Club Europe now available within the UK

We’re introducing Club Europe, our short haul business class, to flights within the UK and replacing UK Domestic with Euro Traveller as the economy cabin.
This change aligns our cabins across our short haul network and enables travellers connecting to or from a long haul destination to enjoy a consistent premium experience throughout their journey.

Tickets are now available to buy for travel from 1 April 2017.

 

Euro Traveller benefits

When flying in economy, travellers will be able to have the same travel experience as previously in UK Domestic
(Basic and Plus fares). What’s new is that they can now take advantage of the Plus Flex fare that offers:
• ability to choose their seat for free from the moment they book

• more Avios and Tier Points than Basic and Plus

• a full refund if they need to cancel their flight

 

Club Europe benefits

When flying in Club Europe, travellers can now enjoy more benefits than previously with the Business UK fare:

UK weather 02Mar

High winds across parts of the UK and northern Europe will affect some of our short-haul and domestic flights on Thursday 2 March.

Due to the poor weather forecast, it has been agreed between Heathrow Airport, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and airlines using the airport to slightly reduce the number of overall flights in the schedule.

For safety reasons NATS has to allow greater space between landing aircraft in high winds and this has resulted in a reduced number of aircraft being allowed to land each hour at Heathrow.

We are sorry that the weather is likely to lead to some delays and disruption to our schedules.

We will be doing all we can to minimise the effect the high winds have on our operations and will use larger aircraft where possible to help affected customers on any cancelled services get to their destinations on alternative flights.

Latest information

· 10 x Shorthaul roundtrips to be cancelled in the next hour

· Customers will be re-accommodated on the next best available flight

LHR Cancellations Actioned:

TXL – BA996 / BA997

EDI – BA1434 / BA1441

GLA – BA1484 / BA1489

FCO – BA560 / BA559

NCE – BA344 / BA345

FRA – BA906 / BA907

NCL – BA1326 / BA1327

ABZ – BA1310 / BA1311

AMS – BA434 / BA435

BHD – BA1416 / BA1417

 

UK Storm Doris

High winds and stormy conditions are forecast for the UK over the next few days, particularly Scotland and the north of England. The storm that is flowing in from the Atlantic has been named as Storm Doris.

 

For tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd February, strong winds are forecast for London Heathrow which has resulted in a reduced flow rate for aircraft landing at the airport. Please apologise to our customers for the inconvenience to their travel plans, unfortunately the reduction in flow rate will affect all airlines operating at the airport

 

British Airways has just cancelled 5 x roundtrips from tomorrow’s operation, customers will be re-accommodated on the next available flight where possible.

 

The cancelled flights are as follows:-

BA1346 LHR 07:40, LBA 08:40 BA1347 LBA 09:20, LHR 10:35

BA1476 LHR 08:55, GLA 10:25 BA1483 GLA 11:10, LHR 12:40

BA1326 LHR 09:45, NCL 11:00 BA1327 NCL 11:45, LHR 13:05

BA836 LHR 13:15, DUB 14:35 BA837 DUB 15:20, LHR 16:50

BA1448 LHR 14:10, EDI 15:35 BA1455 EDI 16:15, LHR 17:40 

 

There is potential for further disruption as the storm passes over northern UK and across the North Sea

Regards, British Airways

Virgin Atlantic launching a new direct flight between London Heathrow and Barbados

New direct service launches on the 12 December 2017

 

We’re excited to announce that we are launching a direct flight between London Heathrow and Barbados. The new, twice weekly service will launch on 12 December 2017 to help make Christmas in the Caribbean a reality for even more holidaymakers. Flights will go on sale from Monday 27 February.

 

The new flights will operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays as part of the winter 2017 schedule and will be operated on an Airbus A330. This new service means that we will now offer up to 11 Barbados flights per week from three UK Airports (Gatwick, Manchester and Heathrow).

 

In addition Virgin Atlantic’s recently extended codeshare agreement with FlyBe will mean that customers from Scotland can now easily connect from Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports to Barbados via London Heathrow.

 

“The Caribbean has always been a core market for Virgin Atlantic and so we’re excited to announce we’re offering more choice to our customers with the option of flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester direct to Barbados.” – Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic

 

We have seen a strong demand for Upper Class and Premium Economy cabins on Barbados flights which is why we took the opportunity to utilise an A330. This aircraft will be fully configured with 33 Upper Class, 48 Premium Economy and 1185 Economy seats, allowing more customers to experience our award winning service.
 

Lufthansa strikes pay deal with pilots

 

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Lufthansa has struck a deal with pilots to solve a bitter long-running dispute over pay that has cost the airline millions of euros from continued strike action.

