SAS Scandinavian Airlines is boosting frequencies on its Copenhagen to London Heathrow route in reposinse to high passenger demand. The airline will add a seventh daily service between the two cities from 29th March 2009. This takes the total number of flights from London to 9 as there are already 2 daily flights from London City Airport.
Budget carrier Ryanair has hit out at Blackpool Airport for plans to impose a £10 airport development charge on all passengers. The charge, intended to help fund upgrades to the runways, taxiways and apron has been described as an “extremely regressive step” by Ryanair’s Deputy Chief Executive. Ryanair are so opposed to this charge that they will close all routes from the airport from January 2009.
A similar situation has arisen in the Netherlands, where Ryanair has terminated all routes from Maastricht Airport in opposition to an imposed Eco-Tax.
And the drama does not end there… Ryanair may also terminate services to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands if it cannot reach an agreement with the local tourism group to actively promote the island as a tourist destination.
Ryanair is not cutting back entirely – in fact new cheap flights on routes from Gatwick to Gerona and Alicante have been added in December ’08 and a daily route to Weeze will follow in January ’09.
UK budget carrier Jet2 has repositioned its marketing slogan in attempt to reinforce that cheap flights do not equal a poor service. The original branding “The North’s Low Cost Airline” will be removed from aircraft and will be replaced with the slogan “Friendly Low Fares”. The carrier feels that “Friendly Low Fares” better reflects how its customers have described the business.
The carrier is currently expanding its network and has announced 22 new routes across its various UK bases for the summer season, all expected to by typically low cost and superb value.
In Flight News