Filed under: Breaking News, Business, Low-fare flights, air travel, airlines news, cheap flights, cheapest flights, flights, main, news, perfect flights, travel | Tags: Brussels, Brussels flights, Madrid, Madrid flights, New York, New York flights, Paris, Paris flights, Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo flights
Iberia released a statement earlier saying that these flights had to be cancelled since the carrier couldn’t provide the level of service required by Spanish authorities. It apologised for the inconveniences caused to its customers and promised to do everything to alleviate them.
It added that it had been trying to avoid this situation which it described as an ‘unjustified strike’ and had called on the unions to cancel the strike action.
The second strike action in less than a month by the cabin employees at Iberia, Spain’s flagship airline, has forced the carrier to cancel a series of flights on both Tuesday November 10 and Wednesday the 11th.
The cabin crew unions’ CTA and SITCPLA have called the move due to a pay dispute. October 26 and 27 saw the previous strikes being carried out.
Amongst the flights affected, are the very busy Madrid to London connections, along with the Madrid to Brussels, Paris, Sao Paulo and New York connections. Iberia had to cancel more than 360 flights in total during the two-day strike.
Flights operated by Iberia Regional, Vueling or Air Nostrum in behalf of Iberia with the codes IB5000, IB8000 and IB7000 are not affected by the strikes as well as Canary Islands and Balearic Islands flights.
The strikes were planned after Iberia announced that it was proposing a new strategy to deal with poor demand, declining revenues and increasing losses. The carrier revealed that it had experienced a drop in revenue of 18% during the first six months of the year.
According to Iberia chief operating officer Rafael Sánchez-Lozano, the carrier cannot sustain this situation much longer.
The airline’s plan include early retirement for all members of the cabin staff aged over 55, a hiring freeze, a company wide salary freeze for 2011 and 2012 and laying off about 200 of its ground staff.
Iberia’s stance is similar to several important carriers around the world. British Airways has been exposed with the identical problem particularly with its cabin staff. The airline said it had to reduce the number of cabin crew on each flight, freeze pay and stop hiring in order to deal will lower demand and the dire economic environment. BA officials said that these were the worst economic conditions it had to endure in all its years of existence.
Filed under: Breaking News, Business, Low-fare flights, air travel, airlines news, cheap flights, cheapest flights, flights, main, news, perfect flights, travel
With round trips for about $130, it’ll take off daily at 8:40 a.m. and 4 p.m. and land in the mountain time zone at 9:19 a.m. and 4:39 p.m., Airport Director Marv Esterly said.
SkyWest’s 50 passenger Bombardier CRJ 200 jets will leave Denver at 12:50 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. and touch down here at 3:33 p.m. and 10 p.m. Booking on the United Air Lines Web site, the firm will have 15 employees at Gate 5 and the baggage counter south of Continental Express, Esterly said.
Swartz said supervising the terminal’s projected $4.5 million revamping and bolstering air services will be top priorities next year. With 95 percentfederal grants, the airport’s main runways, Nos. 10-28 and 16R-34L, have just been reconstructed and should be in good shape for a minimum of five years, he said.
The remodeling will entail replacing carpeting with tile, installing 70 new windows on which the seals have broken and other repairs. “We have to have a realistic view of what kind of air service we can expect out of Midland-Odessa in the future,” Swartz said.
“The city should be proactive in forming alliances with carriers to make sure we at least maintain the level of service we have. Cities our size may need to supplement them to some extent, either with services or funding.”
Noting United Express got a $500,000 federal risk abatement grant and $100,000 each from the city and Midland Development Corp., Swartz said Evergreen, Colo., consultant Michael Boyd was right at the first annual West Texas Aviation Summit to say airlines must be dealt with more solicitously.
“Even a minor supplement, if we’re able to do something our neighboring cities aren’t, will probably get us a long way, particularly in this difficult economic cycle,” the real estate developer said. “United Express will be a real winner with the quality of seats and lots of business people.
“They’re the best managed regional jet operator in the country, according to everything I’ve read.”
