p20 Air apr3 31/3/09 14:43 Page 20
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit
ttglive.com/air
In brief
Icelandair seeks
■ Blackpool rated UK’s favourite airport
Blackpool has been named most popular airport
by Which? Holiday magazine. It was given a
customer score of 80% in the survey, narrowly
package partners
beating London City airport, which scored 78%.
BAA-owned terminals in the south-east filled
the bottom places in the results table, with profitable as it had early afternoon flights from
Chris Gray.
Heathrow Terminal 1 scoring lowest with 31%. ICELANDAIR is talking to UK operators about countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
North and South terminals at Gatwick, and offering packages combining stays in Reykjavik Belgium, Spain and Italy that connected with the
Heathrow’s Terminals 2, 3 and 4 completed the and the US Pacific north-west using its new Seattle flight at Reykjavik.
bottom six. However, Heathrow Terminal 5, Heathrow-Seattle service. Iceland’s geographic position on the Europe-
which had a disastrous opening a year ago, was The plan is to use the packages to help the US flight path meant it could be a faster option
ranked 23rd out of 38 terminals. flight via Reykjavik compete with a direct British than using hubs on mainland Europe, he said.
Airways route to Seattle, whose flying time of The airline is using 183-seat Boeing 757s on
■ Continental updates menu nine hours compares with Icelandair’s 12 and a the route, which Hognason said could be
Continental Airlines has added half hours total journey time. relatively easily filled compared with BA’s larger
American celebrity chef, Icelandair is also offering free stopovers in 747s and 777s.
Bryan Caswell, owner of Reef Iceland to attract US and European travellers to Hognason said it was also less expensive to
and Little Bigs restaurants in use it rather than going via hubs such as Paris, operate the smaller aircraft, and Icelandair
Houston, to its roster of Frankfurt or Amsterdam. would be able to pass the savings on to
advisory chefs. This 14-strong The service starts on July 22, the day after customers.
team helps to create and Scandinavian carrier SAS drops its Copenhagen- The carrier will also offer Manchester-Seattle
update inflight menus specific to the destinations Seattle flight. flights, with at least an overnight stay in
that the airline serves. Hjorvar Saeberg Hognason, Icelandair’s UK Reykjavik.
and Ireland general manager, accepted it would The airline plans to reinstate its twice-weekly
■ VLM launches London City-Nantes link have a tough job competing against a direct BA Glasgow service on August 27 for the autumn
VLM Airlines, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM, flight, but said promoting the stopovers and season until November.
is to start a daily service between London City tours would make it more attractive. Icelandair has also reached an agreement
airport and Nantes on April 27. Flights will Hognason added that Icelandair would not with Alaska Airlines to co-operate on onward
operate twice daily on weekdays (departing from be relying on the UK market to make the route flights throughout Canada and the western US.
London at 08.25 and 17.45) and once a day on
Saturdays (departing at 08.25) and Sundays
(17.45). Flights from Nantes to London City will
depart from the French city at 07.45 and 17.30
on weekdays, 07.45 on Saturdays and 17.30 on
Sundays.
■ Air New Zealand launches Boarding Buddy
Air New Zealand has launched a free Boarding
Buddy text service to provide passengers
travelling from Heathrow with up-to-minute
flight alerts, such as check-in opening times,
location and delay notifications.
■ EasyJet boosts Glasgow-Palma flights
EasyJet is increasing its flight frequency to
Palma from Glasgow airport. Additional flights
will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays between
May 5 and June 23. Single fares start from £26.99. A TASTE OF CYPRUS: An event was held last week to promote Olympic Holidays,
Thomas Cook and Libra flights to Cyprus from Humberside. Pictured from left: Carmel
ttglive.com
For the very latest flights, airline and
Sneyd, business development executive, Olympic Holidays; Costas Catsellis, Cyprus
airport news, go to
ttglive.com/air Tourism Organisation; and Vicky Hodgson, assistant manager, Humberside airport
20 03.04.2009
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