital and is a vibrant and thriving city. We look forward to working with both airports to develop the service in the coming months."

Jet2.com still has flights available at from £19.99 one way, including all taxes and charges. Newcastle to Bergen for example which starts operating next month. They also have seats starting at £49.99 one way, inclusive to Tenerife from its Leeds Bradford base in April, May, June and July.

Finally their ski flights to Geneva and Chambery in the French Alps will end on 23 April 2006.

The airline recently announced that it would be moving its offices to Leeds Bradford as this had effectively become the home of the airline.

This Thursday, 23 March 2006, Virgin Express the Brussels International based budget airline is having another sale. The sale will run for 6 hours only between 18h00 and 24h00 CET (17h00 -23h00 in UK). In their sale they will offer the following destinations from Brussels:

Barcelona, Rome and Milan Bergamo

15,000 seats will be sold at 39.99 euros one way including all taxes and charges. Seats can be booked for flights between 15 April 2006 and 15 June 2006.
Seats are subject to availability.


You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

HLX.com have their regular weekly sale on. These start every Tuesday evening at 18h00 CET (17h00 UK) until midnight CET on Wednesday. The 19.99 euro flights are one way including taxes and charges. This is why the aircraft are painted in the same colours as a New York taxi cab, as their fares are similar to a flight with HLX.com.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Not surprisingly a battle of words is underway between easyJet and Air France over the Paris Orly to Ajaccio route that easyJet dropped last week. Air France have disputed that their cheapest fare on the route was 263 euros return as claimed by easyJet. Air France responded that it is 156 euros. EasyJet then point out that this is double what they were going to charge.

Air France point out that easyJet could have applied to operate the route and get the subsidy from the French government. François Bacchetta, easyJet Country Manager France, responded:

"How Air France can suggest that we should also apply for subsidies to fly the 12th most popular route in France is beyond me. Do they really think there is nothing better you can do with public money than handing it over to an airline to fly a route which many airlines would be happy to fly without subsidies?

While there are some routes where a PSO status is appropriate, especially to oversee territories, the list of PSO routes should be revised. Today airlines are able to operate a route such as Paris-Ajaccio under market conditions while offering cheaper fares for consumers. Air France tries to scare people into believing that no one would operate this route without a PSO and people on Corsica would be cut off, but that is just absurd."

The whole episode sounds like a bait laid by easyJet to raise the protectionist issue. I'm sure this debate will get interesting.

XL Airways has a sale whereby 20% is being knocked off all flights up to the end of April 2006. All 50 of the airlines destinations are covered from all 12 of the UK airports its flies from. For the period 15th July 2006 to 1st September 2006 flights are being discounted by 15%. The sale is on until midnight (UK) on Wednesday 22 March 2006 so you will need to be quick.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) a body comprised of easyJet, flybe, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Norwegian, Ryanair, Sky Europe, Sterling, Sverige Flyg, Transavia and Wizz Air has produced a report in response to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EUETS). So far two budget airlines, easyJet and flybe have made their own responses to the criticism that airlines, in particular low fare airlines are the biggest threat to the environment. The report produced by Frontier Economics points out that airlines in Europe produce only 4% of the carbon dioxide European Union's (EU) fifteen members and predict that it will still only be 5% by 2030 assuming there are 25 EU members by then. What they don't pint out is that the increase to 5% is a 25% increase in CO2 at a time when the world needs to be reducing emissions. They feel aggrieved as they believe bigger polluters are not getting the same attention.

The make the point that the low cost airlines are the least damaging to the environment of all the airlines as they operate new fuel efficient aircraft with very high load factors. They believe that the EUETS must carefully consider how to implement emissions trading so that airlines running old aircraft with poor load factors are not rewarded with big emissions quotas based on historical usage. The low cost airlines are in favour of an emissions trading scheme if it rewards moves to further improve fuel efficiency. My view is that the rising cost of aviation fuel may achieve many of the goals of the EUETS before the scheme starts to influence airlines.

Blu-Express the Italian low cost airline will commence operating a new Bologna to Bari route from 22 May 2006. The airline serves the following destinations:
Rome, Bologna, Vienna, Munich, Grenoble, Milan and Nice.

Fares start at 9.99 euros one way, plus taxes and charges.

Berlin is expand Schönefeld Airport to become Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) Airport, a project due for completion in 2011. Berlin's Templehof Airport will close in 2007 and Tegel will close soon after the opening of the expanded BBI. The restructuring plans have taken 10 years to come to fruition but all consents have now been gained.

Construction work at BBI starts this year with site set up. In 2007 construction of a new rail link and underground station will kick off, a southern runway and aprons will commence. In 2008 a new terminal and roads will be built. The airport will open for trials on 30 October 2011.

In order to tidy up the files on our server, the cheap flight news is being moved to a new URL:

• http://news.eurapart.com

The archive of the old will be retained. The changeover will take place at the end of March 2006.
We hope this does not cause too much inconvenience.