In a unique partnership to facilitate travel around Europe, Skywards, Emirates’ frequent flyer programme, and easyJet, Europe’s fourth largest airline, have announced the launch of a redemption agreement of Skywards Miles for flights on easyJet.
Members are now able to use their Skywards Miles to fly with easyJet to over 30 countries across Europe and North Africa.
KLM is to begin a new service from Manston Airport in eastern Kent to Amsterdam Schiphol on the 2nd April.
The Dutch carrier will offer twice daily flights from Manston to Schiphol, from where passengers can then connect to over 150 destinations worldwide. KLM will operate Fokker 70 jets with capacity for up to 80 passengers on the new route. The aircraft will feature both business class and economy.
KLM now offers 17 departure airports in Great Britain from where pasengers can connect, via Amsterdam Schiphol, to the airline’s worldwide route network. The airports are: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Humberside, Inverness, Leeds, London (Heathrow & City),
Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton and now Manston in Kent. Quite a list!
Please note that from Monday 4th February, if you are applying for a new Chinese visa (tourist or business), you must submit both a photocopy of the bio page of your passport and of your last Chinese visa if you have visited before.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
The National reported on Wednesday that dense fog was affecting flight traffic at Dubai International airport, resulting in several flight cancellations and numerous delays.
Some 21 other flights were diverted to other airports.
Airport officials reported that conditions were expected to improve by the afternoon, but passengers should contact airline companies to confirm individual flight times.
Meanwhile, the fog continued to cause problems on the country’s highways, where motorists faced near-zero visibility on roads in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Posted at 0835.
The snow and cold weather continues to affect air and rail travel in both the UK and on mainland Europe.
London Heathrow Airport has released a statement saying that due to low visibility they have again revised their schedule and will be cancelling ten percent of the airport’s operations today (Mon 21st Jan).
Elsewhere in Europe flight schedules are also being affected by local weather conditions at the following airports:
Belgium – Brussels
France – Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris & Toulouse
Germany – Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich & Nuremburg
Great Britain – Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Leedsa Bradford, London City & London Heathrow
Ireland – Dublin
Italy – Bologna & Venice
Netherlands – Amsterdam
Poland – Warsaw
Russia – Moscow
Switzerland – Basel, Geneva, Zurich.
Pretoria — Strike action by the National Transport Movement (NTM) has not impacted operations at South African Airways (SAA), the airline said on Friday.
“There has been no impact whatsoever on SAA’s operations as a result of the strike. We emphasise that no flights have been cancelled or delayed as a result of the industrial action,” said SAA spokesperson Tlali.
Previously the NTM had served a notice to the airline for strike action last Friday.
In December, SAA met with NTM at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to conclude the verification process that would allow the union to be recognised by the airline.
However, the CCMA confirmed that the union has 1,111 members and needed to have 1220 to meet 30% of 4065 employees who are part of the bargaining unit. This therefore confirmed that NTM failed to meet the 30% threshold. This was the reason the NTM remains unrecognised at SAA.
Last week, the airline said it was committed to business-continuity and has a contingency plan to avoid any unnecessary inconvenience to customers.
Published today at 0835.
We have already made plans to deal with the potential disruption to people’s travel plans today, and over the weekend, and the knock-on effect it will have on our ability to help them.
We have approximately half of our team in the office already and the other half working remotely from home, therefore, it is business as usual for us.
Please also bear in mind that our out-of-hours team will see a big increase in the number of calls they receive tonight and over the weekend. Please contact us by 6pm tonight, if at all possible, in order to help alleviate the pressure.
This update published at 0817.
Currently Bristol, Cardiff & Southampton airports are closed. As the snow moves eastwards airports in the London area are making plans to cope with the disruption.
Some airlines, such as British Airways, have made a change to their normal rules and are allowing some passengers to make changes to their flights free-of-charge.
Please also bear in mind that rail services, including Eurostar, will be affected today and over the weekend.
Here we go again!
The following additional airports are now experiencing delays due to local situations:
Update as of 11.50am (UK GMT)
|
City |
Note |
|
Nice / NCE (FR) |
Weather Issues |
|
Porto / OPO (PT) |
n/a |
|
Zurich / ZRH (CH) |
Weather Issues |
|
Frankfurt / FRA (DE) |
Weather Issues |
|
Bologna / BLQ (IT) |
n/a |
|
Stuttgart / STR (DE) |
Weather Issues |
From media reports: Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Thursday that airline and rail workers were planning to strike on 18th January over unmet union recognition demands.
Some 1,300 South African Airways staff and about 3,3000 workers at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa were planning to strike beginning Friday.
Most of the airline staffers work in technical, cargo, and ground staff capacities, and the strike impact on air traffic is not currently known.
The workers are demanding that state-owned employers recognize the National Transport Movement union as the majority staff representative, the news source indicated.
