Cheap Flight News Europe

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) has awarded the small but expanding Irish low cost airline Aer Arann a prestigious Palme D'Or. The ERA awards are made to member airlines in recognition of their achievements in the previous twelve months. Aer Arann was singled out as delivering excellence and high business performance over an extended period. The Palme D'Or is held in perpetuity with the Spanish Air Nostrum and London City Airport being the only two holders.

The flag carrier Air France has some offers on European Flights in October. Although not a budget airline, they do along with similar airlines have some excellent deals from time to time. Here are a few examples of prices from the United Kingdom:

London Heathrow <> Prague from £ 149 return
London Heathrow <> Budapest from £ 154 return
Birmingham <> Rome from £ 161 return
Newcastle <> Frankfurt from £ 169 return
Aberdeen <> Lisbon from £ 187 return

Look up the Air France website for more Air France special offers.

EasyJet has a sale on that finishes Tuesday 3 October 2006. They are knocking up to 45% off 5 million seats on flights departing until 18 December 2006. The promotional fares are highlighted in yellow on easyJet's website.

My Way Airlines are offering 10 seats on each aircraft on its newest routes from Sofia <> Milan Orio al Serio and Sofia <> Rome Ciampino for 0.01 euros plus taxes and charges if booked before Monday 2 October 2006

flyglobespan today put Edinburgh <> Murcia and Edinburgh <> Nice tickets on sale for Summer 2007. Seats start at £49.99 one way including taxes. More routes are expected to be released soon.

Wizz Air the Central and Eastern European no frills airline will fly to Belfast International Airport from May 2007. The first connection will be Belfast <> Katowice starting on 29 May 2007 with Belfast <> Warsaw commencing 28 July 2007.

These routes are the start of a new tranche of routes from Wizz Air. József Váradi, said: "This news is only the first step of a series of new route openings from Poland. Shortly we will be announcing further new destinations as details of the extended Summer 2007 schedule."

From 11 November 2006 Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norway's leading low cost airline will add a new Bergen <> Warsaw service to its timetables. In addtion they will increase the flight frequency on their Oslo <> Warsaw route.

Ryanair is to add a further 17 routes to its Girona base in Spain. Girona is close to Barcelona and the Pyrenees. From 1 March 2007 new routes will be added with the delivery of four new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to the Barcelona Girona Airport. The new routes announced today are:

• Altenburg - 3 x per week from 1 March
• Brescia - 3 x per week from 9 March
• Fuerteventura - 3 x per week from 8 March
• Gothenburg - 3 x per week from 27 March
• Marrakech - 3 x per week from 27 March
• Pescara - 3 x per week from 27 March
• Teesside- 3 x per week from 12 February
• Trapani - 3 x per week from 27 March
• Aarhus - 4 x per week from 25 March
• Bologna - 4 x per week from 9 March
• Bristol - 4 x per week from 25 March
• Faro - 4 x per week from 2 March
• Malmo - 4 x per week from 25 March
• Newcastle - 4 x per week from 25 March
• Oslo - 4 x per week from 25 March
• Tenerife - 4 x per week from 9 March
• Porto daily from 2 March
  

The line up is impressive with more Uk connections and a Marrakech service.

Thomsonfly the low cost scheduled arm of ThomsonTravel and TUI is selling seats on flights up until 8 February 2007 for a mere £10 inclusive (the tickets are tax free according to the airline). The £10 inclusive flights are available from Coventry and Doncaster Sheffield to Paris, Amsterdam and Jersey.
Barcelona, Prague and Salzburg are available from £15 one way inclusive and Alicante, Grenoble and Valencia from £20 one way inclusive.

SkyEurope flights from London Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham to Krakow are on sale starting at £2 one way plus taxes and charges. Dublin to Krakow is even cheaper at 2 euros one way plus taxes and charges. The fares from Manchester work out at £26.72 one way all inclusive on the flights I looked up. The offer is on until Sunday 30 September 2006 for flights taken between 15 October and 14 December 2007 and 9 January and 14 March 2007.

