March 2009
Airline News
- Qantas Welcomes the A380 to London
- New SWISS connections from London
- Scheduled Services Return to Kent with Flybe
- bmi announce new flights to Kiev
Qantas Welcomes the A380 to London
The newest addition to the Qantas fleet operated its first commercial service from Heathrow to Sydney, via Singapore, on 17th January.
Qantas has always been a leader in long haul travel and continues to be at the forefront of this new era in air travel. This revolutionary new aircraft offers improved efficiency and operating savings, as well as environmental improvements.
The A380 is the largest and most technologically advanced aircraft ever built. It offers significant improvements in terms of environmental performance, including reduced fuel consumption and emissions, greater efficiency and less noise.
With only 450 seats on board, the Qantas A380 offers more space for every passenger, configured across four classes:
- First Class – 14 luxurious and spacious suites offering exclusive comforts and technology
- Business Class – 72 new fully-flat Skybed sleeper seats, with upper deck privacy and an onboard lounge
- Premium Economy Class – 32 extra wide seats with greater recline and legroom in the privacy of an upper desk cabin
- Economy Class – 332 state-of-the-art seats, self-service snack bars and an extensive range of entertainment options
Qantas will initially operate three return A380 services each week between London and Sydney via Singapore departing London on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and departing Sydney on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Qantas operates 28 return services per week between Australia and the UK.
New SWISS connections from London
Due to enhanced departure times in Zurich, SWISS are now able to offer two new connections from London:
- London City - Mumbai
- London Heathrow - St. Petersburg
In addition, Lyon will soon be joining Paris and Nice as SWISS’s French destinations. The new service of four daily frequencies will be introduced with the start of the 2009 summer schedules on 29 March, and will be operated using Avro RJ100 equipment.
Scheduled Services Return to Kent with Flybe
Scheduled passenger flights are returning to Kent International Airport, at Manston, this summer with the announcement that Europe’s largest regional airline, Flybe, will be operating weekly flights to Jersey. Passengers will be able to fly to the unspoilt beaches of the largest and most southerly of the Channel Islands, located off the Normandy coast of France, aboard one of Flybe’s 78-seater Q400 aircraft from the May.
bmi announce new flights to Kiev
From the end of March, bmi will be operating a five times a week service from London Heathrow to Kiev, with connections from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Belfast and Dublin.
Connecting business and leisure travellers to the vibrant Ukrainian capital, the airline will offer a Business Class service on the route, with comfortable leather seats and a 50” seat pitch, 16 inches greater than competitors.
All bmi flights operate from London Heathrow Terminal 1.
This announcement follows a series of market-leading initiatives that has seen bmi become the first airline to abolish fuel surcharges on all flights to the UK and European destinations. Bmi was the first British airline to trial the OnAir service offering travellers access to text messages and email and the first airline to offer paperless boarding on selected routes.
