IAG’s First Day of Trading Amidst Strike Fears

Shares in the newly merged British Airways and Iberia begin trading today as International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) makes its debut at the stock market. With this, BA ended almost a quarter of century of trading on the stock exchange as from today it will be listed under the name of the International Airlines Group.

BA and Spain’s Iberia are set to gain big time as the merger makes them the second largest airline by value after Lufthansa. IAG maintains a network of more than 400 aircrafts connecting more than 200 worldwide destinations. The airline also expects to handle passenger travel traffic of nearly 60 million people every year. BA and Iberia are fitting for each other also in terms of long-haul flights as British Airways is a big name in North Atlantic and Iberia is the one of the preferred airlines for flights between Europe and South America.

Strike Looms over IAG
However, everything does not seem to be rosy for the newly formed IAG as BA’s cabin crew voted in favour of another strike on Friday in the continuation of the confrontation between the staff and airline. Holiday makers who were lucky enough to grab cheap tickets on flights will pray hard as the strike seems imminent. And pray they should – with long weekends of Easter; cheap tickets on different flights will be anything but easily available. British Airways is however confident of smooth operations from different airports even in the state of a strike and insists ticket holders will not be hassled.

Snow briefly dampened holidaymaker’s Xmas plans – Thinks looking Bright Now

The heavens opened up last week and it snowed and snowed. So much so that many of the UK airports got frozen up, especially London Heathrow Airport. Many people’s Christmas plans went for a toss as flights got cancelled. However, air ticket holders can take comfort in the fact that services are slowly but steadily being resumed. Here is a little light on the scene so far.

London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow that operates quite a few cheap flights to different destinations and its closure became a major dampener. However, with the clearance of snow from both of its runways, the airport gradually resumed flights. In fact, numerous flights of different airlines that had been diverted to other airports were rescheduled to fly from London Heathrow as per original schedule. Similarly, with improved conditions in other airports such as Gatwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, passengers can look forward to smoother travel.

British Airways Suffers Millions in Losses

British Airways is one of the most adversely affected airlines. Analysts speculate that the airline lost about £8m to £10m everyday due to cancellation of flights. Passengers who had booked early tickets to get cheap flights with the airlines had to face a lot of disappointment. However, things have started to look better. In fact, the airline is hopeful of operating its full long haul departure schedule from Heathrow on 23rd January (today) and 24th January (tomorrow), besides operating usual schedules at Gatwick and London City airports.

According to latest media inputs, British Airways has even commented that it had to unnecessarily axe many flights because British Airports Authority failed to provide timely information on the progress of clearance work at the runway.

BA Cancelled long haul and short haul flights

Due to bad weather conditions in whole of the UK and specifically in London, British Airways has cancelled certain long haul as well as short haul flights from London Heathrow and London Gatwick Airports which were scheduled to depart between 10 am and 5 pm GMT.

Read the complete news here

Three Major Airlines Announce Transatlantic Venture

American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia have announced a joint business partnership after procuring an approval from the travel regulatory authorities. The joint agreement enables these three major airlines to work together commercially on flights between USA, Canada and Mexico and the EU, Switzerland and Norway.

This trilateral business collaboration is great news for travellers as they will have access to more benefits than they presently do through these member airlines individually. In turn, the alliance is in much better position to compete aggressively with its rival alliances across the Atlantic.

This alliance means more destinations, extra flights and cheap tickets for business as well as travellers on holidays.

The combined route network of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia will expand to more than 400 destinations in more than 100 countries throughout the world with nearly 5,000 daily departures. By functioning jointly, the three airlines will also increase options for customers by supporting routes that may not be economically feasible for a single airline.

In addition, the airlines announced new flights to Budapest from New York JFK, London Heathrow to San Diego, Madrid to Los Angeles and Chicago to Helsinki.

