Lte Airways suspends flights with immediate effect

LTE Airways is forth Spanish low cost carrier to stop flights. In the past few weeks other Spanish carriers; Futura, Lagunair and Flysur also discontinued their services.

At the moment, there is no indication of how the advance reservations or refunds will be handled.

On its website Lte International Airways states:

Lte International Airways S.A. wish to inform you that due to the financial situation of the company, that make it difficult to meet the operational expenses in the next days, we have had to suspend our charter and scheduled operations.
Lte is doing everything to minimize the impact of this suspension of services on its clients and providers. After 20 years operating with maximum dedication to our clients it just was not possible to avoid this situation given world events lately.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to our passengers, clients and suppliers.
Lte International Airways S.A.

Virgin and British Airways cut fuel surcharges

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are reducing fuel surcharges paid by their customers from midnight on October 15th.

In response to falling oil prices Virgin Atlantic yesterday announced the cut in fuel surcharge for its economy and premium economy passengers. Depending on class and a route the flight tickets are going to be cheaper by up to £26.

According to British Airways, its move to cut the fuel surcharges for up to £13 has nothing to do with the price of oil – as British Airways, hedges the cost of fuel to avoid unpredictable price changes.

British Airways plane turned around back to Belgrade

Panic set on a British Airways flight Belgrade and London when passengers smelled foul odour. Fearing a terrorist attack, the captain turned plane around back to Belgrade, where aircraft was evacuated.

After last of the screaming passengers left the plane, the investigators started their examination expecting a leakage of some sort of acidic chemicals. Thankfully, upon further investigation, the source of suspicious odour was narrowed down to a package of curry.

What a curry on!

British Airways increases fares by up to £60

More grim news on flights prices. From 3rd of June, British Airways will increase their surcharges due to soaring fuel prices.

The surcharges on long-haul flights over nine hours will increase by £30 each way and on long-haul flights under nine hours will rise by £15 each way. The short-haul surcharge will rise by £3 per each way.

A380 flying casino

'High-roller' can quite acquire yet another meaning soon, as the Airbus is in talks to create the A380 casino.

Businesses from Asia and U.S. are interested in turning Airbus A380 into a flying casino. "Certain clients of ours have shown their interest," said David Velupillai, marketing director at Airbus executive aviation. "The principle draw of the A380 is that it offers 50% more floor space than a Boeing 747, and if you plan to create something like [a casino], you have enough space."

François Chazelle, Airbus head of the executive and private aviation division stated that should the agreement be reached soon, superjumbo casino could be operational as soon 2012.

Place your hand luggage in overhead storage and your bets on roulette!

More flights to Sicily and Malta

From 4th of April Air Malta will increase the number of flights on London Gatwick – Catania , Sicily adding an extra flight on Fridays.

Similarly, from 1st of May, there will be an extra flight on Fridays to Malta from Manchester.

Heathrow delays to be expected.

A British Airways aircraft, a Boeing 777 flight BA38 from Beijing met difficulties while landing at Heathrow Airport. Passengers are reported to acquire only minor injuries.

The traffic at Heathrow is ongoing, however delays are to be expected.

British Airways has set up a helpline for concerned relatives: 0800 389 4193

Virgin Atlantic to go on biofuel.

Virgin Atlantic will fly one of its Boeing 747 planes on biofuel during a demonstration flight from London to Amsterdam in February.

Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic, said: "This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected. The demonstration flight next month will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. Virgin Group pledged to invest all its profits from its transportation companies towards developing clean energy and with this breakthrough we are well down the path to achieving our goals."

In the middle of 2007, Virgin trains began a six-month trial of a passenger train using biofuel, an experiment the company said could lead it to switch its entire fleet over to a mix of diesel and biofuel.

British Airways new longhaul route to Hyderabad

British Airways is to start flights from Heathrow to the Indian city of Hyderabad from October 27, 2008.

Hyderabad becomes the airline's sixth Indian destination joining Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai on its route network. There will be five flights each week on a Boeing 777 aircraft.

Robert Boyle, British Airways' commercial director, said: "India is our largest market outside North America and, with the Hyderabad route, we will fly there 48 times each week. This is up from 19 flights per week when the UK/India aviation market was liberalised in October 2005.

"Hyderabad has a fast growing economy based on IT, business process outsourcing and biotech industries and we believe that there will be a strong business demand for our flights which will be the only direct services between the city and the UK."