This bilateral agreement extends the existing codeshare agreement between the two partner airlines, which enables customers on Virgin Atlantic’s flights from Heathrow to Johannesburg to connect easily onto SAA services to Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and Cape Town in South Africa.

Virgin Atlantic director commercial and revenue planning, Edmond Rose said:
“This codeshare extension gives Virgin Atlantic’s customers even more choice of journeys between London and South Africa, and permits them to book non-stop flights to Cape Town all year round.“

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin and SAA Cape Town codeshare

No related posts.

That’s according to the results of  a superbrand survey which is decided by a panel of experts along with 1’500 individual business professionals that have either purchasing or managerial responsibility. The business brands are assessed on three separate criteria : quality, reliability and distinction. Below we have got the list of the airlines that appear in the survey. In brackets is the position of the brand in the overall survey.

1. VIRGIN ATLANTIC (25)

2. BRITISH AIRWAYS (36)

3. EMIRATES (68)

4. Singapore Airlines (78)

5. easyJet (308)

6. QATAR AIRWAYS (318)

7. BMI (413)

8. Swiss International (430)

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin Atlantic best airline brand

No related posts.

Full List of Virgin Atlantic Aircraft names.

• African Queen
• Barbarella
• Bubbles
• Cosmic Girl
• Cover Girl
• Dancing Queen
• Diana
• Emmeline Heaney
• English Rose
• Hot Lips
• Indian Princess
• Jersey Girl
• Jetstreamer
• Lady Luck
• Lady Penelope
• Ladybird
• Madame Butterfly
• Maiden Tokyo
• Miss Behavin
• Miss Kitty
• Mustang Sally
• Mystic Maiden
• Plane Sailing
• Pretty Woman
• Queen Of The Skies
• Ruby Tuesday
• Scarlet Lady
• Silver Lady
• Sleeping Beauty
• Soul Sister
• Surfer Girl
• Sweet Dreamer
• Tinker Belle
• Tubular Belle
• Varga Girl
• Virginia Plain

Virgin Atlantic News

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin Atlantic aircraft names

No related posts.

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are expected to fight it out for business class passengers by lowering prices in the face of large reductions in demand seen as a result of businesses cutting back on costs in 2009.

BA reported a 12% fall in business class passenger numbers for December compared to only a 3% reduction in capacity. In the past airlines have been reluctant to reduce business class fares seeing the passengers as less price sensitive than economy passengers.

Virgin Atlantic’s business class product is known as Virgin upper class. With the price cuts a return trip to New York will fall by 40 percent to £1,099 and a return to Boston by 38 percent to £1,199.

See the Virgin special offer page with all the routes and prices here

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Bargain Business Class Flights

No related posts.

Here are the most read stories published here in 2008

Jan
BA to start up new trans-Atlantic airline
BA 777 crash lands at Heathrow

Feb
A2 plane – day trip to Australia
Ryanair plans for Euro recesssion

Mar
Mileage runs
A380 landing at Heathrow

Apr
Brussels airlines flies slower to save fuel
Aer Lingus revenue management blunder

May
Jet2 to New York
jetBlue seats passenger in toilet on overbooked flight

Jun
Emirates launch FlyDubai low cost airline
Never drive close to a jet aircraft

Jul
Thomas Cook Expansion
Air France plans rail services

Aug
747 used as a hostel at Stockholm airport
Virgin Galactic

Sep
Condor out of tuifly and germanwings merger
Gatwick airport for sale

Oct
Lufthansa to takeover bmi
BA to add South Africa flights in 2009

Nov
Airlines lost in 2008
Jet2 rebrand

Dec
Virgin – Qantas+BA merger bad for passengers
Air New Zealand completes bio-fuel test flight

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Biggest Airline News of 2008

No related posts.

The German carrier recently acquired a controlling holding in Bmi, the second largest carrier at Heathrow.

Virgin Atlantic, which has courted Bmi for a potential tie-up in the past, now sees a renewed opportunity to forge a link.

“These discussions may or may not lead to an agreement and a further announcement will be made in due course,” Virgin Atlantic said in a statement.

The long haul UK carrier believes its network would sit well with Bmi’s mainly short-haul routes.

British Midland / Bmi founder Sir Michael Bishop exercised an option for Lufthansa to take control of the airline in October by raising its stake to about 80%.

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway has made no secret of the attractiveness of a link with flyBmi, which controls 12% of take off and landing slots at Heathrow. Ridgeway sees the two businesses as complimentary and Branson wants a stronger competitoro British Airways.

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin in talks with Lufthansa RE : bmi

No related posts.

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway said, “One day it’s Iberia, then it’s American, and now Qantas. The only strategy BA seems to have is to lock-up some of the busiest routes in the world, against the consumer interest”.

Virgin Atlantic, 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines (SIA), but controlled by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, competes with British Airways (BA) on the transatlantic route. SIA competes with Qantas from/to Australia.

