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Air crash investigators were Saturday continuing to seek the cause of an apparent power failure that forced a British Airways Boeing 777 into a crash landing at London’s Heathrow airport, narrowly averting disaster.

Flight schedules were returning to normal at Europe’s busiest airport following heavy delays and cancellations in the wake of Thursday’s incident.

However airport authorities were advising passengers to contact airlines before setting off, indicating there could still be problems.

source: CNN

British Airways, in a move that could heat up competition for transatlantic passengers, said Wednesday it would launch a new airline in June that would offer nonstop flights between New York and cities in the European mainland.

The London-based carrier said the new airline, which would cater to business and affluent leisure travelers, would be named OpenSkies and begin with service to either Brussels or Paris.

If British Air picks Paris, the route would come on the heels of a new nonstop service that its European archrival, Air France, is to begin in March between Los Angeles International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport, British Airways’ main hub.

source: LA Times

British Airways passengers are likely to see fuel surcharges on longhaul flights top £100 for the first time as the airline grapples with soaring oil costs.

A rise this month will come on top of November’s increase, which saw the fuel surcharge on a return longhaul ticket rise from £76 to £96.

source: thisismoney.co.uk

Three new low-cost airlines will be operating to Malta from March, amid ambitious targets of a four to five per cent increase in arrivals over a record 2007.

The news comes days after British Airways and Easyjet announced they will be operating between Malta and London from March, signalling a ten per cent increase in seat capacity on the all-important UK route.

“‘It’s not too soon to say we’re going to try and make 2008 an even better year,”‘ Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech told The Sunday Times.

Spanish budget airline Vueling will be servicing the Madrid to Malta route three times a week; Italian airline Volare four times weekly; and airline Norwegian.no will be flying from Malta to Oslo three times a week.

British Airways will operate a daily service to London Gatwick from March 30. GB Airways, which operated British Airways flights to Malta, has been sold to giant low-cost carrier Easyjet, which is also starting a 10-flights-a-week service to Malta from its base in Gatwick.

Though it is a budget airline, the minister confirmed that no subsidies will be provided to Easyjet since it has assumed the slots previously operated by GB Airways.

source: TimesOfMalta.com

British Airways was the worst airline for lost bags and delays over the busy summer period. British Airways performed worse than any other major European airline, with more than two in five flights running late, according to figures released yesterday.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

British Airways’ final flight from Harare landed at Heathrow last night, closing a chapter in links between Britain and Zimbabwe.

British Airways suspends fligthts to Zimbabwe BA also suspended its flights in 1965

BA152 was the final service of a route the airline said it was abandoning because it had become uneconomic.

Zimbabwe’s economy is in freefall and tourism to the country has collapsed. But in Zimbabwe the decision is being seen as part of London’s efforts to isolate Robert Mugabe’s regime, even though BA is a commercial company.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

EasyJet, the budget airline, has agreed to pay £103.5m in cash to buy GB Airways from the privately held Bland Group. The deal means that easyJet will operate 24 per cent of the landing slots at Gatwick airport and make it the airport’s largest carrier.

GB Airways operates as a franchise of British Airways, a deal that ends in March next year, although the easyJet acquisition is expected to finalise in January. British Airways plans to begin its own services to compete with GB Airways, which flies mainly to southern Europe and North Africa.

source: The Independent

British Airways was today hit with a record £121.5m fine after it admitted to collusion over fuel surcharges on long-haul flights.

BA is facing a second fine from the US Department of Justice, which will be announced later today. The airline said the combined sum was likely to be consistent with the £350m it set aside in May.

The penalty from the OFT is the highest ever imposed by the regulator for infringements of competition law.

source: thisismoney.co.uk

British Airways relinquished a top airline of the year prize – plunging from first place in 2006 to tenth in this year’s popularity table.

But there was some consolation for beleaguered BA when it was named best airline in Europe and best transatlantic carrier in the 2007 awards by research company Skytrax.

source: scotsman.com

British Airways increased its fuel surcharge again on Wednesday, the ninth rise since the levy was introduced in May 2004.

Three years ago, the first surcharge was £2.50, but this week the airline’s levy on long-haul flights of less than nine hours increased from £33 to £38, or £76 return. The surcharge on flights lasting more than nine hours has risen from £38 to £43, or £86 return. BA’s short-haul fuel surcharge remains at £8 one way.

Robert Boyle, BA’s commercial director, said the change was necessary because fuel costs had risen in recent weeks.

source: telegraph.co.uk