Germanwings the German low cost airline is 4 years old this week. To celebrate they are offering 444,444 seats to destinations throughout Europe for 0 euros, plus taxes and charges. The offer is on until Tuesday 3 October 2006 at midnight CET (23h00 UK). Tickets can be booked on flights departing between 20 October 2006 and 30 January 2007.

Ryanair the leading budget airline in Europe has plans to drop ticket prices even more. They have signed up a 5 year deal with InvieoMedia to put seat-back advertising into all of their current and future Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This will deliver advertising to a captive audience by means of the "‘Inviseo Table"’ a tray-table built into the backrest. The adverts can btargeteded to match the routes flown by individual aircraft with destination specific presentations.
The revenue raised will be used to lower fares even more but I think it would be good if they used at least part of it to offset the damage caused by the carbon burn on the flight.

FlyBe will add a Southampton <> Nice service on 25 March 2007. Flights will start at £39.99 one way including all taxes and charges. The low cost airline based in the South West of the United Kingdom shows a steady growth and is proud of its new fuel efficient aircraft that it has just started to introduce.

Wizz Air is selling seats on its London Luton to Ljubljana and its Glasgow Prestwick to Gdansk route for only £0.01 excluding taxes and charges, which do not exceed £22.36. The seats are subject to availability.

Residents of the Channel island of Jersey are being offered free entry into the Eden Project if they fly with Air Southwest. Passengers flying from Jersey to Plymouth between 1 October 2006 and 31 March 2007 cab apply for a free ticket to the popular visitor attraction. There are 100 tickets being offered on a first come first served basis. Terms and conditions apply. Fares on the route start at £33 one way including taxes and charges.

SkyEurope has added another Boeing 737 to its line up of aircraft adorned with beautiful girls. The latest being a 737-300 adorned with the face of Hungarian student Benedek Roza Muriel. The aircraft will operate routes to 15 destinations from Budapest. The “Muriel” branded plane will join the two aircraft in service with other beauties. There is a 737-500 with the face of Miss Austria 2006 Tatjana Batinic and a 737-700 NG with Adriana Karambeu taking pride of place.

Christian Mandl, CEO of SkyEurope Airlines said: “Our brand is young, sexy and unconventional. We are proud to present today an aircraft featuring a Hungarian Beauty. Muriel is not only looking great, but represents with her communicative personality and multi-lingual capabilities at best the image of SkyEurope Airlines.”

Benedek Roza Muriel is studying philosophy and communications at ELTE (University of Arts and Sciences in Budapest). In addition to her mother tongue, she speaks English, German and French, and loves travelling.

EasyJet is promoting some excellent deals for the Autumn Half Term Holidays. Some of the destinations on offer include (prices are one way including taxes and charges):

• Berlin from £20.99
• Milan from £25.99
• Paris from £26.99
• Madrid from £26.99
• Barcelona from £30.99
• Palma from £30.99
• Athens from £30.99
• Faro from £30.99
• Nice from £30.99
• Alicante from £35.99
  

In all 21,000 seats are on sale at promotional rates.

You may not think that this sounds like a good deal when you consider that Ryanair often have sales offering the seats for 1 pence / 1 cent . You would be wrong though as in this sale the price includes taxes and charges which come to now more than 9.99 GBP / euros depending on the departure airport. The offer is only on until Thursday 28 September 2006 and valid on flights between Monday 9 October 2006 and Thursday 8 February 2007. The seats are not available on Fridays or Sundays and on numerous blackout periods aligning with school and public holidays.

Some £10 routes; London Stansted <>Carcassonne,Oslo (Torp), Derry, Trieste, Ancona, Poznan, Gothenburg, Salzburg, Kerry, Limoges
Liverpool <> Bergerac, Girona (Barcelona, Venice (Treviso),Rome (Ciampino), Pisa, Reus (Barcelona),Tampere, Krakow, Cork, Poznan
Glasgow Prestwick <> Girona (Barcelona) ,Düsseldorf (Weeze), Krakow, Derry, Pisa, Gothenburg, Paris (Beauvais), Milan (Bergamo), Riga, Oslo (Torp)

Four new Spanish destinations are being added to Jet2.com's Newcastle timetables from 2007. The four routes are:

Newcastle <> Almeria starts 20 May 2007
Newcastle <> Malaga starts 25 March 2007
Newcastle <> Palma (Majorca) starts 26 March 2007
Newcastle <> Valencia starts 14 May 2007

The Malaga and Palma services put them in direct competition with easyJet who also serve these destinations from Newcastle. Seats start at £27.99 one way excluding taxes and charges.

