Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Wizzair Summer Season Sale - All cheap flights booked today -20%

Low fares airline Wizzair has again one day season sale. If you book your summer flights today you get 20% discount. You can get this disccount to all Wizzair cheap flights routes. The 20% discount applies on fares including taxes, non optional charges, and one small cabin bag (42x25x32cm), but excluding administration fee.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Finnair sells Norwegian shareholdings

Finnair has today sold its shares in Norwegian Air Shuttle. Finnari was the second largest shareholder in Norwegian Air Shuttle before todays deal. Finnair become shareholder in Norwegian when it sold its swedish subsidiary FlyNordic to Norwegian.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Wizzair big spring sale - All cheap flights -20% (5-7.4.2013)

Hungarian low cost carrier Wizzair has big spring sale where you can book all flights with 20% discount. This offer is valid only between April 5th and 7th. This is an excellent opportunity if you are looking for cheap spring break or cheap flights for you summer holiday.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Ryanair's Air Lingus acquisition was not accepted

Competition authorities of the European Union didn't give approval for Ryanair to acquire major shareholding in it's rival Aer Lingus. Ryanair has said that the Irish Government has tried to influence competition authorities and keep Aer Lingus independent.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

7€ movies at Norwegian cheap flights

Norwegian Air Shuttle has WIFI in almost all their planes and now they have opened new service for their cheap flight customers. You can download movies at Norwegian flights to your own computer. These movies cost 7€ and you can watch them 24 hours from purchase. This new service is already on selected routes but Norwegian will expand it to all their cheap flights.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Will Ryanair follow Wizzair cabin bag policy?

Ryanair has been extremely innovative in finding ways to charge their customers extra. However there are at least two cases where they are more flyer friendly than their easteuropean comptetitor Wizzair.

First Ryanair hasn't followod Wizzair stricter policy for cabin baggage. Wizzair allows for free only cabin baggage that can be placed under the seat in front of you. The normal cabbin baggage size small trolleys don't fit there and you have to pay extra about these to Wizzair. So far Ryanair hasn't followed Wizzair in this issue.

Second thing is trolleys of children over 2 years. Both low fares airlines carry trolleys of babies up to 2 years for free but after that Wizzair charges extra. Ryanair carries these trolleys also for free.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Cheap flights to St Helier Jersey Channel Islands

Jersey island and it's capital St Helier are very interesting holiday destinations for many tourists. Jersey airport is located on the other side of this Channel Island than it's capital St Helier. However the Island is not very big and distance is not more than 10km. Taxi from the Jersey airport to St Helier costs 12-20 GBP depending on time and tariff used.

The most frequent flights are between London and Jersey. EasyJet has frequent flights between Jersey and London Southend. British Airways and Flybe operate between Jersey and London Gatwick. There are also cheap flights between Jersey and Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester, Bristol and East Midlands. Aurigny is Channel Islands own airline that also operates between Jersey Guernsey and the mainland.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights?

Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights? In the history low fares airlines have been succesful in short and medium term flights. If you take a look at routes from/to popular european tourist cities you can find many low fares airlines competing and many of them are still making profit but there is very limited supply of low fares long distance flights. The main reason is that long distance airlines get most cost savings in fast and efficient use of airplanes and personnel. In short and medium term flights it really makes difference wheather the plane and crew are at the airport 30 or 50 minutes between two 1 hour flights. When we are talking about flights over 8 hours this difference becomes less important and cost advantage is less important.

Norwegian low fares airline Norwegian Air Shuttle AS believes that they can get cost advantage using new Boeing 787 Dreamliners that need less fuel than older planes. Unfortunately the story of Boeing 787 Dreamliner is full of technical challenges and it's not yet certain that Norwegians can start their long distance cheap flights in May 2013 as they have planned. Norwegians seem to believe that Boeing can solve battery problems of Dreamliner and they are selling their Stockholm-New York, Oslo-New York, Stockholm-Bangkok and Oslo-Bangkok flights at norwegian.com. It's interesting to see if also long distance flights become playground of carries like Ryanair and EasyJet. When can we see first London Stansted-US flights with GBP 99/one way.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Norwegian opens new routes from London Gatwick - Norwegian competing against EasyJet

Norwegian Air Shuttle is starting interesting expansion to the UK cheap flights market. For Nordic fliers Norwegian is very familiar low cost carrier from Nordic countries to the central and southern Europe. Norwegian Air Shuttle is operating with business model very close to EasyJet. They focus on normal airports and avoid smaller low cost airports like Milan Bergamo or Frankfurt Hahn. In London Norwegian operates at Gatwick airport.

In April 2013 Norwegian Air Shuttle opens nine new cheap flights from London Gatwick:
  • London Gatwick - Algarve-Faro cheap flights starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Alicante cheap flights starting from 34,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Barcelona cheap flights starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Dubrovnik cheap flights starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Gran Canaria cheap flights starting from 39,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Malaga cheap flighst starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Nice cheap flighst starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Split cheap flights starting from 29,90 GBP
  • London Gatwick - Tromssa cheap flights starting from 80 GBP
At the moment Norwegian Air Shuttle is offering very competitive prices from London. If you are looking for cheap summer flights from London it's really worth checking this new competitor to EasyJet and Ryanair in London.