UK Airport News

From time to time UK airports issue news items affecting either traveling to the airport , new routes, airport layout changes, airport parking price amendments and traffic problems. The following may be of help to our customers, however, we strongly recommend that you visit the airport sites for up to the minute information.

June 2008

Airport Stastics

Passenger numbers at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports were down in June. Heathrow saw passenger numbers fall by 0.9% compared to June last year to just under 6 million. At Gatwick traffic was down 1.1% to just over 3.3 million, and at Stansted passenger numbers fell by 5.7% to just under 2.1 million. However, at Heathrow there was an increase in long haul flights. Glasgow and Aberdeen declined by 4.9% and 1.9% respectively, but Edinburgh numbers increased by 1.5%. 12.7.2008.

June’s passengers were 13.5 million, a drop of 1.8% on the same month last year. In the 12 months to the end of June Heathrow had 67.7m passengers (+1.2%), Gatwick 35.5m (+3.0%) and Stansted 23.2m (-2.0%). Southampton had 2.0m (+3.5%), Glasgow 8.6m5 (-3.6%), Edinburgh 9.1m (+4.3%) and Aberdeen 3.4m (+2.4%).

Heathrow Airport

Terminal 5 will open in March 2008 giving BAA the opportunity to reorganise and overhaul the airport infrastructure. This will mean that members of airline alliances such as Star Alliance and Sky team will co-locate, thereby improving customer service.

Discussions with Heathrow airlines started a few years ago, the results being the one world alliance will be located in Terminal 5 and Terminal 3; Star Alliance in Terminal 1; Sky Teal Alliance in Terminal 4 and Virgin Atlantic Airways in Terminal 3.

The forecast passenger flows in Terminal 2 will be greatly reduced by this, which raises questions about the economic and operational viability of the terminal. Once all of the alliance partners co-locate with their partners in 2009 Terminal 2 will have less than 1.5 million passengers per annum (previously 9 million).

This significant reduction in passenger traffic makes the continued operation of Terminal 2 unsustainable and a decision has been made to close the terminal.

Whilst this will be seen as a sad eventuality, it must be remembered that Terminal 2 is Heathrow’s first and oldest Terminal and was opened in 1955.

The closure is a significant step forward to the reality of a state of the art modern facility, which will be called “Heathrow East”, and which will provide a first class passenger experience.

Arrival of super jumbo A380 to Heathrow airport

Tony Douglas, Managing Director of Heathrow and Terminal 5 has announced the arrival of the Super Jumbo A380. Heathrow will be one of the first three airports to receive the A380 before the summer.

This is exceptionally good timing as the Airport celebrates its 60th Anniversary this

year.

New control tower for Heathrow airport

It has been announced that the Heathrow Airport’s new air traffic control tower will be handed over to National Air Traffic Services.

The new tower has been built at a cost of £50 million. It provides a 360 degree view of the airfield, including terminal 5 and 60 aircraft stands.

It will be functional in Winter 2006.

It has been designed by the Richard Rogers partnership and is the UK’s tallest airport control tower. The tower is accessed via a link bridge from Terminal 3.

British Airways seat selection.

British Airways has announced that it is enhancing pre-flight seat selection for its passengers. From December 5th, customers will be able to choose from more seats via the online checking-in process, as the airline slashes the number of reservations made in advance.

First-class passengers, Gold and Silver Executive Club members and families with young children will still be able to reserve their seats in advance, but other seats will be left for those who use BA's online check-in service.

Tiffany Hall, head of marketing and distribution for BA, said: 'We recognise that our customers want to choose where they sit on the aircraft during their flight and we want to give people the control to make this selection themselves during the check-in process.

New Flights

New service from Heathrow airport to Toronto.

A new service between Heathrow and Toronto is to be offered by Air TransatHolidays from May next year, the cheapflights.co.uk website reports. Both package deals and flight only tickets will be available on the route.

In a move that is the first time the company has been able to offer direct flights between Heathrow Airport and Toronto's Pearson International, Air Transat will operate flights on Saturday and Sunday with both an economy and club class service available to passengers.

Broadband access on Heathrow express trains.