Additional Customer Benefits

• Better access to an extensive option of fare deals
• Suitably timed flights
• Customer transferring support teams at London Heathrow, New York JFK, Chicago, Madrid and Miami
• Convenient online check-in and boarding pass printing from your home or hotel
• Flights information on each of the three airline’s website
• Enhanced prospects of earning and redeeming frequent flyer benefits
• Comprehensive account management for corporate customers

Cold Water over Virgin Blue Aspirations

Virgin Blue received a major blow with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) giving a tentative decision against the airline’s cooperation strategy with Delta and Air New Zealand. This is a major setback to Virgin Blue’s plans of putting up a serious challenge to its much bigger rival, Qantas. As per the ACCC, the alliance can kill competition in the trans-Tasman market of air passenger service. ACCC further pointed out that Virgin Blue is a major competitor to Air New Zealand and the alliance will jeopardise competition on numerous trans-Tasman routes. ACCC also justified its stand by clarifying that more than a million passengers will face an adverse impact if competition between Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand comes to an end. In other words, there would be a shortage of cheap flights. However, these observations have not been well received by many industry experts.

Insiders point out that some years back, Australian authorities granted approval to cooperation proposal between Air New Zealand and Qantas. This proposal had a much more far reaching impact and could not go through only because New Zealand Commerce Commission rejected it on the grounds of adversely impacting competition in New Zealand’s domestic sector. Both airlines had captured about 80% of the market at that point of time. This has naturally caused many to raise the question as to why this alliance was given the nod from Australia, while the current one has been shelved.

In fact, industry experts have gone on to point out many other flaws with the ACCC decision. These are:

- Credibility of calling Virgin Blue ‘Maverick’

- Tiger Role

- Competition is Presently Unsustainable

luxury on holidays to Delhi

Commonwealth Games 2010 - Information

People who have booked flights to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games later this year will no doubt be thinking about where to stay during a visit to the city.

Travellers who are looking for a luxury hotel could be pleased to learn that the Leela Palace New Delhi will open its doors for business in time for the sporting event.

Anyone seeking five-star accommodation should find it here, with the complex offering deluxe rooms and suites, private pools, a rooftop terrace and a spa.

For those who like their food, there will be three restaurants on site serving up a host of Indian, Italian and Japanese dishes to enjoy.

This is the seventh hotel owned by the Leela Group to open in India, with others located in cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon.

On October 3rd, thousands of people are expected to travel to New Delhi for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, with the sporting competition taking place until October 14th.

Find more information on cheap flights to Delhi from Southall Travel agent in UK. There are various options available on Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, Turkish Airlines, Swiss, Air India, KLM, Jet Airways, Gulf Air, Kingfisher, Emirates and other global airlines operating to Delhi from UK airports.

Holidays to Thailand 'will remain popular in 2010'

Travellers will be looking for adventure this year, one travel operator has predicted.

According to STA Travel, thrill-seeking holidaymakers have shown an interest in heading off for adventure breaks, particularly those who are only going away for two weeks.

Destinations such as Bangkok in Thailand and Australia are already proving popular with those keen to book a trip for 2010.

John Constable, group managing director of the firm, commented: "Travellers are becoming increasingly ambitious with their holiday choices as they try to make the most of their time away."

Research carried out by STA Travel revealed that 30 per cent of people surveyed intend to take an adventure holiday this year.

Popular options among respondents to the study were trekking, volunteering and extreme snow or water sports.

Earlier this week, travel journalist Simon Calder noted that tourists can set any level of difficulty or danger when choosing an unusual holiday.

Jet Airways launches new flights to Delhi

Anyone booking flights to India may be interested to learn that Jet Airways has launched a new route between Doha and Delhi.

The Indian carrier will now operate daily flights to Delhi from the city in Qatar.

Its latest route will complement existing services that fly from the Qatari capital to Mumbai and Kochi.

For British travellers, the operation from Doha to Delhi could provide a useful connection for those heading for holidays to India.

Nikos Kardassis, acting chief executive officer of Jet Airways, commented: "The launch of our daily services from Doha to Delhi will cater to the strong customer demand for direct flights on the route."

He added that it provides a connection to the 61 international destinations served by the airline's network.

Earlier this month, Jet Airways announced that it had experienced a 28 per cent growth in international passenger traffic during December 2009, compared with the same period the previous year.