Travel News | Travel Advice

Malaysian budget carrier Air Asia has been one of the most successful low cost airlines in the Asia / Pacific region.

With a strong brand identity, a fleet of young aircraft, sponsorship of UK football team Manchester United and a wide choice of popular routes the Airline has recently been voted “Best Budget Carrier in Asia” in the Airline of the Year Awards by Skytrax.

From its Malaysian Base at Kuala Lumpur’s Low Cost Center KLCC Air Asia offers flights to 51 destinations in 14 countries, those countries being Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Mayanmar, Malaysia, Philippenes, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of its aggressive growth plan Air Asia has also launched Air Asia X, offering cheap long haul travel. It is backing this plan with an order for 25 Airbus A330s, the first of which is to be delivered end October 2008.

Air Asia prides itself on offering a fresh approach to flying and opening up destinations to passengers who may previously thought air travel was beyond their reach.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has launched direct flights from Islamabad to Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBIA) in the North of England.

The twice weekly service is already proving to be very popular and offers passengers an alternative to the well established Manchester - Islamabad route.

Commercial Director at Leeds Bradford, Tony Hallwood, states that it is important for the airport to recognise the significant demand from the north of England to destinations in Pakistan.

The delivery of the first Emirates Airbus A380 was marked with much celebration and hype.

However, few may be aware that this aircraft also marks another first - Emirates claim that their A380 is the worlds first paperless aircraft.

Emirates have been looking at ways to reduce fuel consumption, thus saving costs and reducing their carbon footprint. The weight of all the printed material on an aircraft of this size is considerable (around 1 tonne) so it was decided that all paper should be removed.

Passengers should not worry though - reading material, in-flight magazines, shopping guides etc will be still be available and are offered through the seat back TVs.

Irish Regional airline Aer Arann and the national carrier Aer Lingus have entered into an interline partnership, allowing passengers to fly from Cork in Ireland to the USA with a single booking.

Customers will be able to check-in for Aer Arann’s domestic flights to Dublin at Cork Airport and check their luggage through to any of the 7 destinations offered by Aer Lingus in the USA.

Passengers hoping to travel on the London Gatwick to Reykjavic route with budget carrier Iceland Express will be disappointed to learn that the launch of this route has been delayed.

It was originally hoped that flights would commence from the end of October 2008, but this has been delayed to April 2009.

The budget airline has commented that “although bookings are high it does not want the increase in fuel costs to impact on the ticket prices for our customers”.

When the route is eventually launched it is expected that Iceland Express will operate 5 flights per week on the route, complimenting its existing services to London Stansted.