All Heathrow Express trains will be wi-fi enabled by early 2007, providing broadband access to passengers for the entire journey between the airport and central London. The wi-fi service, to be provided by T-Mobile, will enable passengers to access the internet at speeds of up to 8Mbps via WiMax and HSDPA technology.

Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport news

New winter routes, airlines and services.

Travellers can look forward to a host of new destination and services this winter.

South African Airline will offer three scheduled flights a week to Johannesburg, on a 767-300 aircraft.

Australia will be another welcome destination with Austravel launching a service to Sydney once a fortnight, on a Boeing 747, complete with full on board service, 22 hour journey with one fuel stop.Emirates have also added an extra service to Dubai helping passengers make smooth connections to Sydney.

Further enhancements to the long haul programme include; daily flights to Bridgetown, three services a week to Antigua, extra Virgin flights to the Caribbean, four flights a week to St Lucia and weekly flights to Tobago/Grenada.

Both Excel and British Airways are increasing the frequency of their flights to the Caribbean, and BA’S franchise partner GB Airways is adding three new destinations to its winter sun schedules which are Paphos, Tenerife and Fuerteventura..

Two of the largest specialist ski companies, Esprit Ski and Total Ski, have included alpine destinations in Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy to their services from Gatwick. Austrian Airlines are operating a scheduled winter service direct to Innsbruck, three times a week on a Boeing 737-600 operated by Lauda Air.

New additions to the short haul programme include Easyjet who have added Marseille, Bilbao and Toulouse to their network bringing the total number of destinations available from Gatwick to 17 across Europe.

BA also announced that it is to start flying from Gatwick to Dresden, Sarajevo and Trinidad from March..

Delta Air Lines have started flights to the world's most travelled international route with nonstop service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and London's Gatwick Airport .

Save the Gatwick Express.

Airport operator BAA has launched a campaign to air travellers and commuters to help stop “The murder of the Gatwick Express”.

The Strategic Rail Authority has plans to scrap the airport’s dedicated train link to London. Gatwick. This was the first airport in the world to have a dedicated train service. The service runs every 15 minutes between Gatwick and Victoria, with trains specially designed with space for luggage and staff who are trained to look after the needs of foreign passengers.

As part of the future, the Brighton mainline which runs through the airport, the SRA has suggested options which would remove many of the key benefits to commuters which include: Air travellers would be forced to travel with heavy cases amongst stressed commuters who had boarded from the south coast.

Passengers arriving in the UK and heading for London would be left on overcrowded platforms-raising questions of safety and quality of service.

Passengers often carrying heavy luggage would now only have have just 2 minutes to board.

The number of air travellers would be cut by 2.5% putting nearly 1 million extra passengers into cars on already congested roads.

Gatwick’s deputy managing director has stated that the proposed plan would be disastrous for commuters and air passengers alike. The proposals would destroy the Gatwick Express and have a detrimental effect on London, especially at a time when London is looking to its main airports in relation to the 2012 Olympic Games; it needs a fast and efficient rail journey to the capital.

The short term multi-storey car park at Gatwick Airport serving the North Terminal has been closed for a £5.5m redevelopment, which will not be completed until April 2007. The work follows similar refurbishment projects at the South Terminal's three short term car car parks which have now been completed. The refurbishment of all four car parks incorporates better facilities for passengers, including clearer markings and surfaces, and environmental benefits including energy saving lighting.

Manchester Airport

Manchester airport: news update

With passenger traffic estimated to double to around 42 million per annum by 2015,Manchester Airport has to review their infrastructure and operational processes.

New technology and Operational Process.

Ways to improve customer service and new approaches to meeting customer requirements include a new check in trial in Terminal 2.These trials will assess the benefits upon operations through the allocation of check-in desks and employment of a range of queue management systems.

New Infrastructure

Terminal 1 arrivals and passenger process is being reviewed. This project will increase capacity and baggage reclaim by increasing the size of facilities and the installation of additional conveyor belts, for both domestic and international flights. Behind the scenes in baggage handling areas, the infrastructure is being redesigned to improve operations and reduce bag delivery times.

