Travel News | Travel Advice

Monarch Airlines recently commenced a new route from Birmingham International to the popular tourist destination of Larnaca, Cyprus. This twice-weekly route has sold incredibly well, in fact, it has been the fastest selling route in the airline’s history!

For the summer season Monarch Airlines made 22,000 seats available on this route. Unbelievably over half the seats were sold before the first flight had even taken off.

Monarch Airlines offers cheap flights to 42 destinations around the world, from a variety of UK airports. Its sister company Cosmos Holidays, which has been re-branded as Monarch Holidays offers great value package holidays to these destinations.

Offers currently start at £173 for a European package holiday with Monarch Holidays.

Despite the global economic slowdown, Ethiad Airways, which is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), continues to grow in size and strength.

During 2009 the airline aims to increase its passenger numbers by 15% to a figure around 7 million. To cope with increased passenger numbers the airline plans to increase its fleet by 8 to a total of 50 aircraft. Increases in staff will also be required, and Ethiad plans to employ 15% more staff by the end of the year, bringing the total number of staff to around 8500.

Ethiad currently offers a total of 900 domestic and international flights per week which is an increase of 20% over the same time period last year.

Ethiad Airlines not only offers flights throughout the Middle East region and beyond, but also now offers cheap breaks and holidays in the region.

Icelandair is the latest operator to offer flights from the UK to the USA. It will soon commence flights four times per week between London Heathrow and Seattle. The flight will operate via its Icelandic hub and capital city Reykjavik and provides customers with a cost-effective way of connecting Europe and North America.

The airline will need to offer low cost deals on this particular route as it will be in direct competition with British Airways, which flies directly from Heathrow to Seattle. The duration of the Icelandair flight will be 12.5 hours, whilst the flight with BA takes just 9, so cheaper flight tickets will be the key to success.

As the airline continues to develop and change it has recently entered into a code share agreement with Alaska Airlines for onward flights throughout Canada, the western parts of USA and Alaska.

For the autumn season Iceland Air has revealed plans to reinstate its Reykjavik to Glasgow flight, which will operate twice weekly.

Despite the economic crisis in Iceland, which is forecasting the country’s economy will shrink by around 10% this year, Icelandair sees a positive future ahead and generates just 20% of its revenues in its home nation.

Malaysian based budget carrier AirAsia is showing signs of continuous expansion thanks to the high demand for cheap flights throughout Asia.

From April to the end of the year (2009) the airline is taking delivery of 14 new Airbus A320 aircraft. These new aircraft will mostly be for its Indonesian and Thai affiliate carriers. Expansion throughout Asia is continuing, with AirAsia planning new hubs in the region, in the beach / holiday regions of Phuket in Thailand and Penang in Malaysia, plus two new Indonesian bases of Medan and Bandung.

AirAsia offer incredibly cheap flights throughout the Asia region and its sister airline AirAsia X offer cheap long haul flights, notably London-Kuala Lumpur.

As a reaction to the economic downturn and falling passenger numbers, Aer Lingus has revealed plans to cut flights from its Winter 2009/ 2010 schedule. Flights affected will be from the airlines 2 major bases, Dublin and Belfast.

Winter flights from Belfast to the popular European destinations of Paris, Rome, Milan, Faro and Barcelona will be dropped entirely during the winter months. Passengers will only be able to travel to London Heathrow, Malaga, Murcia, Munich, Lanzarote and Tenerife from Belfast with Aer Lingus and just 2 aircraft will service these destinations.

On a positive note, Aer Lingus has confirmed that no jobs will be lost from Belfast Airport as a result of these cuts, and has also revealed that all cabin crew and pilot’s positions are safe.

Aer Lingus’ main base of Dublin, in Southern Ireland will also see flight withdrawals, but the airline has not yet revealed which are to be removed. Drastic action needs to be taken in order to substantially reduce the airlines’ operating costs. Aer Lingus reported a loss of 120 million Euros in 2008 and looks set to make a further loss in 2009.

Aer Lingus continues to face stiff competition from budget airlines such as Irish carrier Ryanair.