If you can't wait until next year then Jet2 have a sale on until Sunday 1 October 2006. Seats over the Winter are available from £12.99 one way including taxes and debit card charges.

From 16 December 2006, Flybe the United Kingdom low cost operator will add Southampton <> Galway to its line up. This will be Flybe's third route to Galway. It will service the route on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Prices will start at £29.99 one way including all taxes and charges. The airline has promised more new routes will be announced shortly.
First new route announced today, more new routes to follow.

SkyEurope the Central European Airline, flying routes to Austria has just been awarded Airline of the Year 2006 by Austrian Business World Magazine. The jury considered that the airline had delivered a high quality, reliable service to passengers in Central and Eastern Europe.

Receiving the award on behalf of SkyEurope, Ralph Preclik said, "“We are much honored to be granted with the Airline of the Year 2006 award. This prize is devoted to our customers and the entire SkyEurope team, who implemented many important strategic projects fostering our position as leading low cost low fare airline in Central and Eastern Europe. Our focus remains to continuously improve and extend our services to the benefit of our passengers."”

Monarch Airlines latest offer is a Winter sale with one million seats starting at £37.50 one way including taxes. The travel offer is available for travel between October 2006 and March 2007. The offer applies to scheduled flights only i.e. flight numbers starting ZB.

Ryanair continues its expansion with the addition of five more routes:

• Derry <> Glasgow Prestwick from 5 December 2006
• Dublin <> Fuerteventura
• Dublin <> Tenerife
• Dublin <> Alghero
• Dublin <> Trapani
  

Ryanair now offers 69 routes from Dublin and despite its gripes over the airport charges continues to support the Irish Capital's Airport.

Wizz Air has added six new routes to its expanding network this month. The latest routes are:

• Warsaw <> Grenoble from 25 November 2006
• Sofia <> Rome Ciampino from 2 March 2007

and the following four routes are now operational

• Katowice <> Doncaster Sheffield
• Katowice <> Oslo-Torp
• Budapest <>Gothenburg
• Budapest <> Eindhoven

Wizz Air has added 19 new routes compared to the same period last year.

Jet2.com are expanding their Manchester route map. The new routes are:

Manchester <> Barcelona from 25 March 2006
Manchester <> Berlin Schoenefeld from 25 March 2006
Manchester <> Paris CDG from 25 March 2006
Manchester <> Toulouse from 16 April 2006
Manchester <> Venice Marco Polo from 20 May 2006
Manchester <> Warsaw from 31 April 2006

The fares start at £1 one way plus taxes and charges.

Ryanair, the biggest European low fares airline has announced that it will commence operations from a new base in Bremen. Flights to and from the new base commence in April 2007. Ryanair will initially base two aircraft at Bremen, adding a third in September 2007. Nine new European routes will be added to Ryanair's comprehensive network.

Routes:
Bremen <> London
Bremen <> Oslo
Bremen <> Barcelona
Bremen <> Murcia
Bremen <> Tampere
Bremen <> Venice
Bremen <> Verona
Bremen <> Pisa
Bremen <> Riga

The United Kingdom's Department for Transport yesterday introduced new security controls for carry on baggage for flights out of the UK. The size of bag that can be carried on board has now been increased to a maximum of 56 cm by 45 cm by 25 cm which is in line with most low cost airline requirements. It will also allow the carriage of musical instruments. The ban on liquids except for essential medicines and babies' milk remains. Full details can be found on the DfT website.

Birmingham International Airport is due to get new low cost routes following an announcement by bmibaby this week that it is to aim at a 60% expansion over the coming year. The airline will recruit three Boeing 737's to the bmibaby fleet at Birmingham. The expansion will lead to increase flight frequencies on some of its existing routes as well as the addition of new routes, although details have not yet been released.
The airline recently announced that it would be adding two new aircraft to its fleet in the Summer of 2007 and is also pulling out of Durham Tees Valley Airport freeing up capacity for more popular routes.