Security processing on Terminal 2 is being improved, including reconfiguring the security comb to provide more flexibility in terms of capacity and operations.

To meet needs of passengers on Terminal 2, and the flights they require, some aircraft will be parked at remote stands accessible by coaches. This project will provide a coaching facility for these passengers.

More flights from Manchester airport

Manchester Airport continues to strengthen its links with New York by announcing another direct flight to JFK airport. Delta Airlines will launch a daily service on 16th May 2006.There are currently 3 daily flights to New York, 1 with British Airways and two with Continental Airlines. This will rise to 4, when Delta Airlines begin their new service in May.

Direct flights from Manchester airport to St Lucia.

As from 21st November 2006,Passengers will be able to fly direct to the Caribbean island of St Lucia, with Virgin Atlantic.

The Thursday service will depart at 13.30 and arrive at St Lucia’s Hewanorra airport at 16.10 making the destination accessible in under five hours.

Thomsonfly, the low fares scheduled airline has added an additional four routes to its increased 2007 network from Manchester Airport. The new routes include the cosmopolitan city of Lisbon, the magical city of Marrakech and the exotic capital of Madeira, Funchal.

These new additions follow the launch of 11 new summer 2007 routes from Manchester earlier this month. Manchester customers can also now book low fare scheduled flights to Salzburg, Venice, Naples, Dubrovnik, Faro, Corfu, Paphos, Mahon, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

New Store For T2

New Hamleys store to open On T2.

A new Hamleys store is set to open on 16th November 2006. The store will sell pre school toys, educational items and in flight games etc.Outlets are already at Stansted Airport and all four terminals of Heathrow.

Bristol airport

Bristol Airport has revealed final details of its £100m expansion plans. The proposals include an increase in the size of the terminal, more airport parking spaces and building a new port hotel, to cope with up to nine million passengers a year. The final plan was drawn up following consultation with local people over the publication last year of a draft plan for the next decade and the period to 2030. It included plans to increase capacity at the airport from six to nine million passengers in 10 years.The plan says the increase in passengers can be achieved without building another runway or extending the existing one, The Terminal building will be extended at each end to create more check-in desks, while the airport parking area will be expanded. However, the car park roof will be covered in vegetation, so that the new building merges into the background.

New flights From Bristol Airport between Bristol and Paris was launched by low-cost airline easyJet yesterday.

Newcastle Airport

New Routes from Newcastle International Airport.

Flights will commence in May 2006 between Newcastle International Airport and New York JFK with American Airlines.

Ryanair are due to operate a regular service between Newcastle International Airport and Oslo in September 2006.

Eastern Airways have announced that they will operate a new flight from Newcastle International Airport to Cardiff. The service will run three times a week, and the flight will take only 75 minutes as opposed to a 5-hour car journey.

Online check in at Newcastle International Airport.

Easyjet are to be the first airline to introduce on-line checking in. From 16th March 2006, they will offer an on-line check in facility for passengers flying from Newcastle International Airport and a 15 minute gate arrival time, for passengers with hand luggage.

This will assist 1 million passengers who travel through Newcastle airport every year, and by April 2006, 90% of all Easyjet passengers travelling from other airports will benefit from this new system.

Customers may by-pass check in by printing of boarding passes from their own computers at the time of booking. Safety checks at the airport will remain unchanged.

easyJet has announced new routes from Bristol and Newcastle Airport plus increased frequencies from other departure as part of its summer 2007 schedule. The budget carrier is to launch three times a week Bordeaux flights from Bristol starting in June. Four flights a week from Newcastle to Krakow are being launched from April 1 and Menorca will be served with a twice-daily service from the airport from July 14. This will bring the airline's network from the airport up to 18 routes.

Too heavy to Fly

A 29-stone man was thrown off a plane because he was 'too fat to fly', it has been reported. Dave Brown, 58, from Middlesbrough, had to abandon his holiday after he could not fit into any of the seats. Mr Brown was due to fly to the Turkish resort of Altinkum from Newcastle Airport with his wife Margaret, 53, but was shocked to find he could not fit in any of the plane's seats. He said he had warned Thomas Cook that he was 6ft 6in tall and weighed 29 stone, contacting them three times, but was told he could still fly.They arrived at Newcastle Airport four hours before the flight and Mr Brown said they were told again there would not be an issue. But problems arose once they boarded the plane. The airline said it had offered Mr Brown a row of three seats at the front of the plane but he was unable to fit in any of them. The couple then had to get off the plane, which was held up for 45 minutes.

