History likes to repeat itself. It did not take long after the dust has settled down after the eruption of Eyafjallajökull, before yet another Icelandic volcano woke up and rumbled. Grímsvötn erupted on Saturday and by now the cloud ash has reached Norway and Scotland causing small disruptions there.
The current situation is very unclear and changing. The ash cloud is believed to reach Sweden by Tuesday but the forecast are not always precise – e.g. the Norwegian aviation authorities did not expect the cloud to reach Norway so quickly.
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Slawomir Budziak Airlines, bmi, British Airways, Europe, Iceland Express, KLM, Natural disasters, News by Continent, SAS
Time and again, the issue of additional charges and fees has been featured in our posts and we were wondering just how justified it is to describe Ryanair or easyJet as low-cost airlines given the total of charges you pay for your flight. Remember the recently introduced fee we wrote about?
In theory, the fee is to make up for the losses incurred by Ryainair as the the carrier has to pay for flight disruptions and cancellations and provide its passengers with assistance. In reality it may be a half-truth because the Irish carrier may even cash in on on the whole thing.
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Slawomir Budziak Airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Europe, Ryanair
It seems as though the market is not yet saturated as far as transatlantic routes are concerned given that some 28 new routes to North-American destinations are either already launched or expected to be in operation in 2011.
Among the airlines to set up routes to US and Canada are e.g. Delta, Air France, Air Berlin, SAS or British Airways. Let us take a look at a few examples of the announced services.
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Slawomir Budziak Air Berlin, Air France, Airlines, British Airways, Europe, LOT Polish Airlines, New Routes, News by Continent, North America, SAS
May 3, 2011 marks the day when the biggest Asian low-cost airline AirAsia reintroduces fuel surcharges on all its routes. Initially, this dynamic carrier abolished fuel surcharges in 2008 but now it is said Airasia has no option but to reintroduce it in order to cover the soaring costs of fuel.
The passengers of British Airways have been affected by the increasing oil prices since February –which is when this British airline last increased its surcharges. Now its clients pay from £12 per journey sector on long-haul flights.
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Slawomir Budziak AirAsia, Airport Dublin, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, Virgin Atlantic
Moving, going to work abroad or maybe just getting away for a prolonged stay? At any rate, the chances are that you will need to take with you more personal belongings than is the case with shorter getaways. As you might have learnt reading our series on baggage policy, the baggage allowances of various carriers leave us basically with two options – restrict what we take with us and pay less, or pack all the stuff we want consequently burning a hole in the budget. But what if you are compelled to take more than allowed? Are excess baggage fees an unpleasant necessity?
The answer is – it does not have to be this way. Have you ever heard the term «unaccompanied baggage»? All it comes down to is sending your luggage as cargo. The crucial thing is to contact the airlines in question and find out their unaccompanied baggage rates. The rates are calculated based on weight, size and route.
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Slawomir Budziak Air France, Baggage - others, British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Tips and hints
Hi there. It is Monday which means it is time for our weekly preview of the latest developments in the world of aviation – new routes and services and other news from the low-cost airlines as well as traditional carriers.
We begin with Iberia which following the expanded codeshare agreement with British Airways is now offering flights to new African and Middle-eastern destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Doha, Bahrain, Muscat , Johannesburg and Cape Town.
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Slawomir Budziak Africa, British Airways, Emirates, Europe, Iberia, New Routes, News by Continent, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, South and Central America, The Middle East, WizzAir
Ripped zips, destroyed handles, smashed boxes, long story short – the problem of damaged baggage is yet another passenger nightmare scenario in addition to lost luggage, delayed and cancelled planes. As is the case with every other aspect of travelling, there is little we can do to prevent random events from happening but we both can and ought to minimize the risk and we should know what to do once we are in trouble.
Why not wrap your bag in foil?
We cannot fail to mention this simple trick. Why not wrap your baggage in plastic foil? You can do that at home or at many airports where such service costs peanuts. If for some reason plastic foil is out of reach, carriers often provide a plastic bag. If this manner you avoid a situation where e.g. bag straps get caught in the conveyor belt mechanism or the zip gets ripped.
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Slawomir Budziak Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, Tips and hints
It appears as though the fears of British Airways passengers have come true. The strike ballot has closed in favour of strike action.
As we have mentioned earlier the threat of strike had been looming for quite some time due to a long-standing and unresolved dispute between the cabin crew and the management.
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Slawomir Budziak Airlines, British Airways, Europe, News by Continent
What would a Monday be without the latest updates. Here you are: new routes and services as well as other news from the low-cost airlines as well as traditional carriers. We begin in Europe.
The national carrier of the UK, British Airways announced it would launch new routes to leisure spots from London City. It concerns both increasing frequency to e.g. Nice, Ibiza or Palma and new routes London City – Faro (as of June 7, 2011) and London City – Malaga (June 8, 2011).
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Slawomir Budziak Airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Iberia, Jetairfly, Nas Air, New Routes, Norwegian
The last couple of days the entire world has been following the recent earthquake in Japan in shock and disbelief. With the death toll increasing, and the nuclear crisis looming over the country, the overall picture of the situation is still unclear.
The population is struggling with power cuts and experiencing the worst crisis since the second world war while the economic activities are seriously disrupted the world’s third largest economy with the biggest companies temporarily closing its sites.
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Slawomir Budziak Asia, British Airways, Natural disasters, News by Continent
