Here is the final reminder. The Eurapart cheap flight news pages have now moved to:

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bmibaby has some great offers on at present. Flights to Alicante, Bordeaux, Malaga, Nice, Palma and Perpignan are on offer starting at £19.99 one way, including all taxes and charges. Bmibay flies from nineteen UK airports including London Heathrow and Gatwick, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, Leeds Bradford, Aberdeen , Inverness, Newquay and Birmingham.

Ryanair had hedged 90 percent of its fuel costs at around 49 dollars / barrel crude oil equivalent until tomorrow. It was hoping that the price would have dropped before the end of March. Instead the reality is that crude oil stands at 65 dollars a barrel. The facts are that oil is getting scarcer, political uncertainty is pushing the price higher than it would be in more stable times, but that does not alter the fact that it is rising in price and will continue to do so.
A debate on the BBC Radio 4 this morning was discussing how the UK is likely to miss its self imposed emission targets. Aircraft emissions aren't even counted in those figures.
Getting back to the point though, an expert on the programme stated that taxing aviation fuel would not make much difference to the number of passengers flying as it only made up 10% of the price of a ticket. This is not the case for the low budget airlines though. In 1992, fuel accounted for 10-12 % of Ryanair's cost base. Up until now it has been 36% but will rise significantly next week. Prices rises are inevitable.
Low cost airlines are very sensitive to increasing aviation fuel costs. One of the factors Air Wales cited was the increasing cost of fuel when it pulled its scheduled passenger services. Michael O'Leary CEO of Ryanair predicted a "bloodbath" among the budget carriers some time ago now. He was predicting that the competition between airlines would be the deciding factor. This is unlikely as there are plenty of routes without budget carriers operating on them. Eastern Europe still has plenty of under utilised routes as has North Africa. The real threat to the airlines is the increasing cost of fuel.

Ryanair have added another route bringing the count to my reckoning to 12 new routes in a week. They state on their site that they have added 13 though, so either my maths in poor or they have lost one. Perhaps they mean the new Liverpool to Ballykelly Army base route?
Best get back to the serious work of informing you about the new Glasgow Prestwick to Wroclaw, Poland route. Ryanair will commence flights on the route on 1 August 2006. There will be three rotations per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Germanwings the German low cost airline, has a sale on until 24h00 CET (23h00 UK) on Sunday 2 April 2006. Flights can be booked at 1 euro plus taxes and charges between 15 April 2006 and 31 May 2006. Routes from the airlines German bases included in this offer are:

From/to Cologne: Alicante, Antalya, Gdansk, Dublin, Edinburgh, Gothenborg, Izmir, Krakow, London, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Warsaw, Vienna, Zurich

From/to Stuttgart: Antalya, Izmir, Krakow, London, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna

From/to Berlin: Oslo, Stockholm, Izmir

From/to Hamburg: Izmir, Krakow, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Warsaw

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

We have all heard the story that Ryanair flies to out of the way unheard of airports. This story reported by the BBC proves it to be true. Today a Liverpool to Derry flight, operated by Eirjet on behalf of Ryanair, landed at an Army base on the way to Londonderry Airport.
The 39 passengers were taken by coach to City of Derry Airport in Northern Ireland.
I thought that was what they always did. lol

The emergency evacuation test in Hamburg at the weekend was deemed a success by the European Aviation and Safety Agency (EASA) and the American Federal Aviation Administration, FAA. The evacuation test was the most challenging ever done with an aircraft and the first one ever attempted on a double deck aircraft.
It was completed in 87 seconds. The goal was to be faster than 90 seconds. Only half of the aircraft emergency doors were working and crew and passengers were unaware which ones wouldn't be available beforehand. Just to make it even more interesting it was all done in a dark hangar.

The Airbus A380 is now certified to carry 853 passengers, although the current orders are only to seat about 550 passengers. Emirates have been asking the question though - "What if we fitted them out to carry 850 and entered the long haul low cost market?"

Ryanair today added another 5 routes to its growing route map. Ryanair will serve another five destinations up from its Shannon base. Following delivery of another Boeing 737-800 aircraft in September, which it will base at Shannon the following destinations will be added. They are:

• Biarritz, France
  
• Carcassone, France
• Faro, Portugal
• Krakow, Poland
• Venice, Italy

Aer Arann, the small but growing Irish budget airline will operate a new Cork to Newquay service in May 2006. The timetable isn't finished yet but it will run three flights a week on the route. Aer Arann's route count now stands at 36.
Newquay will be buoyed up by the increasing number of flights being operated from there after being snubbed by Ryanair following an increase in airport charges to develop the airport, a former RAF base.

In announcing the route Micheal O'’Callarain, Marketing Manager, Aer Arann said "“This is our fourth new route from Cork for summer 2006 representing considerable expansion from the Southwest region. We are delighted to be adding Cork to Newquay in Cornwall to our network of UK routes. Newquay is the West Counties beach paradise, with seven miles of sandy beaches and the surfing capital of the UK. We believe it will prove a popular leisure destination from Cork and look forward to working with both airports to develop the service in the coming months."

Blue Air will resume services on its Bucharest to Paris Beauvais route starting 9 May 2006. The flights will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
07:45 Bucharest (Baneasa) - 09:35 Paris (Beauvais)
10:20 Paris (Beauvais) - 14:10 Bucharest (Baneasa)

Cardiff International Airport has just unveiled its plans for growth over the next 25 years. It is rapidly expanding, predicting growth of 22% to 2 million passengers this year. It predicts that there will be 5 million passengers using the airport by 2015 and 8 million passengers by 2030.

