AIRLINE & TRAVEL NEWS

Airguide Online, Nov, 2004

British Airways experienced problems at Boston's Logan International Airport on Monday 15 November. None of the 219 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 777 was hurt, but according to the airline five firefighters suffered from inhalation problems. It was unclear what caused the warning likes to go off, but it had "nothing to do with terrorism," according to an airport spokesman. Damage was restricted to an avionics bay at the front of the aircraft. http://www.ba.com Nov 22, 2004

British Airways has dropped its Heathrow services to Bilbao and will suspend flights to Caracas in Venezuela and Bogota in Columbia from 6 February 2005. Despite moving the flights from Gatwick last year clearly the budget competition to northern Spain has proven too much for BA. Code share partner Iberia continues with a single early evening departure from Heathrow. With the South American routes the withdrawal follows a downgrading of BA's priorities in this area, typically Chile now with no direct services from the U.K. BA had attempted to keep the operation going by moving the flights from Gatwick and downsizing from a Boeing 777 to a Boeing 767. http://www.ba.com Nov 15, 2004

British Airways will suspend indefinitely its flights between Bogota, Caracas and London effective Feb. 6 2005. The airline said the decision was for "commercial reasons" as the flights have been making a "considerable loss over the last five years." Nov 5, 2004

Crete is the latest EU destination to gain flights from British Airways, albeit in the guise of franchise partner GB Airways. In fact the new services, due to start in May of next year, are the first ever scheduled operation from the UK to Heraklion. Flown by Airbus A320 series aircraft the flights will operate on Tuesdays and Fridays from Gatwick and will offer a choice of Club Europe and Euro Traveler cabins with the British Airways' full service product. http://www.ba.com Nov 8, 2004

BWIA West Indies Airways is to introduce weekly flights from Prestwick and Belfast International airports early next year. The weekly service from Prestwick will fly nonstop to Barbados, continuing to Port of Spain, Trinidad, with connections available to Tobago. The Belfast service will operate nonstop to Barbados and continue to Port of Spain. Both flights are scheduled to operate with an Airbus A340-300 aircraft in a two-class configuration. The Prestwick flight starts on Saturday 16 January, those from Belfast the day after. http://www.bwia.co.uk

Nov 8, 2004

Cathay Pacific Airways will increase its service between Beijing and Hong Kong from thrice-weekly to daily Dec. 3 2004. Nov 12, 2004

Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways yesterday signed contracts to become regional members of Star Alliance officially on Dec. 15. The carriers follow Blue1, which became Star's first regional member earlier this month. "With Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines as regional members, we are once again providing more choice for our travelers by extending the reach of our customer benefits to the network of these two carriers," Star CEO Jaan Albrecht said. Both airlines were sponsored for membership by Lufthansa, which also sponsored Blue1. Adria Airways, the Slovenian flag carrier, operates 180 weekly flights from Ljubljana to 20 mainly European destinations, while Croatia Airlines, the national airline of Croatia, serves 26 European destinations with 430 weekly flights using a fleet of 11 aircraft. Nov 19, 2004