increase – The News Desk

British passport fees to increase next week – Business Traveller

6Apr

By adminNo Comments

Travel

British passport fees to increase next week – Business Traveller

Application fees for British passports will increase again next week – the second hike in as many years. From 11 April an online application made within the UK for a standard adult 34-page passport will cost £88.50, up from the current £82.50, while the cost for a child passport will rise from £53.50 to £57.50. The larger 54-page “frequent traveller” passport – popular with many of our readers – currently costs £93.50 for an online appplication. Business Traveller contacted the Home Office to confirm how much this option will increase by – we were directed to a document which states that fees for all standard and frequent traveller passport applications and priority services will increase “by circa 7.5 per cent”. This would put the new fee at around £100. As mentioned above costs are als...

Virgin to increase flights to Dubai, the Maldives and Barbados for winter 2024 – Business Traveller

23Dec

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Virgin to increase flights to Dubai, the Maldives and Barbados for winter 2024 – Business Traveller

Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to boost its routes to Dubai, the Maldives and Barbados next winter. The carrier launched thrice weekly flights from Heathrow to the Maldives in October, and said it would increase this service to daily for the winter 2024-2025 season. Meanwhile Virgin’s route between Heathrow and Dubai – which resumed in October after a four-year hiatus – will also increase to daily next winter. Finally the carrier’s flights to Barbados – which first launched in 2017 – will operate twice daily from Heathrow throughout winter 2024, in addition to a four-times-weekly service from Manchester. The new frequencies were set to go on sale today (Saturday 23 December, 2023), with daily flights between London and Dubai operating from 26 October, 2024, Heathrow-Barbados operati...

Virgin Atlantic to increase flights from Heathrow to Boston and JFK – Business Traveller

14Dec

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Virgin Atlantic to increase flights from Heathrow to Boston and JFK – Business Traveller

Virgin Atlantic has outlined plans to increase capacity on its key US routes from London Heathrow to Boston and New York JFK next summer. The carrier will operate seven daily flights to JFK for summer 2024, as well as offering a twice-daily service to Boston. Virgin highlighted that when combined with flights operated by its joint venture partner Delta, the two airlines would offer a total of ten daily flights between Heathrow and New York JFK, and three daily services between Heathrow and Boston. The new frequencies will be served by Virgin’s newest A330-900neo and A350-1000 aircraft. The carrier will operate an average of 27 daily departures to the US next summer, including a new seasonal service between Manchester and Las Vegas. However as previously reported Virgin is dropping its fl...

Qatar Airways to increase flights to Bangkok and Amsterdam over peak winter period – Business Traveller

29Nov

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Qatar Airways to increase flights to Bangkok and Amsterdam over peak winter period – Business Traveller

Qatar Airways has announced plans to increase frequencies on five routes to Europe, the US and Asia during December and January. As previously noted on our forum the carrier’s Doha-Amsterdam service will move from ten flights per week to twice daily from 16 December, while Belgrade will increase from seven to ten flights per week from 23 December, and Barcelona from 18 to 21 flights per week from 1 January, 2024. In Asia, Qatar Airways will boost its Bangkok service from 35 to 38 weekly flights effective 15 December, and the airline’s Miami route will increase from seven to ten weekly flights from 13 January, 2024. Last month it was announced that Akbar Al Baker would be stepping down as CEO of Qatar Airways after 27 years at the helm. Qatar Airways Group gets new chief executive His re...

Iberia to increase A320 hand luggage capacity with new Airbus L bins – Business Traveller

23Oct

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Iberia to increase A320 hand luggage capacity with new Airbus L bins – Business Traveller

Iberia has signed an agreement with Airbus to retrofit its fleet of A320 neo aircraft with the manufacturer’s new L bins. The new overhead luggage bins were launched by Airbus earlier this year, and allow for the vertical loading of carry-on roller bags, resulting in a 60 per cent increase in capacity, of three extra bags per bin. The L bins have been designed to share common parts with existing Airspace XL bins, and can be retrofitted in three to five days. Iberia currently has 16 A320 neo aircraft in its fleet, and will begin the retrofit project at the start of 2025. Lufthansa was recently announced as the first retrofit customer for the L bins, as part of works to refurbish a large portion of its A320 fleet. Lufthansa to refurbish A320s with new seats, USB ports and tablet holders C...

