Article from BTNews 8 OCTOBER 2012
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BA’s experimental service
As part of its £5bn investment programme to make travel more comfortable and convenient for customers, British Airways is trialling a new service which will allow customers to use an automatic check-in service. Indications are that it could change the future of airline check-in, as it is known today.
Frank van der Post, British Airways' Managing Director of Brands and Customer Experience, explains: "Customers have so much to think about prior to a trip, be that finishing up in the office or getting the kids' suitcases packed. We’re aiming to give them one less thing to think about by giving them the choice to be checked in automatically and sent their boarding pass electronically. Then they just need to drop off any bags and make their way to the plane".
British Airways have started a trial with selected travellers flying out of French airports. Invited customers have the option to be checked in automatically. Twenty-four hours before their flight, they will then be automatically checked in, assigned a seat and receive their boarding pass electronically.
If the trials are a success, the aim is to make the service an option for all customers across the British Airways network by the end of 2013. www.ba.com
Flybe summer 2013
Exeter Airport based Flybe has opened bookings for summer 2013.
The London Stock Exchange listed airline says it has on offer up to 2,774 flights a week including three new routes. Barcelona is added from Southampton three times per week, whilst at Exeter twice weekly services are introduced to Barcelona and Nice. #####
Extended in the summer are six routes – Birmingham to Amsterdam and East Midlands to Amsterdam, Glasgow, Jersey, and Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Southampton to Nantes. At Gatwick it is adding daily flights to Inverness and has brought back the seasonal weekly flights to Bergerac.
Andrew Strong, Managing Director of Flybe UK, comments: “We’re pleased to offer our customers such a wide choice of routes for next summer and that, due to popular demand, we’ve been able to continue operating so many of the new winter routes we’ve introduced for the upcoming season.
“This, combined with the new products we have recently introduced such as three new ticket options, mobile online booking and the dropping of all charges relating to debit card payments, will give travellers added incentive to plan their summer travels as early as possible, not the least of which is also to take advantage of the lowest possible fares.” www.fybe.com
Twice daily Malaysia A380
Malaysia Airlines will launch double daily Airbus A380 flights on its Kuala Lumpur-London operation from 24 November 2012, increasing the weekly seat capacity by 16%, from 5971 to 6916 in each direction.
This double daily service will be inaugurated after the national carrier receives another two of the six A380s by the end of this month.
Malaysia Airlines’ Group CEO Mr. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, “Ever since our A380 operations commenced on the London-Kuala Lumpur-London route from 1 July this year, the customer response has been overwhelming. Encouraged by the success of our current daily A380 operations on this route, we have decided to replace the existing B747 daily flights with the A380 to make it double daily on the superjumbo. This initiative is also part of our efforts to standardise our product offering on this popular route for oneworld customers when we join the alliance by early next year.”
The national carrier of Malaysia will also commence daily A380 operations to Paris next March to replace the current B777 daily services on this route. www.malaysiaairlines.com
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