What are ghost flights and what is the debacle around them? January 27, 2022 EasyJet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren this morning told investors the airline was in favour of airport slot rules going back to “a normalised delineation,” saying the carrier will not be forced to operate ghost flights to retain its slots. “We should remember that the reason why [governments] made these exceptions was because restrictions were in [...]
Around the world in 155 days: 19-year-old is the youngest woman to complete solo journey January 20, 2022 Belgian-British 19-year-old Zara Rutherford has entered the Guinness World Records after she became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. During her 52,080km journey, which took her 155 days, Rutherford visited 31 countries, taking off from Belgium on 18 August towards the Atlantic. After stopping in Iceland and Greenland, she flew through the [...]
Fear of costs taking off as EU check in for airlines to pay for all their emissions January 20, 2022 Airlines are expected to pay for all their European CO2 emissions from 2026, a year earlier than what was initially proposed by the European Commission. According to a European Parliament’s draft, the bloc is re-examining its current climate policies, as it aims to cut 55 per cent of emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels, Reuters [...]
UK start up secures ‘significant’ investment from Hyundai to build aerial taxis ports January 20, 2022 British start up Urban-Air Port (UAP) announced today it has secured ‘significant’ funding from Hyundai’s urban air mobility division Supernal to build sites for aerial taxis, also called vertiports. With the funding – the amount of which could not be disclosed – UAP will build 200 vertiports within the next five years, while the world’s [...]
Growing 5G panic prompts more airlines to cancel flights to US January 19, 2022 Several airlines including Lufthansa and British Airways (BA) have either cancelled or rescheduled their flights to the US as a result of concerns over today’s roll out of 5G services across the country. In addition to cancelling a flight from Frankfurt to New York, the German carrier and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines swapped aircraft, with [...]
Empty planes: Omicron onslaught and travel restrictions hit Ryanair’s passenger number January 5, 2022 The number of passengers flown around Europe by budget airline Ryanair was down 7 per cent between November and December as travel restrictions were imposed amid the spread of the Omicron variant. The carrier said the number of passengers dropped to 9.5 million last month – the lowest since July and down from 10.2 million [...]
Desperate travel sector demands all international Covid testing requirements are scrapped immediately January 5, 2022 All testing requirements for international travellers should be abolished immediately, the travel industry said this morning. Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and Airlines UK said research they commissioned into travel restrictions found domestic, not international, restrictions would be the only way to reduce the spread of Omicron. Pre-departure and day two PCR testing were reintroduced in [...]
Brits have to pay for entry to the EU from this year: Cash and pre-authorisation needed for post-Brexit trips to Europe January 5, 2022 Brits will have to start paying €7 per person and pre-register their details in order to enter the European Union from this year. Reports had surfaced in various European media in recent weeks that access to all Schengen EU countries would come at a cost from 2022, and when approached by City A.M. this morning, [...]
Exclusive: Nearly 9m Brits face having to cancel or postpone US and European holidays December 30, 2021 Nearly nine million holidaymakers face potentially having to cancel or rearrange trips to the US or mainland Europe that they booked before the introduction of new travel restrictions, according to new research shared exclusively with City A.M. this morning. Nearly one in five adults, around 8.9m Brits, has booked trips to mainland Europe or the [...]
Mayday: Year from hell in aviation as empty flights crash-land by staggering 71 per cent from pre-pandemic levels December 29, 2021 Covid-related travel restrictions led to a 71 per cent reduction in the number of international flights to and from UK airports this year compared with pre-pandemic levels, new analysis shows. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said around 406,060 international flights served UK airports during 2021 up to December 22, compared with 1,399,170 in the pre-pandemic period [...]