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British Airways Ending
Zimbabwe Flights
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) —
British Airways announced Thursday that it will
halt flights to Zimbabwe next month, citing
mounting losses on the route as the southern
African nation struggles with its worst economic
crisis since independence in 1980.
With Zimbabwe's international isolation growing,
the British airline said in a statement that its
three weekly round-trip flights between Harare
and London would end Oct. 28. Acute fuel
shortages in Zimbabwe have forced the airline to
bring in fuel by road and refuel its planes in
neighboring countries. |
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Zimbabwe is also suffering acute shortages of
food and most other basic goods. It has the
world's highest official inflation of nearly
7,000 percent, but independent estimates put the
rate closer to 25,000 percent and forecast it
could reach 100,000 percent by year's end.
Since often violent government-sanctioned
seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial
farms peaked in 2001, the agriculture-based
economy of this former regional breadbasket has
collapsed. Australian, French, Dutch and
Portuguese airlines already withdrew service to
Zimbabwe, leaving state-owned Air Zimbabwe,
South African Airways and two other African
airlines flying to Harare. Steve Harrison,
British Airways commercial manager for southern
Africa, said spiraling operating costs and
falling passenger numbers left the airlines with
"considerable" losses on the Harare route. "The
economic situation in Zimbabwe has contributed
to a decline in market demand. The withdrawal of
Harare flights is for commercial reasons as it
is becoming increasingly difficult to justify
our operation," Harrison said in the statement. |
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New
flights to Turkey and Cyprus launched
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SunExpress is to begin a new
service from London Stansted to the Turkish city
of Izmir and then on to Ercan, in Northern
Cyprus. The low-cost operator, which was founded
by Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines in 1989, will
operate flights on Tuesday and Saturday, with
the service set to begin on April 28.
One-way tickets start from £49 (including taxes
and charges) and include complimentary drinks
and snacks. Michael Buck, commercial director of
SunExpress, said: “With summer |
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just around the corner we
feel it is the right time to expand our
activities in the UK and launch these two
additional routes from London Stansted to Izmir
and Ercan.” The SunExpress flight will depart
Stansted at 6.20pm and fly non-stop to Izmir and
arrive just after midnight local time (12.05am).
Passengers flying to Ercan will remain in
transit, using the same aircraft, arriving in
Northern Cyprus at 2.10am.Flights from Ercan to
the UK will depart at 1.20pm and then from Izmir
at 3.30pm, arriving in London at 5.25pm.
These new routes join SunExpress’ existing
twice-weekly service launched in February
between London Stansted and Antalya on the
Turkish Riviera. |
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United, bmi
to merge transatlantic flights ... |
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Bmi and United Airlines
have made an application to the US Government to
form an alliance, effectively merging their
transatlantic services, according to a report in
The Times.
The newspaper said the two companies made a
submission to the US department of Transport on
Monday, seeking permission to create the
alliance from next March, though both airlines
would remain independent.
The agreement would see passengers deal with
just one airline when booking tickets, with bmi
passengers having access to all of United's
destinations and routes. Bmi chief executive
Nigel Turner said: 'This paves the way to an
alliance; it does not guarantee it. We want to
put in place all the steps now to fully take
advantage of open skies.' |
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British Airways orders Boeing ... |
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The ongoing battle between
Boeing and Airbus has taken a new twist this
week, as British Airways have confirmed that the
first order in their fleet renewal and expansion
program has been for 4 Boeing 777 aircraft.
Airbus executives are still optimistic that BA
will choose to buy a significant number of
planes from them, but the chances of that have
been reduced, as the airline has now got the
largest 777 fleet in the world.
With the recent Open skies agreement between the
USA and Europe still being analysed by the major
airlines, it could be that the British Airways
decision to buy American is part of a policy to
gain it preferential treatment from the US
government as it seeks to buy into the US market
and offer regional flights as an add on to its
main transatlantic routes including flights to
Orlando. |
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