Air Canada to increase services to London and Manchester in 2024 – Business Traveller

5Sep

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Air Canada to increase services to London and Manchester in 2024 – Business Traveller

Air Canada plans to operate 100 per cent of its peak summer 2019 transatlantic capacity next year, owing to “robust recovery” in the international market. The airline has announced an expansion of services to European destinations for summer 2024, which includes additional flights to London and Manchester. Toronto-London will increase to four-times-daily from April to October, while Toronto-Manchester will increase to six flights per week from June to September. The airline also revealed that the seasonal Toronto-Edinburgh service will begin earlier than originally planned, on 1 March, and run until January. Air Canada will also bring forward its services from Montréal to Amsterdam (30 March) and Copenhagen (2 May), as well as from Toronto to Brussels (1 May). Meanwhile, Air Canada has a...

2Sep

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Price of Japan Rail Pass to Increase

Indeed, one common rule of thumb for the seven-day pass is that it essentially pays for itself after a single Tokyo-Kyoto round trip. For motivated travelers, a pass can mean savings in the thousands of dollars.What’s changingIn April, the JR Group, which operates the expansive network of shinkansen as well as local and regional lines, announced that prices for an ordinary class, seven-day rail pass will jump to 50,000 yen (about $342) from 29,650 yen (about $203), while Green Car class seven-day passes will increase to 70,000 yen from 39,600 yen. The 14- and 21-day passes will see similar increases in the 65 percent to 71 percent range.In an email, a spokesman for the JR Group noted that despite improvements to its services — including extending shinkansen lines and increasing the covera...

Emirates to increase flights to London Heathrow – Business Traveller

15Aug

By adminNo Comments

Travel

Emirates to increase flights to London Heathrow – Business Traveller

Emirates has announced plans to operate an additional five-a-week service to London Heathrow during the winter season, owing to anticipated demand. Flights will be operated by a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (first, business and economy) from 31 October, 2023 until 30 March, 2024. The additional service will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and complement the existing six daily A380 flights to the London hub. Flight schedules are as follows: EK41 departs Dubai 1320, arrives at London Heathrow at 1720 EK42 departs London Heathrow at 2015, arrives at Dubai at 0715 the following day Richard Jewsbury, Emirates divisional vice president in the UK, commented: “As we gear up to the peak travel season this winter, we’re pleased to offer customers enhance...

China-US flights set to increase – Business Traveller

15Aug

By adminNo Comments

Travel

China-US flights set to increase – Business Traveller

Air travel between China and the United States was significantly reduced during the pandemic but finally there is some positive news on the return of transpacific flight capacity. From 1 September, Chinese authorities have approved airlines from each country to collectively operate 18 weekly round trip flights between China and the US, up from 12 weekly roundtrips currently permitted. And from 29 October, this will increase to 24 weekly roundtrips. For perspective, this is still pales in comparison to pre-pandemic levels, when Chinese and US carriers operated a joint 150 weekly roundtrips. Currently, United Airlines is the only US carrier with scheduled service to China, operating four weekly flights between its San Francisco hub and Shanghai’s Pudong International airport. Over the...

RwandAir to increase nonstop Heathrow-Kigali route to daily – Business Traveller

22Jul

By adminNo Comments

Travel

RwandAir to increase nonstop Heathrow-Kigali route to daily – Business Traveller

RwandAir has announced plans to increase its Heathrow-Kigali route to daily from this winter. The carrier has been flying between London and the Rwandan capital since 2017 – firstly serving Gatwick, before switching to Heathrow in 2020. The route initially operated via Brussels, but moved to a nonstop service in November 2022. Rwandair to launch direct flights to London Heathrow The current four-times-weekly frequency will increase to daily from 29 October, with flight WB711 departing Heathrow at 2030, arriving into Kigali at 0700 the following morning. London-bound flight WB710 will leave the Rwandan capital at 2335, landing into Heathrow at 0620 the following morning. The route is served by Rwandair’s A330 aircraft, configured with 30 fully flat business class seats and 244 seats in e...