Bmibaby the low cost arm of BMI is to cease operating routes out of Durham Tees Valley Airport. Bmibaby, the second largest UK owned low cost airline will cease operating routes to and from Cork, Paris and London Gatwick from 29 October 2006. Flights to and from Alicante, Malaga and Palma will be cancelled from 6 November 2006. Passengers with bookings after these dates will receive a full refund.

The parent company will retain the link to London Gatwick. It cites poor booking performance for the withdrawal of services.

Durham Tees Valley Airport's loss is Birmingham's gain see the next post.

Jet2.com have some excellent deals on at present. Flights start at £9.99 one way including all taxes and charges (£2.50 debit card surcharge / £5.99 credit card surcharge). Flights can be taken in November, December and January to 20 different destinations.

Ryanair is to cease operating four routes to destinations in France over the Winter period. The routes with the weakest demand demonstrated by advance bookings are:

London Luton <> Brest to close 11 November 2006 to 27 February 2007
London Stansted <> Deauville <> 31 October 2006 to 28 February 2007
Nottingham East Midlands <> Nimes to close 9 November to 19 December 2006 and 9 January to 28 February 2007
Shannon <> Nantes to close 9 November 2006 to 27 February 2007

From 17h00 (Central European time on Thursday) till Sunday Germanwings are having a 100,000 ticket sale. You can travel from the 1st October to the 30th November 2006, fly to or from Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin or Cologne. Visit Germanwings.com for more details.

Thomsonfly are having a Summer 2007 sale with lots of flights from £19.99.
Some of their flights include:

• Manchester <> Salzburg, Venice, Naples, Dubrovnik, Faro, Paphos,
  Corfu, Minorca, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote
• Gatwick <> Paphos, Minorca, Corfu, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote
• Cardiff <> Faro
• Bournemouth <> Valencia and Prague
• London Luton <> Prague, Corfu and Paphos
• Coventry <> Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Ibiza, Valencia, Barcelona, and Salzburg
• Doncaster Sheffield <> Malaga, Alicante, Ibiza, Pisa and Prague
• Bournemouth <> Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Faro
• Manchester <>Malaga, Palma and Ibiza
• Luton <> Malaga, Palma and
  Ibiza
• Newcastle <>Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Ibiza
• Birmingham <> Palma
• Glasgow<> Palma

There is a full list available online at Thomsonfly.com

Aerlingus are having a sale, ending midnight 14th September. They
claim to have flights at £1 although this is excluding taxes and
charges, the prices including taxes and charges are listed below:

Fly to Dublin from:
London Heathrow from £22
Birmingham from £19
Bristol from £16
Edinburgh from £18
Glasgow from £17
Newcastle from £20
Manchester from £21

To Cork from: London Heathrow from £22
Birmingham from £19

To Shannon from: London Heathrow from £22

All these flights listed are the price one-way including taxes and charges.

If you book your flights by this Thursday(14th), flyMonarch are offering a 50% discount on all flights. This means you can save up to £15 on a return flight! The offer is availabe on all scheduled flights all dates, so it doesn't matter where you're going or when you're going there, book before thursday do get 50% off your flights.

bmibaby is adding a new route to its network. From 29 October 2006 it will connect Aberdeen and Birmingham. Seats start at £13.99 one way including taxes and charges.
new route!

Ryanair have announced another 7 routes and currently the fares are free (excluding taxes and charges) until midnight on Monday 11th September. These new routes are Dublin to Malta, Frankfurt to Billund, London Luton to Malta, London Stansted to Perugia, Pisa to Billund, Pisa to Malta and Pisa to Seville. These new flights mean that Ryanair are servicing another 500,000 customers meaning that they will now be the worlds first airline to be carry 4 million passengers a month. This is a large expansion for Ryanair, take advantage of their great deals while they last.

bmibaby, the budget arm of BMI has a sale on until midnight on Tuesday 12 September 2006. Flights can be booked in October, November and December and start at a low £13.99 one way including all taxes and charges.

