AirAsia X, Asia’s leading long-haul and low-fare airline, has launched a low-fare campaign for flights arriving into a range of destinations, including London Stansted.

A leading Asian airline is offering low-flare flights to destinations including Stansted

Other destinations include Taipei, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth, Mumbai and New Delhi.

The offer covers travel from April 1 to Aug 11, 2011, according to the budget airline, which will also offer one-way free seats to Mumbai and New Delhi, excluding airport tax.

The firm confirmed that the long-haul flights would also feature redesigned new interior and flat bed premium seats.

Travellers may also be eager to take advantage of airport transfers to destinations such as Heathrow.

AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman-Rani said the promotion gave customers the opportunity to fly a greater range of destinations.

He said: “Would-be travellers can start to plan now and book their flights for next year’s travel plans. They should take advantage of Kuala Lumpur’s status as a gateway to Asia, Australia and Europe.” 

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Staff strikes and volcanic ash cost British Airways £250 million in the three months to June 30, the airline has announced.

While passengers travelling from London to Stansted and Luton airports were also affected by Iceland’s volcanic eruption, BA’s troubles were exacerbated by 22 days of industrial action by cabin crew. 

Its ongoing dispute with the Unite union, combined with almost a week of grounded planes due to closed European airspace in April, sent the airline £164 million into the red. 

Staff strikes and volcanic ash cost British Airways £250 million in the three months to June 30, the airline has announced.

This meant its overall first-quarter revenue dropped 2.3% to hit £1.94 billion, while an 11.2% fall in passenger capacity meant that ticket sales were down 3.4%. 

Chief executive Willie Walsh said that, despite the unresolved cabin crew issues which could see more walkouts in September, BA still expected to break even in 2010 following two years of successive losses. 

In July BA received US regulatory clearance for a transatlantic flight alliance with American Airlines and Iberia and agreed a pension scheme recovery plan with regulators. 

Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson’s airline Virgin Atlantic announced that it made a big operating loss last year but that revenues and passenger numbers rose in the first part of this year. 

Virgin’s group pre-tax operating loss for the period March 2009 to February 2010 was £132 million, compared with a profit of £60 million for March 2008 to February 2009. 

Revenues for 2009/10 decreased 8.6% to £2.35 billion but operating costs reduced 8%. 

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway said: “The start of the year has been encouraging despite difficult trading conditions. Demand is picking up across the majority of our routes and forward bookings for the summer have been very positive. 

“From all of the major operational challenges that we have faced this year – including snow and volcanic ash – the response from everyone at Virgin Atlantic has been outstanding.” 

Copyright © Press Association 2010

Passengers travelling between London and Stansted might want to pick up a copy of the latest must-have novels as they get ready for their holidays abroad.

Eight books have been announced for The Summer Read, a spin off from the TV Book Club that started life on the Richard and Judy show and gained huge popular appeal.

Holidaymakers can get into the mood early by starting their books as they hop on the Stansted Express or head from London to Luton airport, perhaps choosing a Booker prize nominee or a former Reuters reporter to entertain them on their travels.

Since its launch in 2004, many authors featured on the TV Book Club have enjoyed commercial and critical success. The show moved on from Richard and Judy and will be broadcast on More4 every Sunday from June 27.

Presenters Jo Brand and David Spikey will appear for eight episodes, discussing a new book on the list each week with two celebrity presenters and a celebrity guest, starting with The Help, written by Mississippi author Kathryn Stockett.

Travellers between London and Stansted can pick up a recommended summer read

Viewers are able to read along, and the selected novels are tipped to become this season’s bestsellers. Anyone who misses an episode of the Specsavers-sponsored show can tune in to a repeat on Channel 4 on Mondays.

Amanda Ross, who created the orginal TV Book Club, led the panel which chose the eight books from a list provided by UK publishers. She is also the managing director of Cactus TV, which produces the programme in its current format.

Copyright © Press Association 2010

Natural and man-made disruptions hit BAA passenger numbers

The number of travellers from London to Stansted dropped amid the Iceland volcano chaos and strike action by British Airways cabin crew.

The number of passengers through Stansted and Heathrow airport fell during May, according to owners the British Airport Authority (BAA).

Overall passenger numbers for BAA’s six airports across England and Scotland fell 4.5% on May 2009, the body owned by Spanish firm Ferrovial said.

Most affected by the disruptions was Heathrow airport, which lost 320,000 passengers. Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were also hit hard losing 35,000 and 45,000 customers respectively.

Overall passenger traffic fell by 6% at each of the three airports due to the volcano and the strikes, BAA said. 

Without the disruptions, BAA said that it had estimated traffic through Heathrow would have been up 2.8% and up 0.4% for the group as a whole.

Air traffic movements, including cargo traffic, dropped by nearly 5%, the body said. However cargo tonnage increased by 33.7% overall, with Heathrow up by 36.1%, it said.

BAA owns London Heathrow, London Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airport.

British Airways cabin crew walked out for a total of six days during May as part of a long-running industrial dispute.

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Travellers going from London to Stansted and Heathrow airports will soon see the work of promotional space provider Brandspace after the company was chosen to manage experiential activity at both venues.

Brandspace has been awarded an eight-year deal to market branding activity at Stansted and Heathrow airports

Brandspace will market promotional sites at both airports to brand partners after it agreed an eight-year deal with BAA.

Figures show that 89 million people travel through Stansted and Heathrow airports every year, while 4.9 million use airport transfer services such as easyBus.

With travellers spending an average of 2.5 hours at airports per journey, branding activity is seen as hugely important for companies.

Steve Hughes, CEO of Promotion Space Group, of which Brandspace is a subsidiary, said: “Our presence in airports means Brandspace offers brands the opportunity to engage with target audiences in a relaxed environment where they have the time and inclination to interact.”

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We have noticed, that of all the airports in London,  Stansted Airport although not the largest airport in London has a consistent flow of short-break travellers and visitors into the UK. Why? -

Stansted Airport coach station departures and arrivals.

Well, a lot of the European airlines are based out of Stansted, or at least a number of low cost airlines use Stansted Airport as a regular stop-over and a hub. London as a popular tourist destination and the weaker Pound has acted as a magnet to the many Eastern European and Asian tourists who are visiting London. Stansted Airport, one of London’s current five International airports.

The two other airports that may be considered to offer low cost airline traffic are Luton Airport and Gatwick Airport, although growth and flow of travel may not have been as consistent as Stansted.

New online travel agencies and portals are springing up across and within Europe and globally in fact. This fast growth of a new breed of online entrepreneurs and fledgling companies is helping fuel the growth of online travel purchase. With flight purchase comes a demand to get to and from the airport. Matching a cheap flight with a cheap transfer to London and back to the airport means the cost conscious can take advantage of the services easyBus has to offer. Find out more about low cost airport transfers at easyBus.co.uk