Up in the Air . . .

AER Lingus has unveiled its new livery and brand as it seeks to further expand its transatlantic awareness.

The new logo retains but restyles the Irish shamrock, adding a tilt to symbolise dynamism and speed, with heart-shaped leaves reflecting the warmth and hospitality of the brand, according to Aer Lingus.

Guests will see four shamrocks on the new livery. The first is within the new logo, the second sits on the tailfin, a third welcomes guests at the door, and a final surprise on the wingtip is in prime position for capturing on social media.



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Picture Credit: Aer Lingus press release

Cork underground in Paris

ADS highlighting Cork are running in the metro stations of Paris right now – part of a new Tourism Ireland campaign in conjunction with Aer Lingus and Cork Airport, to promote flights from Paris to Cork and to grow French tourist numbers to the South of Ireland this year.

The ads are running on around 137 screens in the metro stations across the French capital and will be seen by more than 10 million people. The campaign also includes online advertising on popular websites – highlighting Cork Airport as an important gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East.

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Aer Lingus extra daily flight from Cork to London Heathrow

THIS summer there will be five daily services from Cork to London from Monday to Saturday. The extra daily flights will run from Monday 19 June until Saturday 26 August. 

The extra flight will leave London Heathrow for Cork at 12 noon and arrive at 13.20. The return afternoon flight will depart from Cork at 14.30 and touch down in London Heathrow at 16:00.

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Up in the air . . .

Skytrax World Airline Awards has rated Aer Lingus 4-stars, making it the first and only Irish airline to receive such a prestigious rating. The award was given in recognition of consistent quality and excellent guest experience.

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Ireland-New England flights

AER LINGUS will launch its first direct flight from Dublin to Hartford Bradley International Airport in #Connecticut on September 28. 

This new four times weekly service will position Hartford as New England’s second international gateway, alongside Boston Airport.

Not only does Aer Lingus open up a direct route to New England for Irish travellers, but Brits can also reap the benefits of flying this route by clearing US customs in Ireland before arriving in the US.

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Picture Credit: 10159247@N04/10302198553">Fall Folliage in New England</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com

Up in the air …

AER LINGUS has launched an express bag drop service designed to make travel as seamless as possible. It enables travellers to self-tag and check-in their bags once they have their boarding card printed or downloaded to their mobile device. In a matter of minutes or even seconds, Aer Lingus passengers can complete the check-in process, deposit their bag, and proceed towards departures. The Aer Lingus check-in area at Dublin airport has more than 40 self-service express bag drop kiosks.

THE ANNUAL ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards have been announced. London City Airport was highly commended in the ‘under 5 million passenger’ category, while the winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Glasgow Airport.

The highly commended airport in the ’10-25 million passenger’ category was Edinburgh. In the ‘over 25 million passengers’ category, London Heathrow was the winner, and the Accessible Airport Award was won by Dublin.

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Up in the air . . .

KLM and Aer Lingus are to launch direct daily flights between Dublin and Amsterdam.

CANADIAN airline Air Transat will increase the number of flights from the UK to Toronto next winter by offering a daily service from November to April. London Gatwick to Vancouver also gets a second weekly flight commencing in December.

LOW-COST Cyprus airline Cobalt – funded by local and Chinese investors – is preparing for its first take-off in July. The company’s CEO, Andrew Pyne, says he want to turn Larnaca Airport into a regional hub serving Europe and Middle East. The airline will start with five planes – for flights to Britain, Greece, and Ireland – with plans to have ten by the end of 2017.

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Aer Lingus launches Cork-Leeds Bradford flights

AER LINGUS REGIONAL has introduced thrice-weekly flights – operated by Stobart Air – from Leeds Bradford Airport to Cork in southern Ireland.

Tony Hallwood, Leeds Bradford Airport’s aviation development director, said: ‘We expect regional businesses to take advantage of this new route, and for those wanting a short break or holiday, Cork will not disappoint. With great food and lively entertainment, you can be sure of a warm welcome. We expect this route to become a firm favourite for Yorkshire visitors.’