The airline is also offering a few frills at extra cost including the facility to pre book seats at £3.50 one way or extra legroom seats from £12.50 one way.

Ryanair have some new flights which they claim are free, although this is excluding taxes and charges, they say that taxes and charges do not exceed 20.94 Euros though. The flights are all from Dublin airport and to locations such as: Newcastle, Malmo, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Pisa, Venice, Turin, Salzburg, Berlin, Paris, Malaga, Rome, Eindhoven and more. A full list of all the flights is available at Ryanair.com.
The booking period is from the 4th September to the 11th September and you can travel between the 19th September and 24th March 2006. All holidays, school breaks and major sporting events are excluded from the offer and the tickets must be booked at least 14 days in advance.

Low cost Airline Flybe have just ordered 26 new Embraer 195 jets worth $950 million. This is an investment for both their passengers and the environment, as the Embraer 195 uses much less fuel than any of its competitors. The fuel consumption is 20% lower than the BAe 146 which it is replacing, it is also significantly lower than the B737 and Airbus' A319. Due to the reduced fuel consumption the emissions will also be reduced by up to 25% putting much less strain on the atmosphere. Flybe have a very strict environmental criteria and this new investment proves how environmentally friendly Flybe actually are compared to their competitors.
Just because the Embraer 195 has low fuel consumption doesn't mean that anything is compromised, the Embraer is perfect for the low cost routes that Flybe runs and with its General Electrics CF34-10E engine it is also 35% quieter than the BAe146 meaning there's less impact on the local communities in the vicinity of airports. The plane seats 118 passengers with an exceptional amount of space and room for large amount of baggage.
Flybe will have the youngest and most environmentally friendly fleet for an airline.

FlyMonarch airlines to Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria this winter for £29.99 one way excluding taxes and charges that's £56.99 including taxes and charges. The example quoted are from London Gtawick or Luton. Travel can be booked on flights between 1 November 2006 and 31 March 2007.

Supermarket LIDL are selling flight vouchers for £19 for use with Air Berlin and NIKI flights.You can travel between Belfast, London Stansted, Glasgow and Manchester or to other destinations in Europe like Italy, Germany or Spain. Flight vouchers are valid for flights up to £69 on routes marked with the LIDL symbol. That means it is possible to save up to £50 per seat.
Visit AirBerlin.com for more info.

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.

Jet2.com have some new flights from Leeds Bradford and Manchester in their Summer 2007 sale. Some of these flights include from Leeds Bradford to Alicante from £41.99, to Malaga from £39.99, to Murcia from £41.99 and to from from £27.99. Or fly from Manchester to Rome from £29.99, there are flight to Ibiza coming soon.
Visit Jet2.com for more information.

British Airways have introduced some new low cost flights to Europe competing with the low cost flight companies. Some of these flights include flying from Manchester Airport to:
Stockholm from £39, to Istanbul from £94, to Helsinki from £104, to Zurich from £64, to Amsterdam from £60, to Barcelona from £60, to Malaga from £64 and to Rome from £64.

All prices are one way and including taxes and charges. You can book up until the 26th September 2006. Visit British Airways for a full list of offers.

flybe the budget airline operating out of the South West of the United Kingdom has a sale on for September. Flights start at £19.99 one way including taxes and charges. flybe also offers services for Business travellers in the form of Business Express fares and flybe Economy Plus for passengers wanting a few more frills with their seat.

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 has submit some proposals with Malta to have 3 new routes flying to Malta from London Luton, Pisa and Dublin. It is hoped to be a year round daily service from London Luton and will run 3 times a week from Pisa and Dublin. These new flights should start from the 31st October 2006 from London Luton and Pisa and from the 9th February 2007 from Dublin Airport.

Fly from Glasgow to Las Palmas from £59.99 one way including taxes and charges, or from Glasgow to Arrecife for £59.99 and Glasgow to Tenerife from £59.99. There are more routes to come soon from flyglobespan. Flights to Las Palmas run on saturdays all year round and to Arrecife on sundays all year round.
Visit flyglobespan.com for more offers.