In a customer satisfaction survey involving 9,000 people, carried out between October and November 2008, Which Holiday magazine has BAA’s two principal airports at Heathrow and Gatwick as ‘worst in the UK’. Finishing plumb last was Heathrow’s Terminal 1, with…

Celebrating its 30th year, Air Berlin increased its turnover in 2008 by nearly 7% with an increase in passenger numbers and remains buoyant about prospects for 2009. At a press conference in Berlin, Joachim Hunold, Air Berlin’s Chief Executive Officer,…

March 27, Blagnac, France: Finnair has taken delivery of its first of eight A330-300s to develop its medium and long-haul operation. Powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, the carrier’s new A330 can seat 271 passengers in a two-class cabin (229…

March 27: Virgin Blue, the budget Australian airline, revised its domestic schedule following the decision to mothball five Boeing 737 aircraft from May 7. The airline said the capacity reduction equated to the removal of 28 flights daily from a…

In an open letter to all Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), Alexander ter Kuile, Secretary General of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), has warned about the economic crisis now affecting aviation and its potential impact on CANSO members.…

The Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon, has appointed Dame Deirdre Hutton CBE as Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after an open competition. She is the first woman appointed to the post and will take up the…

Latvian national carrier airBaltic is considering establishing a taxi service to improve the quality of transfers from its base at Riga International Airport to downtown Riga. According to the company there is a high level of dishonesty among existing taxi…

Ryanair will open a new base at Memmingen Airport, approximately 62 miles (100km) from Munich, as it introduces its first connections into the southern German region of Bavaria. It claims in a statement that new routes to Alghero (Sardinia), Alicante,…

European regulators have proposed ending the stringent ‘use it or lose it’ slot-use requirement, easing pressure on airlines during the economic crisis. Current slot rules require an airline to operate its slots on 80% of occasions in each season, or…

US carrier American Airlines has become the first carrier to introduce a winglet-equipped Boeing 767-300ER into passenger operation. The aircraft, N389AA, operated flight AA078 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to London/Heathrow, departing the US city on March 8 and arriving…