The move comes as Aer Lingus Regional seeks to increase its passenger numbers at Cork by 60,000 in 2016 as part of an expansion under which it had announced two new routes at the airport and re-launches a third at Shannon.

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Up in the air . . .

AER LINGUS REGIONAL, operated by Stobart Air, is to double the frequency of flights between Liverpool and Dublin from May. From May 2 there will be up to four departures a day. Flights will depart early morning, lunchtime, late afternoon, and in the evening, and are timed to connect with Aer Lingus transatlantic flights.

Fares from Liverpool to Dublin start at £19.99 each way including taxes.

ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR has launched its Exotic Car Collection in the UK to give consumers access to some of the world’s most desirable vehicles. Customers can now rent Rolls-Royces, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Ferraris and Bentleys from a specialist Enterprise branch at Heathrow, for delivery anywhere in the UK.

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La Manga Club set for 2016 take-off with Dublin flights

FROM MARCH 27, Aer Lingus will operate four flights a week from Dublin to Murcia-San Javier airport, which is a 20-minute drive away from the multi award-winning #LaMangaClub sports resort. 

In an area three times the size of Monaco, the resort's facilities include: 

• Three 18-hole #golf courses and a nine-hole academy course, 
• A Leadbetter golf academy – the only one of its kind in mainland Spain 
• A 28-court #tennis centre 
• Eight full-size football pitches

Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey was among the thousands of golfers to enjoy a golf holiday at the resort last summer. ‘I played the north and south courses again and they strike a really good balance between providing a challenge and being fair. The climate is perfect, the facilities are top-class and it all makes for a great golfing experience for those who want to get away from the unpredictable British and Irish weather.’

The resort's other facilities include a high performance sports centre, a spa and fitness complex, a five-star hotel, four-star serviced apartments and townhouses, and more than 20 bars and restaurants.

www.lamangaclub.com

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Up in the air . . .

RYANAIR has announced the launch of its summer 2016 schedule from Leeds Bradford Airport, offering 20 routes including to Lanzarote, Malaga, and Venice. The airline has also announced increased flight frequencies across four routes to meet passenger demand. Ryanair will now provide more flights to Alicante (increased to six weekly), Gdansk (increased to four weekly), Palma (daily), and Pisa (twice weekly). 

AER LINGUS REGIONAL is to offer flights from to Cork, Ireland, to Southampton Airport from March 2016. There will be up to five flights per week between Cork and Southampton, and they will be operated by Stobart Air.

JET2HOLIDAYS is to begin rolling out an in-hotel flight check-in service after a trial indicated it would influence which hotels customers select in the future. The service gives holidaymakers the opportunity to take their passport to their hotel reception and check in for their flight home before leaving for the airport. Members of the hotel’s reception staff print tags for their customers’ suitcases which are delivered to the airport separately. The tour operator began the trial at 10 hotels in Benidorm in April and it has seen a 90% take up. The service will be extended to Alicante this winter.

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Aer Lingus re-launches loyalty programme

AER LINGUS is to re-launch its loyalty programme next spring.

Re-named AerClub, it will be the first Irish airline loyalty programme to give members the opportunity to collect Avios reward points not only by booking flights on Aer Lingus and airline partners, but also on purchases from a range of brands including retail, hotels, and car hire, across Europe and North America.

A tier membership structure will give members the opportunity to earn points based on frequency of travel and spend on Aer Lingus.

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More flights to Palma

MAJORCA’S capital city is becoming more accessible as a year-round destination thanks to increased flight connections from the UK. 

Jet2 will start its flight operation from Leeds, Manchester, and Edinburgh from February and March 2016.