Denver joins Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston as Midland’s third “major hub” — an unusual number for an airport its size and crucial to reach the Rocky Mountains in 90 minutes and then zip to Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Calgary, Canada, and almost anywhere else.
Other airport board members are Herb Blankinship, Fred Newman, Earl Erdmann, Stephen Hilliard, Mike Owen, Ron Schwisow, Harry Spannaus, Bob Garst and Vice Chairman Dick Campbell.
Permian Basin fliers have been goingeast to Dallas before heading west, Esterly explained. “The more hubs you can get to, the more places open up in the world,” he said, adding the Denver flights must average 70 percent capacity.
“Having business travelers will help us retain the services Mike talked about. New global agreements like Star Alliance and Oneworld connect seamlessly so you can book a ticket on American Airlines, fly to Germany and jump over to Lufthansa.
“In a West Texas airport, we all need to work together to get the word out because it’s use it or lose it,” said Esterly, who is leasing billboards in Abilene, San Angelo, Alpine and Marfa. “We want to fly out but need to connect globally and have even more visitors coming in because there’s less service to divvy up among all the airports.”
Filed under: Breaking News, Business, Low-fare flights, air travel, airlines news, cheap flights, cheapest flights, flights, main, news, perfect flights, travel | Tags: Belgaum, Belgaum flights, india, india flights
At present, no airline is operating from the airport, some 500 km from the Bengaluru greenfield airport, because of low load factor.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Saturday said flights will resume operations from the Sambra airport here in three months.
‘I got complaints that the flights used to operate from here have all stopped services. But within three months, we will see Belgaum is again connected to air services,’ the minister said at the launch of an aerospace precision engineering special economic zone.
Kingfisher Airlines, the only carrier that was operating from the Sambra airport, stopped its services June 17 this year citing low load factor.
This was despite the fact that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is currently upgrading the Belgaum airport.
It is one of the 35 non-metro airports being modernised by AAI at an investment of Rs.12,434 crore.
Airport officials here said land acquisition for developing airport infrastructure has been completed.
However, farmers in the region complain that their fertile land was acquired for the modernisation project.
‘Hasn’t the Airports Authority looked into the feasibility before developing the airport here?’ asked Jagdish Shetty, a resident of Belgaum.
He asked why the authorities acquired land for an airport where no flight operation is taking place.
Besides Belgaum, four new greenfield airports are also coming up in the state — Gulbarga, Bijapur, Hassan and Shimoga.
Filed under: Breaking News, Business, Low-fare flights, air travel, airlines news, cheap flights, flights, main, news, perfect flights, travel | Tags: cheap flights deals, cheapest flights, Riga, riga flights, Vilnius
We searched for flights for a quick city break – London Heathrow to Riga – departing on Monday, October 26, and returning on Wednesday, October 28, and found flights for €345 return including taxes. Book at Air Baltic’s website.
Air Baltic, the Latvian national airline, is marking its 14th birthday with a sale. Book before Monday, 28th September, to land a cheap flight to Eastern Europe.
The cities of Riga, capital of Latvia, and Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, are included in this sale. Depart from London Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Travel between October 19 and December 16.
Filed under: Breaking News, Business, flights, main, news, travel | Tags: Mars, Science, Technology
Asteroids could trump Mars in human exploration if a White House review panel makes the recomendation to delay any attempt to go to Mars over the next 25 years.
Missions to Mars took a back seat to asteroids, or Near Earth Objects in NASA speak, because “we think Mars direct (flight) is not a mission we are prepared to take on technically or financially,” said aerospace veteran Norman Augustine, panel chairman.
During its final planned public meeting held in Washington DC, the Augustine Commission reviewed several options for NASA’s future, including extending the space shuttle to 2015, using the International Space Station until 2020 and sending humans to asteroids using a variant of the large Ares V rocket. The panel seemed to push back from the smaller Ares I rocket.
NASA has been performing low-level Mars mission studies on and off for decades, but renewed interest came in January 2004 when then-President George W. Bush directed the space agency to return to the moon and go on to Mars in the future.
