p24 Air May1 28/4/09 09:53 Page 24
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit
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In brief
Birmingham may
■ Cathay offers fares to Australia from £539
Cathay Pacific has unveiled a ticket sale to
Australia and New Zealand, with fares to Perth
starting from £539 inclusive return and Auckland gain Athens link
from £575. Tickets must be booked by May 5 and
travel must be between April 20 and June 11.
Manila, Cebu, Jakarta and Cambodia are also The proposed Birmingham flight would be its
Chris Gray.
included in the sale, with prices starting at £459. GREEK charter carrier Hellenic Imperial Airways first scheduled service and first UK flight.
is in negotiations with Birmingham airport about Its UK representative, Ahmed Chowdhury, said
■ Continental loses $136m in first quarter starting its first flight from the UK. the Birmingham-Athens service would operate
Continental Airlines has reported a first-quarter The carrier plans to start a Birmingham- four times a week, with an Athens-Jeddah
2009 net loss of $136 million, which it blamed Athens service this spring, which would connect connection twice a week.
mainly on business travellers flying less or down- to a service to Jeddah from the Greek capital. On the two days when the Jeddah flight oper-
grading to economy seats. Passenger revenue for It believes there is a market for the route ated, passengers would stay on the aircraft at
the quarter fell 18.8%, or $606 million, compared to Athens among the West Midlands’ Greek Athens while other passengers boarded and the
with the same period last year due to lower fares community. aircraft refuelled, he said.
and passenger traffic declines. Average fares The connection to Jeddah could also be attrac- Flights would leave Birmingham at 6pm.
dropped 7.4% quarter-on-quarter. tive to Birmingham’s sizeable Muslim commu- Fares would start at £199 plus tax return to
nity. The Saudi Arabian city is the gateway to Athens and £350 plus tax return to Jeddah.
■ Flybe to start Leeds/Bradford-Gatwick link Mecca, which Muslims are required to visit once Chowdhury added that the airline had helped
Flybe will start a daily service between Leeds/ in their lifetime. repatriate customers after the collapse of the XL
Bradford and Gatwick on June 29. Flights will Hellenic Imperial was set up three years ago group last year.
operate three times daily on weekdays and twice- to operate charter flights in up to 115 countries A spokeswoman for Birmingham airport said
daily at weekends. One-way fares start at £24.99. in the Mediterranean and Middle East, using four it was in negotiations with Hellenic but no dates
Boeing 747s. for the start of the service had been confirmed.
ttglive.com
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airport news, go to
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Vueling praises
GDSs for sales
SPANISH no-frills airline Vueling has seen its
proportion of sales through travel agents rise to
more than a fifth after joining two GDSs.
The Barcelona-based carrier said total revenue
for the three months to the end of March 2009 Continental Airlines’ Barry Jackson promotes the new inflight entertainment system in its Boeing 757 economy cabins
was ¤83.7 million.
Of this, ¤17.6 million, or 21%, came from travel
agents, compared with ¤9.4 million for the first
Belfast fliers tune
the B757 fleet that operates the Belfast service.
Barry Jackson, Continental area sales man-
three months of 2008.
The airline credited the growth to joining the
in to better TVs
ager for Northern Ireland, said: “Passengers will
find this new entertainment experience much
Amadeus and Galileo systems in October. more user-friendly. Our passengers in Business-
The airline said the rise highlighted the CONTINENTAL Airlines has installed an upgraded First really enjoy the new system and we are sure
benefits of distributing a no-frills carrier’s fares entertainment system on Boeing 757s used on our economy-class passengers will too.”
on traditional distribution systems. its Belfast-New York services. The system features individual seatback video
Vueling made a ¤9.6 million loss for the three The system has been available in the Business- screens in economy class for the first time on the
months to the end of March 2009, compared with First cabins of these aircraft since 2007 and Boeing 757-200, and allows customers to choose
a ¤32.1 million loss in the same period last year. has now been installed in economy class across from up to 25 movies, 25 TV shows and 50 CDs.
24 01.05.2009
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