Flights from Manchester will start on February 11 twice a week on Thursdays and Mondays, with an increase to three times a week from the March 5 before launching its normal summer schedule of 20 flights a week from May. From Leeds, the route will start on February 26 with two flights a week on Friday and Monday before increasing to the normal summer schedule of 12 times a week. Edinburgh's flights will start on March 3 twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, increasing to five times a week during the summer months.

For summer 2016 the following airlines have announced an increase in their Palma flights:

Ryanair will increase its operations by 25% from Birmingham Airport with 21 new routes including an increase on its Palma operation from one daily flight to nine times a week.

Vueling will increase the number of seats from Cardiff airport to Palma to three times a week from the March, operating on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday with daily flights between June and September.

Aer Lingus will increase its flights from two to five per week from Belfast, operating on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

www.visitpalma.com

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Picture Credit: "Forn Teatre" by Dgcampos - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Flying with kids?

WITH the school summer holiday period approaching, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has compared facilities available for parents travelling with infants and children on major airlines. The research is available in a comprehensive guide that can be found in the Know Before You Go section of the APH website … at www.aph.com/childrensfacilities. 

The research compares the facilities for infants and children across 20 major airlines including Aer Lingus, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Virgin Atlantic, highlighting the on-board changing facilities, children's meals, difference in cost for a child's ticket, and the rules for children when travelling unaccompanied.

Of the 20 airlines researched, nine airlines charge an infant fare when sitting on a parent's lap at 10% of an adult fare, whereas the remaining 11 airlines allow infants to travel on an adult's lap at no additional cost. Meanwhile, for a child's fare, the rates differ depending on the airline. For example, for travellers flying with American Airlines, a child's fare is 25% of an adult's fare, but with Atlantic Airways, it’s 50%.

www.aph.com 

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Aer Lingus launches Washington D.C.-Dublin flights

AER LINGUS has started a non-stop service between Washington D.C. and Dublin, running four flights a week,

The airline is also increasing summer capacity on other transatlantic routes for summer 2015, including:

• A daily flight from San Francisco to Dublin
• The introduction of a third daily flight from New York to Dublin from June   through August
• An increase in frequency on the Orlando to Dublin route from three to four flights per week
• A 20% increase in capacity on the Boston-Shannon route for 12 weeks in the peak summer period, June through August

Non-stop flights from Dublin to Washington offer passengers the convenience of clearing customs and immigration pre-departure.

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Picture Credit: Aerlingus.a320-200.ei-cvb. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

Consumer rights violation lands three airlines in trouble

AT least three airlines are facing legal action over passenger handling complaints after being hit by flight disruptions. 

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said Ireland’s Aer Lingus, Britain’s Jet2 and Hungary’s Wizz Air have failed to change their consumer policies in line with its requests.

Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA, said passengers had ‘every right to be disappointed’ by the airlines.

The move follows a six-month review of passenger disruption policies. It examined how airlines handle compensation for flight delays and offer information to passengers about their rights. The CAA said it has launched enforcement action against the three airlines and will seek a court order unless they comply.

The allegations are:

- Jet2 and Wizz Air have failed to satisfy the regulator that they are consistently paying compensation for disruption caused by technical faults, despite a Court of Appeal ruling clarifying that airlines must do so.

- Aer Lingus and Jet2 have failed to give satisfactory evidence that they pro-actively provide passengers with information about their rights in line with the requirements set out in European regulation.

- Jet2 and Wizz Air are imposing two-year time limits for passengers to take compensation claims to the court, despite a Court of Appeal ruling that passengers should have up to six years to take a claim to court.


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Up in the air …

Qantas tops for safety … QANTAS is the world’s safest airline, according to the annual report by AirlineRatings.com.

The website monitors the safety records of almost 450 airlines worldwide, taking into account a variety of factors such as safety records, aircraft type, and government audits.

The Australian airline has remained fatality-free since the dawn of the jet era. Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines also featured in the top 10.