Luton Airport

London Luton Airport news.

Runway resurfacing for London Luton Airport.

Work has begun on resurfacing the runway at London Luton Airport at an estimated cost of 16 million pounds, and will take at least 9 months to complete.

The 2160 metre runway was last resurfaced in 1989 when passengers were estimated at less than 1 million; 10 million now use the airport per annum.

To minimalise major upheaval, resurfacing can only take place at night therefore the runway must be closed at certain times . Flight schedules will not be disrupted as the airline partners have already re-adjusted their timetables.

The runway will close from midnight until 05.45 from 1st March until 3oth June, and again from 1st October until 30th November, 5 nights a week.

New Routes For Luton Airport

wizz Air routes from London Luton Airport.

London Luton Airport has announced that from May 2006, Wizz Air will commence scheduled flights to Split in Croatia, Ljubljana in Slovenia and Sofia and Bourgas in Bulgaria.Wizz Air is central Europe’s largest low-fare airline and is adding to its already successful partnership with London Luton Airport by introducing these extra services. It is also increasing its frequency of routes to Zagreb which start 1st May 2006.

Passengers at Luton Airport will benefit from more low fare scheduled flights next summer, thanks to an expansion by Thomsonfly. The low fares airline has added three new routes from Luton for summer 07, including Dubrovnik, Marrakech and daily flights to Jersey.

easyJet is to allow passengers to pre-select their seats - for a fee of between £2.50 and £7.50 per flight. The no-frills airline, which has always operated a 'free seating' policy, will allow the first 20 passengers booking online on a 'first come, first served' basis to choose their seats and be among the first to board the aircraft via its 'Speedy Boarding' service. The fee will vary depending on the length of flight and departure airport

Stansted Airport

access for Stansted Airport.

Plans for an M11/A120 link road to the North and east of Stansted Airport have been shelved. Instead, an upgrade of existing links will be considered focussing around junction 8 of the M11.

Two main areas will be considered, the first looking at improving existing airport access from Junction 8 and the A120, the second looking at providing additional access immediately north of junction 8 from the M11 and the A120.

New runway for Stansted Airport.

Stansted setback for Airbus A380

The troubled Airbus A380 is heading for a further setback as London's first new runway in two decades is likely to be too small to accommodate its giant wingspan, the Telegraph newspaper reports.Not only will neither of Stansted's runways be wide enough for the A380 but, at a mere 3,048m each, they may not be long enough for all take-off conditions.

Final plans to build a second runway and terminal at Stansted airport, at a cost of £2.7bn, will be submitted for planning permission next year. But a review of capital expenditure ordered by BAA's new Spanish owners, combined with lobbying from low-cost operators easyJet and Ryanair, make it almost certain that final plans will not include the extra £65m needed to accommodate the A380, the newspaper reports.This is a particular blow to those air-freight operators that do not fly from Heathrow and rely on Stansted to connect British industry to markets in Asia and the US. Both FedEx and UPS are among Airbus's biggest launch customers and have ordered 10 A380s each to add to their global fleets. The problem may also deter other low-cost passenger airlines from operating long-haul flights from Stansted using the A380's efficiencies of scale to undercut existing services.A BAA spokeswoman told the newspaper: 'We have not yet announced our final plan but our current preferred option does not envisage the A380 operating from Stansted when the new runway opens. The [existing] passenger airlines want us to invest in a smaller runway to save money.

New Routes for Stansted airport.

Stansted airport is the fastest growing airport in Europe with now over 120 routes. With new routes becoming available all the time here are just some of the latest exciting places you can visit.

