Jet to the sun

Manchester has a new route to Majorca with the news that Jet2.com will start daily flights to the Spanish resort next year.

Flights to Palma Majorca will begin in the summer and tickets will be priced from £31 one way, inclusive of taxes.

Philip Meeson, boss of Jet2.com, said: “Ever since we started operating from Manchester, people have been asking us for a low cost services to Palma.

“It is a hugely popular holiday destination and now we’re offering people the opportunity to book their low cost holiday, today.”

ABTA fears for EUJet passengers

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) say that people who have bought tickets for flights on EUJet may never see their money again.

Passengers with future bookings, of which there could be in excess of 50,000, are unlikely to receive any form of refund unless they have used a credit card and paid more than £100.

A nose for footie

With the World Cup heading to Germany next year, Lufthansa is getting into the spirit with a footie nose cone for its planes.

The national carrier has painted a football on the tip of its Airbus A340-300 giving the semblance of a ball above the clouds.

“The Lufthansa aircraft with the football nose will act as football’s ambassadors inviting all to enjoy their stay here," said airline’s Thierry Antinori.

EUJet cancels all flights

LOW cost airline EUJet has ceased all operations and flights with around 5,000 people believed stranded at airports across Europe.

More flights to Madrid

easyJet will be flying three times a day, Monday to Friday, from London Gatwick to Madrid.

The airline will start the extra flights on October 31, 2005 and now offers five flights daily to the Spanish capital from two London airports, Gatwick and Luton.

New lounge at Southampton

Southampton Airport has opened its £5million redeveloped departure lounge that now offers wifi access, new catering facilities and views of the runway.

The new balcony level departure lounge, with a glass staircase leading up to it, has tiny coloured lights embedded onto the handrail.

Steve Thurston, the airport’s development manager, said: “The architecture and design is in keeping with the character of Southampton Airport, and compliments our existing structure.”

Bomb blasts at Sharm al-Sheikh

A series of bomb blasts have killed at least 75 people in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh. The bombs struck the Movenpick Hotel, the Ghazala Gardens hotel and the Old Market area.

The UK Foreign Office has released a telephone number for those worried about family and friends in the region. Tel: 0207 008 0000

Malaga link for airports

Monarch Scheduled will start flights to Malaga from Blackpool, Newquay and even Aberdeen, the first international low cost flight for the Scottish airport.

A daily service will be provided to Blackpool, a four times a week service to Aberdeen and Newquay will be served three times a week.

Pisa service set for off

Ryanair has announced the start of new services from Pisa Airport with flights to Dublin, Eindhoven and Alghero.

Pisa is now the low cost airlines 14th European base and brings the number of flights on offer from the airport to ten.

The service to Dublin will start on October 10, whilst next year (January 12, 2006) will see the start of flights to the Dutch city of Eindhoven and Alghero, in Sardinia.

Teenager starts own airline

A teenager from Liverpool has started his own no-frills airline offering travellers flights to the sun.

Daniel Reilly, of Maghull on Merseyside, set up Nexus Airlines in his bedroom after finding inspiration from a school project.

Now 18-year-old Daniel intends to offer routes to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura from Liverpool starting in November.

Innsbruck ski link

British Airways franchise partner, GB Airways, will start direct flights from London Gatwick to Innsbruck, Austria this winter.

The airline will fly five times a week starting December 17, 2005 throughout the ski season and continue with two flights a week in summer 2006.

Heading to the World Cup

Jet2.com are to fly a rather special England squad to the World Cup next week that is being held in Scotland.

The airline will carry the England team that will take part in the Homeless World Cup, as they join 31 other countries for the annual competition.

The squad is managed by The Big Issue in the North magazine and is trained by Manchester United Football Club, and they are hoping to improve on their runners-up position when the event was run in Graz, Austria in 2003.

EasyJet start six new flights

It's now easyJet's turn to announce a number of new routes after Ryanair’s recent decision to launch a range of new flights.

EasyJet has said it will start six new routes from a number of airports in its network, with first off Gatwick now providing flights to Murcia and Grenoble.

Eight new routes from Ryanair

Ryanair has unveiled eight new routes from UK airports in its winter schedule taking in Poland, France, Norway and Latvia.

The low cost airline will start daily flights from London Stansted to Toulon in the South of France and Krakow in Poland.

Ryanair also unveiled four new routes from its Liverpool base to Oslo, Riga, Carcassonne and Bergerac, as well as a new route from Newcastle to Oslo and from Glasgow Prestwick to Krakow.

ICE: In case of emergency

Following the London bombings a campaign has gained pace to use mobile phones as a way for emergency service personnel to identify people.

ICE stands for ‘In Case of Emergency’ and it’s what the emergency services will look for if you’re involved in an accident and have your mobile phone with you.

This straightforward idea was developed by the East Anglian Ambulance Trust and is supported by Vodafone.

Philip is least favourite

Duke of Edinburgh is worst royal travelling companion according to Cheapflights.co.uk

Prince Philip is the royal British travellers would least like to travel with according to a recent poll conducted by leading travel price comparison website, Cheapflights.co.uk. Of the over 10,000 respondents, 22.7% stated that they would rather give the Duke of Edinburgh the royal wave goodbye than be stuck on holiday with him. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, came second in the poll ‘winning’ 19.9% of the vote with Prince Edward gaining third place at 13.3%.

Brussels to get new Berlin link

Virgin Express, the Belgian-based low fare airline, will resume services between Brussels and Berlin-Schönefeld airports from September 5.

In September the Brussels-Berlin route will be flown once a day then from October the frequency will be stepped up to two daily flights.

Neil Burrows, director of Virgin Express, said: “We continued to keep an eye on Berlin-Schönefeld because we acknowledge the importance of this route linking the German capital with the capital of the European Union.

“In recent years, Schönefeld Airport has developed into one of the major low cost airports in Europe and public transport between the airport and the centre of Berlin has greatly improved.”

Sunshine flights from Thomsonfly

Travellers keen to enjoy a dash of winter sun will be pleased to hear that Thomsonfly.com has started flight to the Canary Islands.

The low cost airline will operate flights to Tenerife from Bournemouth and Doncaster, and Gran Canaria from Doncaster.

Winter flights from Flybe

Low-cost airline Flybe will start winter flights to France from two UK regional airports later this year.

Flybe will offer passengers the chance to get to Alpine ski resorts from both Exeter and Norwich airports with the launch of a service to Chambéry Airport, in the Savoie.

Flights from Norwich will start on December 17, 2005 and flights from Exeter will start on December 24.

New Ryanair flights to Ireland

Low-cost operator Ryanair has announced two new routes from its Shannon base to Bristol and Nantes.

The new route to Bristol will start daily on October 30, 2005 and the new route to Nantes will operate three times a week from 1st November 2005.

Boost to Bristol from easyJet

Bristol Airport has received a major boost with the announcement of the launch of three new routes from easyJet.

The airport will be able to offer flights to Inverness in Scotland, Murcia in Spain and Pisa in Italy, making it the airline's largest UK base outside of London.

Each route will offer a daily service with tickets starting at £30.98 return to Inverness and £40.98 return for Pisa and Murcia.

Belfast link to sun

Jet2.com has announced the start of a new route between Belfast and Spain set for launch next year.

The cut-price airline will begin flights between Belfast Airport and Murcia (Alicante) on Saturdays and Sundays for July, August and September 2006.

Philip Meeson, head of Jet2.com, said: “This area of Spain is hugely popular with tourists from both Northern Ireland and across in the Republic.

“We will be offering genuinely low fares to the Spanish Costas.”