Destination Updates

Issue Date: 27th February 2020 Virgin Atlantic has announced a new Manchester-Delhi route, taking off in October. The three-times-weekly route will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays departing Manchester at 4.40pm and arriving in Delhi at 6.05am the following morning. Return flights will operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays...

Issue Date: 20th February 2020 Turkey will suspend entry visa requirements for British holidaymakers next month in a bid to boost inbound tourism. Brits travelling to Turkey currently have to acquire a £27 e-visa permitting them entry. However, from 2 March, the UK – along with several countries in the EU Schengen area – will be granted an exemption to Turkey’s visa...

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all but essential travel to Wuhan city, Hubei Province. This is due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak. Public Health England has offered advice to travellers. You should comply with any additional screening measures put in place by the local authorities. For more information and advice, visit the TravelHealthPro...

Issue Date: 20th November 2019 Virgin Atlantic will add new Heathrow flights to San Francisco and Delhi for Summer 2020. It includes a new weekly Friday flight to San Francisco, boosting the service to twice-daily. Virgin will deploy its new Airbus A350 aircraft on the route from May 2020 which, when coupled with the new weekly flight, will increase capacity by 40,000 seats for the...

Issue Date: 14th November 2019 There has been flooding in parts of Venice, caused by seasonal high waters and heavy rainfall. Other parts of northern and central Italy have also been affected. Further strong winds, heavy rainfall and storms are forecast from Friday 15 November into the weekend The government has declared a state of emergency in Venice. Customers on holiday in...

Issue Date: 1st November 2019 TUI has today announced that they will be putting Sharm el Sheikh back on sale next week, less than a fortnight after the Foreign Office lifted its ban on travel to the resort. The operator has announced flights from Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham to get under way in February, followed by flights from Doncaster Sheffield and Bristol airports in...

Issue Date: 23rd October 2019 Air New Zealand is axing London flights, marking the end of its flagship international route after 36 years - with the loss of up to 130 jobs. The airline announced today it was canning its Los Angeles-London flights from next October but it will also add a non-stop flight to New York from New Zealand. Air New Zealand acting chief executive officer...

Issue Date: 22nd October 2019 Further to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) changing the overall level of the FCO Travel Advice for Egypt in November 2015, to advise against all but essential travel to or from Sharm El Sheikh by air, the FCO have today removed the advice against travel to or from Sharm El Sheikh by air. The FCO advise against all but essential travel...

Issue Date: 25th September 2019 KLM have announced that they will be launching 3x weekly flights between Amsterdam and Austin as of May 4, 2020. The flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-300 with the following schedule on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: KL667 Amsterdam to Austin departing 12:40PM arriving 4:10PM KL668 Austin to Amsterdam departing 6:00PM arriving...

Issue Date: 21st September 2019 Travelling to Cuba from the USA Travelling for tourism reasons directly from the USA to Cuba isn’t allowed under US law. The law applies to US nationals and all foreign nationals who are either resident in the USA, or travelling through the USA en route to Cuba. Those travelling on direct flights between the UK and Cuba, or via other countries...

Issue Date: 27th August  A travel alert has been issued for islands in the eastern Caribbean as Tropical Storm Dorian is forecast to hit today (Tuesday). Dorian is currently located at 11.8N 55.8W, which is approximately 270 miles (430 KM) east southeast of Barbados and about 375 miles (606 km) east south east of Saint Lucia.  British travellers are being urged to “exercise due...

Issue Date: 23rd August British Airways looks set to capitalise on Virgin Atlantic’s decision to pull out of St Lucia next summer with the addition of two extra weekly services to the island from London. The new flights will operate for two months between 4 June 2020 and 29 August 2020, expanding BA’s scheduled direct service from Gatwick to St Lucia from seven flights a week to...

Issue Date: 16th August 2019 Joint venture partners Virgin Atlantic and Delta are increasing their transatlantic operations between the UK and US in summer 2020 with an extra 10,000 seats per week. Among a host of moves, Delta will return to Manchester with a route to Boston as well as joining forces with Virgin at Gatwick for the first time. Meanwhile, Virgin will increase its...

Issue Date: 8th August P&O Cruises cancels Dubai and Arabian Gulf programme President Paul Ludlow said the decision came following the detention by Iranian authorities of a British-flagged tanker flying the Red Ensign. P&O have been closely monitoring the sea passage between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman and taken advice from external authorities before making its...

The airline said the move followed a recent network review.  “The proposed changes mean we will increase flights from London Gatwick to Antigua, boosting services from three per week to four per week, from 8 June 2020,” the airline said in a statement.   “Our Havana service will also move from Gatwick to Heathrow and will remain the UK’s only direct scheduled flight to...

Budget carrier Wizz Air will launch flights to Moldovan capital Chisinau from Doncaster Sheffield airport on 20 December. Flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays, all bookable through JTA Holidays. The route is Wizz’s 14th from Doncaster Sheffield, where it flies to Vilnius in Lithuania; Gdansk, Katowice, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw in Poland; Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and...

A new route to Denmark is being introduced from Edinburgh airport this week. Twice-weekly flights to Aalborg will be operated by Great Dane Airlines. Departures on Mondays and Thursdays will be flown by an 118-seat ERJ-195 aircraft. The carrier is based in Aalborg and it will also offer charter flights from the Danish airport alongside its scheduled services. The route to the...

The FCO has changed its stance on the country and no longer advises against all but essential travel. Instead, the warning is merely to see the FCO advice before travelling. The UK government advised against all but essential travel following Easter’s terrorist attacks in which more than 250 people were killed in bombings that targeted hotels and churches. This led to some operators...

A new ban is being imposed on travel from the US to Cuba for American group tours as well as cruise ships sailing to the island. The move, announced by Trump administration officials, intends to roll back a US-Cuba thaw that began under former president Barack Obama. US officials say the new rules seek to punish the country’s communist regime. Norwegian Cruise Line tweeted to one...

BA’s three-times weekly Heathrow-Islamabad route took off on Sunday (2 June), flying to Islamabad’s brand new international airport, which opened in May last year. The airline confirmed plans to resume flights to Pakistan last December. The route will be operated by a three-class Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, flying Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. BA stopped flying to Pakistan...

Iberia has announced a new direct 4 x weekly service between Madrid and Guayaquil in Ecuador from 13 December 2019. The service will be operated by A330-200 aircraft with a capacity of 288 seats. This will complement Iberia’s current schedule of six direct flights per week to Quito (increasing daily from July 2019) and will boast excellent connections with Iberia’s network in Spain and...

As part of the draft Master Plan, Birmingham Airport is building a terminal extension to provide a larger departure lounge with glazed mezzanine, and improved baggage sortation facilities. In addition to the terminal extension, an enhanced check-in area is also being provided. This investment will deliver a vastly improved experience for our passengers.   The extension to the terminal...

Flights to Tunisia have resumed from Leeds Bradford airport after a four-year hiatus. Weekly Nouvelair flights to Enfidha, operated on behalf of Thomas Cook, took off on Wednesday (22 May). The route will operate until 24 September. Leeds Bradford last served Tunisia in 2015, when Tui flew to Enfidha. Tui pulled its flights though following the Sousse terror attack in...

Virgin Atlantic are excited to announce that they are relaunching flights between London Heathrow and Mumbai, India, with flights on sale from Tuesday, 28th May. The first daily year-round service is set to commence on 27th October 2019 and will complement the long established route between London and Delhi. The Mumbai flights will also be operated on the Boeing 787-9 aircraft,...