The German airline has agreed a new wage agreement that will see around 5,400 pilots receive a four-stage 8.7 per cent pay rise and a one-off payment of around €5,000 – €6,000 per employee.

The dispute has been going on for five years, with around 14 strikes in that period. Originally Lufthansa offered pilots a 2.5 per cent pay increase, which they described as “inadequate” after seeing the basic salary for executive board members rise 30 per cent.

Lufthansa said the deal will cost around €85 million a year. In order to fund this, it said 40 aircraft will operate outside the agreement.

The new agreement will be in place until the end of 2019.

Ground staff strike at Berlin airports prompts hundreds of flight cancellations

Around 200 flights were cancelled ahead of a strike over pay by ground staff at Berlin’s two airports expected to start later on Thursday.

 

There were 146 cancellations at Tegel and 54 at Schoenefeld airports and 12 flights were redirected to other German airports, a spokesman for Berlin’s airports said.

 

Trade union Verdi has called for walk-outs at the two airports from 1500 GMT to 2100 GMT. A strike on Wednesday last week led to more than 130 flights being cancelled.

 

Verdi wants an increase in pay for ground staff to 12 euros an hour from about 11 euros as part of a one-year collective agreement. Ground staff jobs include checking in passengers, loading and unloading planes and directing them on the tarmac. The union described as “insufficient” management’s offer of a four-year deal, which foresees a rise of 1 per cent each year, or about 10 cents an hour.

 

The employers, a group of airport ground services providers, said in a statement the renewed strike was “incomprehensible” as talks were still ongoing. The next round of pay talks is due to take place on Friday.  Berlin’s airports are served by carriers including Air Berlin, Lufthansa, easyJet and Ryanair among others.

Woking Works Business of the Month – Global Travel Management

Global Travel Managment toast_of_surrey_awards

Woking is the home to one of the UK’s leading business travel management companies, Global Travel Management (GTM). GTM were set up in 1997 by husband and wife team Scott and Natalie Pawley, along with Scott’s father Frank Pawley MBE.

Since then, GTM has gone from strength to strength, with Woking proving to be the ideal location for the firm, with its excellent travel links to Heathrow, Central London, the M4 corridor and the Thames Valley region.

In 2016, the company won the Toast of Surrey’s Award for Best Business with a turnover of over £5m. For the second year running, they won the title of Business Travel Agent of the Year, awarded by the UK’s largest independent travel agent group – Advantage Travel Partnership. GTM was also nominated in both the International Trade and Director of the Year categories in the Toast of Surrey 2016 – the only business to have ever achieved a nomination in all three categories. A true success story for Woking!

Virgin Atlantic flight cancellations in April/May

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled a ‘handful’ of flights in April and May, blaming ‘operational constraints’.

 

The airline said flights to and from Atlanta, San Francisco and Orlando will be affected, TravelMole Media Group reports.

 

“We constantly review our flying programme and identified that during a peak period we may face operational constraints,” the airline said.

 

“Rather than risk any delays to customers on the day of travel, we have taken the necessary steps, now, to ensure that we can minimise disruption.

 

“It’s never our intention to disappoint our customers, and we’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change. We’ve offered everyone a choice of alternate flights, or a full refund if they no longer wish to travel.”

 

It said it was working closely with partner Delta Air Lines to accommodate as many customers as possible.

Italy: threat of strike action at airports in Italy, 23 February

Pilots and flight attendants at Alitalia, Citiliner, Air Italy and cabin crew at MeridianaFly plan a 24-hour nationwide strike. The strikes are due to run from 00:01am local time. Italian Ryanair and Volotea crews intend to stage a four-hour strike the same day from 2pm until 6pm local time.
At Bologna Airport, Alpina workers plan… strike action from 11am until 3pm local time.

Workers at Milano MXP Malpensa Airport workers are planning a 24-hour strike.

 

Staff at Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli will plan to strike between 11am and 3pm local time.

 

Aviapartner baggage handlers intend to strike for 24 hours at Turin Airport TRN and Venice Airport.

Ground transportation strike in Barcelona

Taxi drivers and metro workers threaten to go on strike in Barcelona between 27 February and 2 March

 

La Razon reported taxi drivers and metro workers from TMB, the main public transport operator in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, are threatening to go on strike during the next edition of the Mobile World Congress, which will take place in Barcelona from 27 February until 2 March, 2017.

 

Last year Barcelona Metro workers staged a two-day strike coinciding with the biggest mobile industry convention in the world, disrupting thousands of visitors.