It has set out its expansion plans in its draft Master Plan. This will go for public consultation. The airport expects to have limited affect on the local environment as it has good road and rail links, does not require extra land for expansion and flights take off over the sea minimising noise pollution.

What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that airports and airlines can make predictions based on the stupendous growth of air travel due to the low cost boom and predict a four fold increase in traffic by the year 2030. By then oil will be scarce and very expensive. I wonder if they realise that the Earth has only finite resources in terms of fossil fuels etc and that continuous growth assumes unlimited resources.

myair has some really cheap seats on its flights at present. The offer is open until 16h00 CET on 30 March 2006. The cheapest offers being found on their new routes:

• Bologna - Sofia
• Milan Orio al Serio - Sofia
• Milan Orio al Serio - Timisoara
• Venice - Timisoara
• Rome Ciamino - Bucharest
  

These routes are available at 9.99 euros one way, plus taxes and charges for the period 13 April 2006 to 31 May 2006. Domestic routes are also on sale for the same price but for travel taken between 1 April 2006 and 31 May 2006.

Older international routes are on sale from 19.99 one way, plus taxes and charges. The flights must be taken between 1 April 2006 and 31 May 2006.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

Flybe, the Southwest'’s first budget airline has taken a slot at Newquay International Airport and will commence flights to Edinburgh on 27 May 2006. Flights will start at £34.99 one way including taxes and charges. This is the first Scottish connection for the airport that has seen Ryanair slash its services citing the increased airport taxes.
The new route will drastically cut down the travel time from Cornwall to Scotland that can take a full day by rail. It will also allow Scottish surfers to sample the breakers at the UK's mecca for surf.

Mike Rutter, Chief Commercial Officer, Flybe said: "“We have big plans in the South West. Whilst many of our competitors are route cutting and retrenching back to London, Flybe is expanding in the regions and is committed to bringing flights to your door."

"“The new route to Edinburgh shows us responding to consumer demand for a link from the Cornwall to Scotland. The new route will provide a convenient, low cost travel option to the popular UK destination which was previously only accessible by a long and inconvenient train ride. We are committed to delivering on our promise to offer a first class, low fares service from convenient regional airports across the South West."”

Flybe has a sale on at present. Domestic flights start at £19.99 one way fully inclusive of taxes and charges. The remaining domestic routes are on sale at £21.99 one way inclusive. They have also released their Summer 2006 schedule with destinations such as Alicante, Angers, Avignon Provence, Bergerac, Brest Brittany, Cherbourg, Faro, La Rochelle, Malaga, Murcia, Perpignan, Palma being added.

Flybe have also joined easyJet and Ryanair in offering cheap tickets for customers stranded by Air Wales' closure of its scheduled passenger services on 23 April 2006. They are offering tickets from Bristol to Belfast City Airport for £25 one way inclusive of taxes and charges. To be eligible passengers must have Air Wales booking confirmations.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

There will be a general strike in France on Tuesday. It will affect air, domestic rail and metro traffic, but not Eurostar services. French Air Traffic Controllers are on strike from Monday 27 March at 18h00 CET to Wednesday 29 March 06h00 CET. Most airlines have cancelled flights on this day. FlyBe is hoping to operate as near normal service. Jet2 have asked passengers to check in as normal but to expect delays. EasyJet have made mass cancellations.

There will also be a strike at Leeds Bradford Airport on Tuesday 28 March 2006. It is expected to close the runway for two hours but check in and other activity will be able to proceed without disruption.

Aer Lingus, the Irish legacy carrier has a sale on at present. Flights from London to Dublin, Cork and Shannon are on sale for £1 GBP each way, plus taxes and charges. In addition the flights to Dublin from the following Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey, airports are also being sold for £1 each way plus taxes and charges. Aer Lingus is learning to copy Ryanair. Their flights work out a little more expensive than Ryanair. The example I looked up was flight from Liverpool to Dublin in 10 May 2006, returning 11 May 2006. Aer Lingus returned a total price of £33.18 GBP while Ryanair produced £25.18 GBP. Not a lot in it when you consider the seats recline on the Aer Lingus
aircraft!

If you would like to buy some of these offer seats for Aer Lingus then you have a lot more time as the offer is open until 31 May 2006 for travel up to the same date.

* As usual the asterix means that the price advertised is only the price of the seat, not what you will pay to get to your destination.

You are probably aware that air travel damages the environment. Please consider this when booking flights. Have a look at www.climatecare.org for ways of mitigating the adverse effects of your flight.

BA Connect the lower cost British Airways division that has taken over the old CitiExpress service, started operating for real today. I wonder how many other flag carriers will follow also follow suite. Lufthansa has made a determined bid to offer low cost flying with its 99 euro returns. Iberia has expressed an interest in running a low cost airline as has Alitalia. The old saying goes "If you can't beat them, join them".

Lufthansa, Germany's flag carrier is to expand its "betterFly" fares to cover all European Union countries plus Switzerland, Norway and Turkey. BetterFly fares are currently only on offer on German domestic routes at 99 euros (approx £70) return including taxes and charges. Lufthansa saw a growth in traffic on the routes where it introduced the "betterFly" fares, this has prompted an extension of the scheme.

"“After our successful experience on domestic routes in Germany and the launch of our "“betterFly"” fares in Hamburg, we have seen that an attractive starting price can have a very positive effect on the market. We want to make our customers appealing offers and open up further growth for Lufthansa,"” explained Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Lufthansa will sell "“betterFly" fares on 181 routes to 76 destinations in 25 countries. The airline will offer 350,000 tickets a month at the new fare.

The new tickets can be booked from 3 April 2006. There is a 10 euro charge for booking online.

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