Brown1950

Air Asia X change to Gatwick now confirmed. Article from todays Travel Weekly :- AirAsia X to switch from Stansted to Gatwick Jul 12, 2011 07:00AM GMT AirAsia X to switch from Stansted to Gatwick AirAsia X is to shift its London base from Stansted to Gatwick from October 2011. The budget long-haul carrier currently flies six times a week between Stansted and Kuala Lumpur where flights feed into the Air Asia low-cost network across Southeast Asia. AirAsia X also operates from Kula Lumpur to Bombay, Delhi, Melbourne, Perth, Christchurch, Wellington and several citie

Soon to be announced is that Air AsiaX will move on 23rd Oct from Stansted to Gatwick.

Qatar Airways now doing flights ex Manchester for £488.00 in Aug/Sept/Oct. Usual 1 to 2 hours layover in Doha. Book direct with Qatar or the usual comparison sites (ie) Kayak. As advised in earlier post with increased capacity from Etihad/Qatar/Emirates is this the first one to break ranks with cheaper fares ???

Here is a promotional video from Thai Airways for the A380 which will enter service next year first to Frankfurt then London. Notice seat pitch in economy reduced to 32inch against present 34inch on B747-400

Contacted 'Dealchecker' and was told :- Flights are with Royal Jordanian ex Heathrow via Amman Availability on 3/7/8/14/20th June only No availability for return in June and July Could not waste my time waiting for return availability - perhaps September ????

Noticed on 'Kayak' website some sub £500 tickets ex Manchester in June with Emirates. Layover in Dubai average 2 hours.

Understand Singapore Airlines will announce shortly the cancellation of Manchester/Munich/Singapore W.E.F Dec 11 No news on SQ future plans ex Manchester but talk is a daily B777 Manchester/Singapore direct.

I stand to be corrected but i have not seen these prices from Manchester since 2 years ago. EY/EK/QR from Manchester even with the increased capacity are presently enjoying a 'bonaza' and filling their boots with loads in excess of 80%. Now understand why the likes of Air India / Jet Airways / Air Asia X are all looking at joining the 'gravy train' at Manchester and Emirates considering a 4th daily departure along with a 2nd daily A380. Perhaps you could be more specific with the Company(s) offering these cheap prices ?

As new A300-300 are delivered understand Air Asia X will use this aircraft with a stop en-route - middle east ?

Expect an announcement soon on Air Asia X starting Manchester/Kuala Lumpur. To commence in 2012 i believe.

Interesting to see the new Emirates morning flight EK021 which started 1st May arrived with 237 passengers (only 3 spare seats) and the afternoon EK 017 arrived with 511 passengers. Won't be long (Sept/Oct 2011 best guess) before another A380 will be introduced and the EK021 A330 will be replaced with a B777-300ER.

Try Oman Air ex Heathrow who have business class for £1476 - 14.40hrs out / 16.00hrs in. Heathrow/Muscat A330-300 Muscat / Bangkok A330-200 Even EvaAir (direct) from Heathrow have business class for £1500 (Bargain)

From Manchester EK018 (A380) should connect with EK385 (A380) From Bangkok EK384 (A380) should connect with EK017 (A380) Layovers in Dubai around 3 hours. Expect to pay extra for A380 flights.

Manchester should also have two A380 daily later this year. Expected evening flight to change from 777-300ER to A380 in September/October.

Article from The Times in 2009 says it all :- The average pay for BA cabin crew is £29,900, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. This compares with an average of £20,200 at easyJet and £14,400 at Virgin Atlantic Airlines. At XL Airways UK crew receive an average of £6,900. But wages among BA’s 13,500 cabin crew are far from uniform. The majority work out of Heathrow, where they earn far more than colleagues at Gatwick. Long-haul staff receive several thousand pounds more than those working short-haul routes. The wages paid to cabin crew on board a single aircra

Latest from Qatar Airways :- Due to technical problems with our booking system, customers may have experienced difficulties booking the 2-for-1 offer. For this reason, Qatar Airways is postponing the special promotion to start on 13 April (00:01hrs) until 14 April (23:59hrs). Qatar Airways will honour all 2-for-1 bookings made to date for this offer. You still stand a chance to win 1 of 100 pairs of economy tickets to a Qatar Airways destination of your choice by signing up below. We sincerely regret any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you at qatarairways.com/100 ve

Qatar Airways press release :- Due to technical problems with our booking engine provider, several airlines are currently experiencing difficulties with their online bookings. Qatar Airways is also affected and is therefore postponing the 48-hour '2 for 1' online ticket offer for one day. The promotion will now be effective from April 7 (00:01 hrs) to April 8 (23:59hrs). Qatar Airways regrets the inconvenience, but will honour all bookings made to date for the offer.

Is this deal only ex Heathrow ??? Would expect later in the year deals from EY/QR/EK especially when they have to fill in excess of 4000 seats daily in/out of Manchester. Will be interesting if/when Air India commence operations from Manchester(strong rumour announcement soon)

57 pilots found drunk on duty in '09-10, 11 lost jobs TNN | Mar 11, 2011, 04.14am IST NEW DELHI: Air travellers would do well to say a little prayer before taking a flight. Pilots faking flying hours was bad enough, but now it turns out there's a reasonable chance of the pilot turning up drunk for duty. And getting away with it. Between January 2009 and November 2010, as many as 57 drunk pilots were detected in random pre-flight medical tests – that is two tipsy pilots every month. Of these, only 11 lost their jobs for endangering passengers; the rest got away with mild punishments

Forgot to mention Emirates have brought forward the start date for the 3rd daily service to 1st May. No doubt the recent announcents from Qatar/Etihad have forced Emiirates to bring forward their schedule.

Emirates have now announced officially the commencement of a 3rd daily flight arrives 0755 departs 0940 A330-200 to be replaced with B777-300ER or A380 later in the year.

EK 0625 -0925 EY 0730 - 0925 QR 0730 - 1000 EK 1145 - 1320 QR 1325 - 1455 EY 1505 - 2105 EK 1825 - 2010 This Autumn Manchester will see a 50% capacity increase =- 4900 seats per day in/out with the middle east carriers. Yes both EK/EY operate from terminal 1.

Starting 1st September Emirates will start 3rd daily flight :- EK 21 arr 0625 EK 22 dep 0925

Cannot see Etihad flying via Heathrow from Manchester - except on a code share ????

Very Interesting times at Manchester Airport with the middle east airlines going 2 x daily (ie) EY 0730 - 0925 QR 0730 - 1000 EK 1145 - 1320 QR 1325 - 1455 EY 1505 - 2105 EK 1825 - 2010 As Emirates are expected to announce a 3rd daily a.m flight soon - starting with a B777-300ER to be replaced with a 2nd A380 - i can see some sub £500 prices (outside the usual peak times) to Bangkok.