2007 Articles

Heathrow 'crucial to long-haul market'

Heathrow Airport is a crucial part of the British long-haul flights sector, which is a growing portion of the travel industry, a spokesperson has claimed.

A representative from BAA Heathrow said that around two-thirds of long-haul flights operate from the London airport.

This is becoming increasingly important as the travel market continues to grow, with Donna Casey claiming that both business flights and transatlantic flights have seen a year-on-year increase in frequency in 2007.
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Kangaroo Route celebrates 60th

Qantas has celebrated the 60th anniversary of the legendary Kangaroo Route, the air connection between Australia and the UK.

The flag-carrying airline's inaugural service between the land down under and the UK departed Sydney on December 1st 1947, bound for London.

Owing to the limited range of the aircraft in operation 60 years ago, it was an ambitious and convoluted journey, which lasted a total of 93 hours, 55 of which were spent in the air.
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Stars return to Chicago

Popular West End production Chicago is set to undergo a number of cast changes and see number of stars return to the stage.

Among the performers to return to the show will be Duncan James, the former member of boy band Blue, who will play the part of Billy Flynn, the role that he filled between July and September this year.

Another star with a pop music connection – Brenda Edwards – will return to the stage to play Mama Morton, after making her West End debut in 2006, according to the London Theatre Guide.
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New Israel flights to launch from Heathrow

British airline bmi has announced that it will boost its network from Heathrow Airport next year, with new flights to the city of Tel Aviv in Israel.

The new service, which will offer 20 seats in business class and 108 in economy, will commence on a non-stop daily basis on March 13th.

Bmi claimed that the route will be coordinated to ensure that passengers can access convenient connections to regional hubs across the UK, including Manchester Airport, Durham Tees Valley, Belfast and Leeds/Bradford Airport.
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Hairspray named best musical

West End show Hairspray, which is currently showing at the Shaftesbury Theatre, was named the best musical at the recent Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

The production, which has been brought to London following its successful run on Broadway, took the award ahead of stiff competition in the form of Parade and Fiddler on the Roof.

Hairspray features a number of top names from British entertainment, including Michael Ball, who plays Edna Turnblad, the mother of the main character, and Mel Smith as Wilbur Turnblad, the father of the family.
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New daily route to Cologne from EMA

Nottingham/East Midlands Airport (EMA) passengers will have access to a new daily route to the German city of Cologne next year.

Bmi regional announced that it will begin operating the route from the East Midlands to Cologne from February 11th.

Direct services will leave Nottingham six times a week, replacing the route that used to be served by low-cost carrier easyJet.
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Plans to link Heathrow to Paris

Heathrow Airport passengers could find themselves with a wider choice of options for travel to Europe in the future, with plans drawn up for a rail service linking the hub to Paris.

Influential engineering firm Arup is set to launch the proposals, which could bring Heathrow within two-and-a-half hours of Paris by train.

The plans are still at an embryonic stage, however, and have no official government backing.
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Gatwick 'most popular British airport'

Gatwick Airport is the most popular British travel base among holidaymakers from the UK, according to the Telegraph Travel Awards 2007.

Readers of the newspaper voted Gatwick their top UK hub, followed by Manchester Airport and Birmingham Airport.

The most popular destination for international travellers this year was New Zealand, according to the award results, followed by island nation the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, and Australia.
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Flybe launches new routes for summer '08

Flybe has released details of its network for summer 2008 and confirmed that it will be launching 23 new routes across the UK and Europe.

Over seven million seats will go on sale and among the regional highlights in the network are nine additional routes from Cardiff Airport, Inverness Airport and the Isle of Man.

Inverness will be part of a substantial expansion in Scotland - along with Aberdeen Airport, Edinburgh and Glasgow Airport - with Flybe launching a total of 12 new routes from these bases.
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Govt minister helps launch Birmingham masterplan

Government minister Jim Fitzpatrick joined officials from Birmingham Airport on November 29th to launch the hub's 'masterplan' for its development over coming years.

The strategy outlines how Birmingham can meet the demand of regional passengers in the future while remaining sustainable.

One of the targets outlined by the plans is to have 25 per cent of all people travelling to Birmingham Airport via public transport by 2012.
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Edinburgh 'needs 1,500 new rooms in 5 years'

City planners have warned that the rising number of people travelling through Edinburgh Airport will necessitate an extra 1,500 hotel rooms by 2013.

Passenger traffic at Edinburgh is expected to climb from 8.9 million people a year now to around 13 million in 2013, the Scotsman reports.

More than 1,500 new hotel rooms will be needed near the airport to cope with this increase, planners said, while a further 2,100 will be required by 2030.
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