Liverpool Airport

Liverpool John Lennon Airport. News,

Passenger number increase

Liverpool John Lennon Airport is delighted to announce an increase in the number of passengers choosing to use the Airport throughout the autumn months.
A comparison of the number of passengers using JLA throughout 2005 and 2006 has been steady over the summer however figures for October 2006 show a dramatic increase with 45,000 additional passengers using the Airport compared to the same period in 2005 - an increase of 11%.

New Liverpool John Lennon to John Paul11 service takes off.

New Routes

During the first week of October, Ryanair launched 11 new routes to Aberdeen and Inverness in Scotland, Kaunas in Lithuania, Krakow, Poznan, and Wroclaw in Poland to name a few. It was during this week that Ryanair also announced a further two routes from Liverpool to popular ski destinations Grenoble in France and Saltsburg in Austria, starting from mid December.Low cost Polish carrier, Wizz Air, also saw a major boost on its Warsaw route during October with 77% more passengers travelling to and from the Polish Capital compared to October 2005. Meanwhile, easyJet recently welcomed its 15 millionth passenger through the doors of JLA since it started operating in October 1997.

Major route expansion at Liverpool John Lennon airport.

Ryanair have announced that they are adding another 11 new destinations to their base at Liverpool Airport, which will take the number of different routes to 57.

They will now fly to Inverness and Aberdeen in Scotland, Ancona on the Adriatic coast, Alghero on the island of Sardinia, Krakow, Poznan and Wroclaw in Poland, Kaunas in Lithuania, Santander and Santiago in Spain and Tampere in Finland.

These new services will operate several times a week

The 11 new routes will create 600 new jobs 600,000 more passengers and another 80 million tourism spend in Merseyside.

Next May Air Malta will be launching scheduled services between Malta and Liverpool Airport. Flights will be on Mondays and thursdays.

Nottingham East Midlands Airport

Nottingham East Midlands unveils expansion plans.

Nottingham East Midlands Airport hopes to double the routes on offer by 2016.Newly announced expansion plans reveal that this could also create another 7,000 jobs.

There are no plans to build a second runway, but an array of measures to make these plans possible has been announced.

Budget flight routes are expected to increase from 100 to 200 in the next 10 years.

Nottingham East Midlands will inject around £50 million into site services and customer services in the next 5 years.

The Airport stated that it was keen to allay fears of increased noise pollution and that it would bring in new measures on noise levels, particularly at night.

The draft plans are open for public consultation until May 14 and the final paper will be published next summer.

Ryanair announces new flight.

A new daily route to Nottingham East Midlands is set to operate from the City of Derry from Weds 5th April. It is hoped it will be popular with travellers from the North West who live in close proximity to major cities such as Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry Bristol and Sheffield.

Ryanair will offer approximately 1000,000 seats per annum on the new route.

Ryanair is to launch a new service from Nottingham East Midlands Airport to Rimini starting in March next year. The service begins on March 27, flying three times a week, and bringing the number of Ryanair routes from Nottingham East Midlands Airport to 29. Ryanair announced that it will launch 10 new routes from its Nottingham East Midlands airport base yesterday. The low-cost airline will launch flights to Alghero, Bratislava, Granada, Inverness, Knock, Krakow, Milan, Pisa, Santiago and Valencia from February 2007.

Major Parking Award.

Nottingham East Midlands Airport has secured the Park Mark Safer Parking Award for the second year running. NEMA was the 1st UK airport and the 1st East Midlands organisation to be given the accreditation in 2004.Crime figures are shown to have halved over the last year.

New bus route from Leicester.

Nottingham East Midlands Airport is to get a new bus link from Leicester that will improve access to and from the Airport. The service will start in the autumn and run hourly for 18 hours a day. This will greatly improve service for holidaymakers and also airport workers. It is part of a package that will also see increased services from Derby and Loughborough.

Although yet to be “rubber stamped” the plans are in their final stages of having funding approved by the East Midlands Development Agency.

Birmingham Airport

MONARCH ANNOUNCES NEW SCHEDULED BASE

Air fares from Birmingham airport are set to fall still further, when Monarch Scheduled launches its new base from BIA in April 2005.The airline will operate daily services to Tenerife and Malaga with prices starting from as little £39 one way including all taxes.