‘Our top 10 safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation,’ said AirlineRatings.com’s editor, Geoffrey Thomas. ‘These airlines are a byword for excellence.’

AirlineRatings.com has also identified the ten safest low-cost carriers. These are (in alphabetical order): Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, Icelandair, JetBlue, Jetstar, Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, and WestJet.

Up in the air … for just 20 minutes … AIR BERLIN subsidiary Niki is to start flights between Vienna, Austria and Bratislava in Slovakia, with Austrian state broadcaster ORF claiming it will be the shortest commercial route in the world.

The flight between the capitals of Austria and Slovakia is reported to cover 31 miles in 20 minutes, leading some observers to question whether it would be faster to drive or take a bus.

Niki says the route is aimed at Slovakians taking connecting flights from Vienna.

Norwegian numbers up … NORWEGIAN AIR has seen a three million increase in passenger numbers in 2014 compared to the previous year. The carrier reached almost 24 million passengers in 2014 as it launched new routes from Britain to the US and Spain.

Aer Lingus v Ryanair …. TOTAL Aer Lingus passenger numbers declined by 3.8% last month in contrast to a 20% rise by its Irish rival Ryanair.

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Southampton to the States, via Dublin

FLYBE has signed a codeshare agreement with Aer Lingus for flights from Southampton Airport. This enables Southampton passengers to access, via a single stop in Dublin, a wider range of destinations across North America including Boston, New York, Toronto, Orlando, and Chicago.

Customers need to book their flight via the Aer Lingus website or through local travel agents and, with just one airline ticket, they can enjoy seamless onward flights through Dublin. The added benefit is that Dublin Airport also provides US Customs pre-clearance, meaning that passengers arrive in the United States as a 'domestic passenger' and can proceed straight through to arrivals at their destination, by-passing lengthy US Customs and Immigration queues.

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Up in the air …

POTENTIAL pilots with no flying experience ... are being offered the chance to train to fly Virgin Atlantic long-haul aircraft. An 18-month pilot training programme has been launched by the airline in conjunction with Southampton-based training firm CTC Aviation. Would-be pilots will undergo pre-flight training and flight deck simulation in Southampton and flight training in Phoenix, Arizona. The course leads to the Civil Aviation Authority's multi pilot licence and a position as a Virgin Atlantic co-pilot on Airbus A330s. Applicants are required to have a minimum of five GCSEs or equivalent including maths, science and English.

AER LINGUS passengers flying from Bristol to Washington DC are being given the option to fast-track their journey via Dublin. Pre-clearance at Dublin Airport by US Customs and Border staff means travellers from south-west England will be able to avoid delays of up to two hours at security checks on entry to America. The service is being introduced as a result of a link by Aer Lingus Regional from Bristol to Dublin, which will connect to Aer Lingus’s new four-times-a-week Dublin to Washington-Dulles service from May next year.

EASYJET is to start direct scheduled flights between Bristol and Gibraltar next year, making it the only airline to serve the route. The year-round service will take off from Bristol on its inaugural flight on April 19, flying up to three times a week. More than 19,000 seats are available on the new flights for the summer from April 19 to September 6. The Bristol-Gibraltar flights are on sale now at www.easyjet.com.

BRITISH AIRWAYS has announced an additional flight from London to Tobago from spring next year.

The route will be operated with a stop in Antigua, but the airline said it would be interested in offering a non-stop operation.




AMERICAN AIRLINES is increasing its daily Heathrow-LA flights from three to four, as from next March.




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Picture Credit: 'Boeing 747-400 Simulator' by NASA Ames Research Center - Human Systems Integration Division (nasaimages.org) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; "HalfPennyBridge" via Wikimedia Commons; "Rock of Gibraltar seen from Punta Carnero" via Wikimedia Commons; Pidgeon Point, Tobago: "Boccoo2-2005" by Reinhard Jahn via Wikimedia Commons; "LA Skyline Mountains2" by Nserrano via Wikimedia Commons