50 SKY SHADES - World aviation news

United Kingdom aviation news

World’s largest aircraft leaves its hangar for the first time

The world's largest aircraft, known fondly as the 'Flying Bum', left its hangar for the first time today. The Airlander 10, which cost £25million to build over 10 years, is 92 metres long and pumped with a million cubic feet of helium. The part-plane, part-airship left its hangar in Cardington, Bedfordshire at 4am today to commence a brief series of ground systems tests bef...

Flexjet Buys UK-based FlairJet in Euro Expansion Bid

Flexjet Ltd., the UK subsidiary of U.S. based Flexjet, today announced the acquisition of aircraft charter management firm FlairJet from Marshall Aerospace to expand the fractional provider’s footprint into Europe, using a fleet of eight Nextant 400XTis, as well as Flairjet’s existing fleet of seven managed jets. Flexjet, which revealed plans to enter the region this fall at EBACE, wil...

British Helicopter Association President Calls for Post-Brexit Reassurances

The President of the British Helicopter Association, The Lord Glenarthur, has called on the Government to do all in its power to ensure the voice of the UK’s aviation expertise is not wasted, as the country withdraws from the EU.  Speaking during a House of Lords Debate on Tuesday 5thJuly, The Lord Glenarthur said: “A reduction in our influence on aviation regulation will be ma...

Flybe's first ever intra-European flights

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, is celebrating the launch of its first ever intra-European flights with two new routes taking to the skies from Hannover namely daily services to both Lyons and Milan. A VIP event hosted by Hannover Airport and attended by high profile guests including Thomas Hermann, the Mayor of Hannover; Flybe’s Chief Revenue Officer Vincent Hod...

BAE calls for anti-monopoly controls on it to be removed after 17 years

BAE Systems has asked to be freed from anti-monopoly controls it signed up to when the defence giant was created through the merger British Aerospace and Marconi Systems 17 years ago. The FTSE 100 business was saddled with a list of undertakings at the time of the 1999 tie-up as regulators sought to ease concerns about the new company’s dominance of the UK defence market. These restric...

The Astralis Club – The Niche, Luxury International Air-Service

The Astralis Club has announced its plans to launch a highly exclusive and ultra- luxurious international air-services using specially configured, wide-body Boeing 747- 400 aircraft. U.K. based aviation entrepreneur and Astralis Managing Director, Tony Easton AMRAeS said:- “Air travel lost its glamour during the 1960s. Today, the endless queues, delays and fight for space render air trave...

SN-APPY LANDINGS WITH NEW BRITISH AIRWAYS PILOT PHOTO APP

British Airways pilots have developed a new photo app for customers to take away a souvenir cockpit picture from their flight – with Denise Van Outen the first to be ‘sn-apped’. All British Airways’ 4,000 pilots will have the ‘View From The Flight Deck’ app loaded onto their iPads from the start of August to take photos of customers visiting the cockpit befor...

POP sees potential new air cargo opportunities following Brexit

Currently working towards its launch, POP plans to be the first airline to operate non-stop flights between the UK and both Amritsar and Ahmedabad in India’s Punjab and Gujarat states. With the long historical links between the two countries, the POP team see the UK’s decision to leave the European Union as creating potential new opportunities for its planned air ca...

Flybe Continues To Make Progress Despite Tough Conditions

Flybe reports a solid start to the year, with sustained passenger and revenue growth, in a challenging revenue environment with significant yield pressure across the sector driven by a slow-down in demand growth, accelerating industry wide capacity growth and repeated industrial unrest in France which accounts for c12% of Flybe’s seat capacity. Revenue growth continued · 15.5%...

easyJet to recruit more than 1,200 new cabin crew

easyJet, Europe’s leading airline, has announced that it is to recruit more than 1,200 new permanent and fixed-term cabin crew positions as the airline continues its growth. easyJet, which flies more than 250 aircraft on over 820 routes in 31 countries, will offer its new cabin crew positions across all of its 27 European bases. Around half of these positions will be based in the UK. N...

BACA rings the changes for the 2016 BACA Awards

BACA (the Air Charter Association) is presenting a brand new set of Awards for 2016. The highly regarded annual Awards ceremony is taking place at London Guildhall on 19th October.  After a series of successful Awards lunches BACA decided the event should be refreshed to ensure that it remains reflective of current industry trends. With this in mind new Awards have been created, one for th...

Thomas Cook offers free cancellations to tourists heading for Turkey

Thomas Cook is offering free holiday cancellations to customers due to fly out to Turkey on Sunday following the failed military coup in the country. But other operators, including British Airways, Thomson and First Choice said flights were returning to normal following temporary cancellations. According to the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), 50,000 British holidaymakers are curren...