This Christmas Helios Airways Introduces New Flights To Cyprus From Birmingham Airport. The New Year will see the airline continuing to expand its services from Birmingham and introduce departures every Friday starting from 11th February - 25th March. Flights will depart at 11:00 and arrive at 17:30 and depart from Larnaca at 07:00 and arrive at 10:00. April 2005 will offer passengers additional flights from Birmingham Airport as Helios Airways adds a Saturday departure from April 2nd - October 30th. This flight will leave Birmingham airport at 22:40, arriving at 05:10 and will depart Larnaca airport at 18:40 arriving at 21:40.

ALITALIA'S INAUGURAL SERVICE

The new link between Birmingham airport and Milan will also open up the rest of Italy thanks to Alitalia’s speedy onward connections to a further 21 Italian cities and also to many other worldwide destinations ranging from Athens to Osaka or Warsaw to name but a few.

New routes from Birmingham Airport.

Flybe has announced 13 new routes in the second phase of its 2007 summer schedule. The final phase of the schedule will be unveiled in the new year upon the successful acquisition of BA Connect, when more routes will be announced, the airline said.

A new service to Croatia, as well as continued expansion in France. It includes services to Hamburg, Dubrovnik, Split, Avignon, Rennes, Brest, Nice, Limoges, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Newquay and Bergerac.

Flights from Birmingham Airport to Dubrovnik and Split start in May.

bmibaby have announced a rapid expansion programme at Birmingham Airport for Summer 2007' yesterday. The expansion plan includes the introduction of four new routes, increased frequencies on key Mediterranean routes and an increase in frequencies on key domestic routes.

The four new routes - to Barcelona, Lisbon, Marseille Provence and Rome (Fiumicino) - together with the recently launched services to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Murcia and Faro take the total number of destinations served by the airline from Birmingham Airport to 20.

Leeds/Bradford Airport

More flights from Leeds Bradford Airport.

Air Southwest, one of the U’K’S fastest growing low-fare airline is to double its flights from Leeds Bradford Airport from 10th April, including a third daily service to Bristol.

The new schedule also sees the introduction of a daily non-stop flight to Newquay.

Newquay is one of the worlds surfing hot spots, and also the location of Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant venture “Fifteen Cornwall”.

Air Southwest also fly to Plymouth, Cardiff, Manchester, London Gatwick, Jersey and Dublin.

New service from Leeds Bradford Airport to Taba.

Independent operator Peltours have announced a new flight to the Egyptian airport of Taba this coming winter from Leeds Bradford Airport.

The flight will be operated by Astraeus airlines, and will depart every Thursday from 5th October for 6 weeks, making it a perfect opportunity for those seeking some winter sunshine!

Taba Heights is one of Egypt’s newest resorts on the Red Sea area, ideal for people wanting some late sunshine. With numerous secluded bays, lagoons and coves, and shallow reefs accessible from the beach, it is the ideal place to dive and snorkel. With average temperatures around 27 degrees in October, this is an opportunity to good to miss!

New facilities at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Leeds Bradford has seen the opening of a new Superdrug store, along with a refurbished lounge and bar.

This is the first airport based store and part of a plan to open a number of Superdrug stores at other airports.

Edinburgh Airport

GROWING traffic congestion around Edinburgh airport is to be tackled with plans for a new dual carriageway to the fast-growing facility.

BAA Scotland, which runs the airport, said yesterday it would apply for planning permission for a direct access road from the nearby Gogar roundabout in February or March.

The move follows concern at increasing traffic on the current access road at peak times, especially when major events are being staged at the adjacent Ingliston showground.

Passengers using the airport are increasing annually by 7 per cent to nearly eight million a year, and BAA ultimately wants a direct motorway link from the M8 to Edinburgh airport. The road from Gogar is seen as necessary because new public transport links are at least five years away. A tram line from the city centre is not expected to be completed until 2009, and a through rail link not until 2010.

A BAA Scotland spokesman said the link was initially likely to be a single carriageway, which could be widened to a dual carriageway later.

He said: "Eastfield Road is manageable at the moment, but it can get very busy. If there is even a minor accident or an event at Ingliston, it can very quickly seize up."

