Air Sylhet Launch Birmingham Service

Air Sylhet has launched its first flights between Birmingham and Amritsar, which has a stopover in Vienna. The first flight took to the skies on Saturday 4th April 2009, departing on time. The new service will operate twice weekly using a Boeing B757-200 aircraft.

Gatwick 14th Hub For FlyBE

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline today announced that it would create a new hub at London Gatwick Airport as well as adding in a new service to Dusseldorf. The new route will start on the 22nd June 2009, and will operate three times a day weekdays, daily on Saturdays and twice daily on Sundays.

Luton Airport Top For Growth

Luton Airport is the number one UK airport for passenger growth, results from the CAA show. It had the largest increase in passenger numbers of any UK airport in the period January - September, with an additional 487,311 passing through the airport, 6.5% up on the previous year. The growth has been fuelled by the launch of a number of new routes to Cyprus, Italy, Poland and Jersey as well as airlines adding frequency to existing destinations.

Aer Lingus To Restart Shannon-Heathrow Service

Aer Lingus has announced it will resume flights between Shannon and Heathrow Airport near London from March of next year after it cancelled the service when it started operations at Belfast. The airline attracted much criticism when it scrapped the flights earlier this year in favour of services between Belfast and Heathrow. However, it now says it will resume twice-daily flights to and from Shannon in March 2009. The decision follows the agreement by staff to accept work practice changes at Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports.

New Aer Lingus Base

Aer Lingus has announced it will opened a new base at London's Gatwick airport as it seeks to shrug off an increasingly hostile takeover bid from Ryanair and grow its own lost-cost business. Four Airbus A320 short haul aircraft will initially be based in Gatwick and that is expected to grow to eight within a year. Aer Lingus will launch the base with four planes in April, flying to Malaga, Munich, Nice, Vienna, Dublin, Knock, Faro and Zurich with some return fares costing £29.99 including taxes. Ryanair's Gatwick destinations include Cork, Shannon, Düsseldorf-Weeze and Alicante.

BmiBaby Announce Cardiff-Mahon

BmiBaby, Cardiff largest low fares airline has announced a new service to Mahon - Menorca. The new service will operate from 21-May-09 to 22-Oct-09, on Thursdays and Sundays replacing Lisbon which has been axed from the schedule. Mahon is currently not served by any other low cost airline from Cardiff International Airport.

Rules Stopped Pilot's Fog Landing

A pilot with 30 years experience told passengers on a flight to Paris from Cardiff that he was returning to the UK because he was not qualified to land in foggy weather. Flybe flight BE1431 from Cardiff was approaching Charles De Gaulle airport on Tuesday when the captain made the announcement over the tannoy to the amazement of the passengers on board. The 62 passengers were put on the next flight to Paris or offered a refund. The Flybe pilot concerned has 30 years commercial aviation experience flying a number of different passenger aircraft types.