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin : Qantas BA merger bad for customers

No related posts.

The aircraft reached an altitude of 25,000 ft-which was the planned highest altitude it would reach. It had five people onboard including Captain Geoff Andreason.

Virgin Atlantic flight, VS811P, registration GV-WOW flew with biofuel composed of Babassu oil and coconut oil.

Interesting choice of airport considering the fuss over the new Dutch eco-tax.

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin completes biofuel test flight

No related posts.

The law firm Cohen Milstein expects to sign an agreement later on Friday in a class action suit with BA and Virgin.

BA was fined by US and UK authorities for price-fixing on fuel surcharges while Virgin also admitted breaching US and UK law but escaped the fines.

BA declined to comment while Virgin could not immediately be reached.

The settlement would cover customers in the UK and the US and would be the first collective settlement of its kind that would include UK consumers.

Whistle-blower

Cohen Milstein estimates that the settlement will be worth about $200m (£100m), £73.5m of which will be set aside to pay claims by passengers who bought tickets in the UK in pounds sterling.

Passengers and businesses that bought tickets would be eligible for refunds of up to £10 for each leg of a journey.

BA was fined £121.5m by the Office of Fair Trading and $300m (£150m) by the US Department of Justice for colluding with Virgin on the level of fuel surcharges that would be added to their ticket prices.

Virgin escaped the fines because it had informed the authorities that the breaches had happened.

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin and BA may pay out refunds

No related posts.

The agreement will remove a cap which restricted airlines from both countries flying four weekly flights in their first year of operation on the route.

“The United States is Australia’s third largest aviation market and this agreement removes restrictions on Australian and US airlines starting services and routes between the two countries and beyond to third countries,” Mr Albanese an Australian government minister, said in a media release.

Mr Albanese argued the deal will help stimulate the tourism market, which has suffered due the lack of available seats on the capacity constrained route. But the deal will keep Air Canada and Singapore Airlines, who have expressed a desire to fly between Sydney and Los Angeles, off the route. So far, no US carriers have expressed a desire to join United on the route.

“Over time this will lead to greater choice through increased competition and provide significant employment opportunities for Australians in the aviation and tourism industries,” Mr Albanese said.

Qantas welcomed the decision despite lobbying hard in the past to keep foreign carriers such as Singapore Airlines off the highly lucrative route.

“We welcome the outcome. It brings new opportunities for growth and competition,” said Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon.

“Importantly, it will assist the further development of Australia’s aviation industry, as well as help increase trade and tourism with a major economic partner,” he said.

It is suspected Qantas supported the Open Skies deal on the hope it will bar Singapore Air’s attempts to get on the route for good. The logic being Qantas would prefer to have less experience competitor like V Australia.

The Howard Government barred Singapore Air from the route two years ago to give Virgin Blue time to launch an airline on the US route, arguing it would be good for Australian jobs.

Key Features of the Agreement:
• Allow carriers unlimited number of services between any city in the two countries and beyond to other countries;
• Facilitate V-Australia’s plans to launch services on the route from late-08, subject to regulatory approvals. It will also make it easier for US carriers, or new Australian carriers, to enter the route, further building competition, and for Qantas and Jetstar to securely plan for future growth;
• Allow cargo only services to exercise seventh freedom rights, operating from the other country to a third country, without the need to pass through that carrier’s home country;
• Provide new opportunities for Australian carriers to transport US government travellers on certain categories of flights after Oct-08.

Current services:
• The Qantas Group operates 48 services per week to the US. Qantas currently operates 43 weekly passenger services between Australia and Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
• Qantas code-shares to a number of US points with American Airlines (AA), while AA markets seats on Qantas’ trans Pacific and selected Australian and NZ domestic services. Qantas also code-shares with Alaskan Air, Air Pacific and Air Tahiti Nui.
• Jetstar operates five services per week to Honolulu. V-Australia has announced it intends to commence operations between Australia and the United States from late-08, subject to regulatory approvals.
• United Airlines currently operates 14 services per week; 7 services on a LA–Sydney–Melbourne and 7 services per week between San Francisco-Sydney. Three additional services per week operated over the Dec–Jan holiday period between LA and Sydney. Hawaiian Airlines operates three services per week between Honolulu and Sydney.

Qantas makes an estimated 20 per cent of its overall profits from the route and is set to increase its domination of the route.

It plans to increase its flights to 51 a week , meaning it will control 80 per cent of the direct flights.

Qantas deployment of the A380 superjumbo on the US route later this year is set to further aid its ability to offer more seats. United Airlines is presently Qantas’s only competitor on flights between Australia and the US with 14 flights a week.

V Australia will intitially only have a marginal impact, given it plans to have 10 weekly flights on smaller Boeing 777 jets.

More Airline news from: Airline-News.co.uk

Virgin group gets US-OZ open skies

No related posts.