Motoring groups gave the plan a guarded welcome, but public transport campaigners called on BAA to fund it.

Cardiff Airport

bmibaby, the award winning airline with tiny fares, is now on sale with its summer 2005 programme, offering additional services to Paris (CDG).
bmibaby, which first operated the route in 2003, is the only airline to currently sell flights to this popular city break and business destination from Cardiff airport and is increasing the frequency of services to double daily from 27 March 2005.

The Welsh Transport Minister, Andrew Davies AM, unveiled plans to boost access to the airport, including a new and improved route to Cardiff airport and the M4, a relief-road to speed traffic past Newport on the M4, and the opening of a new direct rail link.

Following this week’s announcement that Zoom Airlines will be operating a low-cost service to Canada next year, South Wales and South West passengers can look forward to yet another new route from Cardiff Airport to Portugal in summer 2005.

bmibaby has introduced the new summer direct scheduled service to Faro and will depart from Cardiff airport twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays with a Boeing 737-300 aircraft of 148 seats.

Air Malta following the success of summer flights from Cardiff airport to Malta, Air Malta has extended its operation at Cardiff International Airport to feature winter charter flights.

Malta, which was a summer only charter destination, proved that popular with South Wales and South West passengers that the airline has decided to continue with the service through to March 2005 with an Airbus 319 of 141 seats.

Glasgow Airport

Glasgow airport: News update

No Smoking.

From 26 March new legislation was introduced which banned smoking in public places. This applies to the three airports in Scotland, Glasgow Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

No smoking is allowed within the terminal buildings. It is an offence to smoke in a public place and offenders will be liable to a fixed penalty fine of £50.

Smoking will only be permitted in designated areas outside the terminal building.

Airport Expansion.

A 25-year plan to turn Scotland's busiest airport into a 'world class gateway' was unveiled recently.BAA Scotland-operated Glasgow Airport will spend £290m transforming the site if the plans get the go-ahead.

Glasgow airport is getting a new makeover in time for its 40th anniversary.

This will include two new passenger lounges, one of them a prestige business lounge which are due to open in the spring at a cost of £10 million..

This will be the first stage of a £50 million re-development of the main terminal building and a new second international pier is due to be built within the next 10 years.

The upper floor lounges will be available for both business and leisure travellers and the airport’s main international departure lounge is being completely refurbished.

In the spring, new retail shops bar and restaurant will also open, plus additional seating areas.

The first phase of the extension to the international pier-a development of the ground floor international arrivals hall which will have a fourth baggage conveyor belt, was completed last summer.

New destinations for Glasgow airport.

Glasgow Airport is preparing itself for one of its busiest years on record with the launch of 21 new services including Dubai, Toronto and Philadelphia .The new routes have attracted several big name carriers including Emirates and U S Airways. New routes to Canada and continental Europe are set for launch this summer.

In May Glasgow airport will also unveil its new £12 million second terminal, in response to growing demand from charter companies and no-frills airlines. The opening of T2 will provide around one million extra seats for passengers.

Glasgow Airport already offers flights to Norway and Denmark, and Stockholm is the 11th European capital served by Scotland's biggest city. City tourist chiefs predict the link with the Swedish capital will generate millions of pounds in extra revenue.

Prestwick Airport

NEW TENERIFE CHARTER SERVICE FROM GLASGOW PRESTWICK Airport.

Ryanair is to begin two new routes from Prestwick Airport later this year. The low cost airline will launch flights to the Netherlands and Latvia in October.Ryanair will launch flights from Prestwick to Eindhoven and the first regular service between Scotland and the Latvian capital Riga on October 31. There will be five flights a week to Eindhoven, and four a week to Riga. week to Riga. One-way tickets on both routes start from £2.49, excluding charges.

The new flights will increase to 23 the number of destinations served from Prestwick by Ryanair. About 130,000 passengers are expected to use the new routes in their first year

Seguro Holidays will start a new charter service direct to Tenerife from Glasgow Prestwick next year.

Seguro is Prestwick's largest tour operator and is supported heavily by the Scottish travel trade.

Tenerife will be its sixth route from Scotland's fastest-growing airport.