Iberia wins award for Madrid Terminal 4 Agora project

Iberia, the Spanish national airline, has won “the best passenger assistance initiative” award at the Future Travel Experiences event in Vancouver. This is in recognition for Iberia‘s Agora project at Madrid’s Terminal 4 – the main hub for the airline, and one of the most modern airport terminals in Europe. The Agora project aims to improve flight punctuality and customer experience, making Terminal...

Virgin Atlantic announces Manchester to London Heathrow route

Virgin Atlantic will fly its first domestic route from the summer 2013 timetable as it begins linking Manchester with London Heathrow multiple times per day. The airline feels that since the sale of bmi British Midland to British Airways/IAG Group earlier this year, this key route has been overlooked and now has a lack of competition. Virgin will therefore deploy Airbus A319 aircraft – the source...

Spotting at Fukuoka Airport

Fukuoka is Japan’s fourth busiest airport, located on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan. The airport is busy with domestic flights from elsewhere in Japan, and due to its enclosed location in amongst the city, it is quite cramped. Fukuoka Airport has three domestic terminals on one side of the single runway, and international terminal and cargo terminal on the opposite side. Almost all...

United Airlines 787s – more routes announced

United Airlines has announced more routes that its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners will fly on. Their first aircraft made a test flight looking resplendent in full United colours earlier this week. They should take delivery of this aircraft in September, with many more to follow. The initial route, previously announced was between Denver and Tokyo Narita (5x weekly, starting 31 March 2013). However,...

Philippine Airlines’ 54 Airbus order

Philippine Airlines has announced a huge order with Airbus for 54 aircraft as part of a major fleet modernization and renewal programme at the airline. The order breaks down into: 34x A321 10x A321neo 10x A330-300 Deliveries will start in 2013, with older types being replaced, and the airline’s domestic and regional network being developed further. The Airbus A330s will allow further long haul...

United Airlines 787 domestic flights

Prior to going into service, United Airlines will flying its first Boeing 787 aircraft (the first one in North America) on a number of domestic routes for the rest of the year in order to increase crew familiarity of the type – and no doubt to get the flying public swooning over it! This is in addition to the previously announced international routes. Here’s a run down of where you can expect...

Welcome to South America – LAN’s 787 arrives

LAN Airlines has taken delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, CC-BBA, becoming the first airline in the Americas to do so. It is also only the fourth airline in the world to take delivery of the type. The aircraft arrived at Santiago de Chile by performing a low pass, before landing and taxiing under a water cannon salute. LAN will fly the 787 Dreamliner from its Santiago base to Buenos Aires...

Thai Airways A380 delivery in September

Thai Airways is to received its first Airbus A380 in September, with entry to service due in October. The aircraft recently appeared in full colours at the Hamburg Finkenwerder facility in Germany, where it had recently flown to for painting. Thai will use their Airbus A380s on routes from Bangkok to European destinations such as Frankfurt and Paris CDG. Initially they will operate to Hong Kong...

Round the world charity trip in seven days

A good friend of mine, Andrew Solum, and British Airways‘ Head of UK & Ireland Sales, Richard Tams, are about to embark upon a fantastic journey in the hope of raising money for charity. Their target is to raise £20,000 for the Comic Relief Flying Start charity, supported by British Airways and aimed at improving the lives of countless children every year. Their challenge? Well, they’ve...

Philippine Airlines wants to build its own Manila Airport

Recent news from the Philippines suggests that national carrier Philippine Airlines, which recently announced a mega order for 54 Airbus aircraft, wants to build its own airport. Given the recent news from Ryanair, who want to buy London Stansted Airport, this seems to be a growing trend. Philippine Airlines would construct a new airport with parallel runways and a terminal dedicated to the airline,...

Will Ryanair buy Stansted Airport?

That’s what recent news stories seems to suggest. Ryanair – who yesterday claimed they’d buy a dog if it was the right price – are looking to take a 25% stake in London Stansted Airport now that BAA has been forced to sell it. Believing that owning a significant stake in arguably its most significant airport would allow it to grow traffic at the airport, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary recently commented...

Bye bye (bmi)baby

Today is the final day of operations for bmibaby. It was launched in 2002 by parent, bmi British Midland International, as a way to compete with the large number of low cost airlines springing up across Europe, and in particular easyJet and Ryanair. The low cost carrier, which operated flights using Boeing 737-300 and -500 aircraft, flew to a number of leisure and city destinations across...

Phuket Airport expansion begins

Phuket Airport in Thailand is bursting at the seams. Its owners, Airports of Thailand, has therefore begun an expansion process to help it cope. The process will be split into three phases, and will be completed by April 2015 if all goes to plan. The first phase is the construction of a new International Terminal. This will be able to handle six million passengers per year, and take the airport’s...

Lindsay Lohan: Negative press is BS

Lindsay Lohan has appeared to stay true to her word that she's serious about turning her public image and career around, landing movie roles and working hard enough to collapse from exhaustion.But that doesn't mean the 26-year-old actress has escaped troubling headlines . In her view, "all of this negative press is BS," Lohan tweeted August 22. "Whenever I'm doing great, people fabricate lies....

Obama: No offense taken at Eastwood speech

(CNN) – President Barack Obama said in an interview published Sunday he took no offense at Clint Eastwood's prime-time address at the Republican National Convention, in which the legendary actor and director posed questions to an empty chair, which he said represented the Democratic incumbent."One thing about being president or running for president - if you're easily offended, you should probably...

Heidi Klum: I've moved on, and so has Seal

Their split has gotten messy in the media, but Heidi Klum is setting the record straight.Anyone hoping for the chance of reconciliation between Klum and her ex Seal should prepare to have those hopes dashed. Klum tells CNN in a statement: “I cherish all of the great memories Seal and I created together over the years. Our separation was based on issues between the two of us. Seal has moved on...

Bradley Cooper on working with Jennifer Lawrence, getting sober

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the hardest working actresses in the business, so it's no surprise that she's managed to squeeze in not one but two films with leading man Bradley Cooper.We caught up with Cooper, the star of this weekend's "The Words," at the film's premiere on Tuesday, and the 37-year-old actor couldn't stop complimenting the 22-year-old "Hunger Games" star. Cooper and Lawrence...

How Katie Holmes keeps perspective

The scrutiny has been intense for Katie Holmes this summer, and the media attention's only going to increase as she prepares for her first presentation at New York Fashion Week with her clothing line, Holmes & Yang.And while it would probably be understandable if she were frustrated by the severe invasion of privacy fame brings, Holmes tells Women's Wear Daily that really, it's not that...

Britney Spears isn't trying to look like Kim K.

Kim Kardashian has gone from "the girl in that sex tape" to reality TV queen and style icon, but there's one pop star who isn't attempting to emulate her.Britney Spears tells Elle magazine in its October issue that her personal style is focused more on comfort than Kardashian-esque sultriness. "I love my jeans and my sweats - I'm really just a tomboy at heart," Spears says. "So it's really...