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United Kingdom aviation news

BA’s Abigail Comber finds her passion in customer service

There is one certainty for Abigail Comber, head of customer for British Airways, and it is this: passengers who fly business and first expect a good night’s sleep before they land. “We want people to walk off a plane feeling they’ve had a great experience and they’re fully ready for whatever lies ahead,” says Comber, who has been with BA since 2002 and overseen all...

UK eyes potential for in-flight refuelling of helicopters

The UK is exploring options for its transport rotorcraft, including in-flight refuelling, as it looks to extend the operational range of its fleet in line with commitments in a recent defence review. Released in November, the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) promised the UK would "upgrade helicopters and transport aircraft so we can deploy further, faster and independently, to...

Oriens Aviation to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2016

Oriens Aviation, the UK distributor for Pilatus will attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed from 23 – 26 June 2016. Edwin Brenninkmeyer, CEO of Oriens Aviation, confirmed that the exhibition will be one of the first chances for people to see the superior new version of the PC-12 NG that will offer a quieter cabin and a greater range, with no increase in fuel burn or operating cost during a...

Flight Lieutenant Bob Large - obituary

Airman who rescued a downed pilot from the sea and flew sorties at night to pick up French agents. Flight Lieutenant Bob Large, who has died aged 94, flew Spitfires on sweeps over northern France before becoming a pilot on the “Moonlight Squadron”, flying Lysander aircraft into remote fields in France to deliver and pick up agents. By late 1942, Large was one of the most experien...

EasyJet: Credit Ratings And Proposed Bond Programme

easyJet plc has today received public credit ratings and intends to publish an Offering Circular for a Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme to facilitate access to new and cheaper sources of funding. easyJet has been assigned investment grade ratings of BBB+ (stable) by Standard & Poor’s and Baa1 (stable) by Moody’s which reflect the quality of easyJet’s business model,...

Lord Ballyedmond fatal helicopter crash ruled accidental

A coroner's jury has ruled that a helicopter crash which killed Tory peer Lord Ballyedmond and three others was an accident. Lord Ballyedmond, also known as Dr Edward Haughey, was killed when the AgustaWestland AW139 came down in a field in heavy fog shortly after take-off from the estate he owned in Gillingham, Norfolk, on March 13 2014. Dr Haughey's foreman, Declan Small, 42, of Ma...

EasyJet urges cross-check rigour after take-off data incidents

EasyJet has underlined to crews the crucial importance of cross-checking performance calculations after three take-off incidents came under investigation in the space of four months. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch says that pilots of an Airbus A320 erroneously used a full-length runway calculation when conducting an intersection departure from London Luton on 16 July last y...

Cargo falls at Gatwick in 2015 by 17.3%

Gatwick Airport’s cargo volumes fell by a substantial 17.3 per cent in 2015, compared to the previous 12 months. The gateway handled 73,411 tonnes, which was a significant decline on the 88,737 tonnes that Gatwick handled in 2014. December continued the monthly trend last year of significant falls and cargo volumes fell by 11.4 per cent to 6,508 tonnes, down on 7,344 tonnes in Dec...

ADS announces new President

Paul Kahn has been announced as the new President of ADS Group, the UK's leading trade organisation for the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors. Paul Kahn (above), the incoming President of ADS Group, will carry out his presidency of ADS Group alongside his current position as President and CEO of Airbus Group UK. He said: “ADS represents some of the UK’s most inn...

TAG Farnborough Airport opens new terminal facilities for passengers and crew

The UK's only dedicated business aviation airport, TAG Farnborough Airport, has invested an additional £1 million to create more space for passengers and crew at its terminal building in order to meet growing demand. The UK's only dedicated business aviation airport, TAG Farnborough Airport, has invested an additional £1 million to create more space for passengers and cr...

British Airways flight evacuated after 'female passenger boards with fake passport'

A British Airways flight to London City Airport from Ibiza was evacuated after a female passenger was discovered with a 'fake passport'. Police were called onto the plane at Eivissa airport after crew became suspicious of very nervous-looking woman, reports Periodico de Ibiza. Gabriel Gimenez, who was travelling on the flight to Dublin via London, said the crew removed...

Bristol named the UK's most punctual airport

Bristol is the most punctual airport in the UK and the only British inclusion in the world’s top 20, new figures reveal. New rankings for 2015 placed the small West Country airport as the ninth most on-time small airport in the world, with 88.64 per cent of its flights arriving or departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Aviation analyst OAG broke down its rankings into three...