British Airways' Biofuel Plans

British Airways has announced plans to power part of its fleet with biofuel from 2014. The carrier is working in partnership with the Solena Group, “a next-generation, zero-emission, bioenergy company based in Washington DC”, to open a factory in East London that will convert organic waste into biofuel.

BA claims that the volume of biofuel it will produce annually would be more that twice the amount required to make all of its flights from London City airport carbon neutral – the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road per year.

New Manchester service to Athens and onwards to Iraq

Greek carrier Viking Hellas has started scheduled flights from Manchester to Athens, as well as several services to destinations in Iraq.

The new airline – a subsidiary of charter carrier Viking Airlines – commenced three times-weekly flights (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from Manchester to the Greek capital on February 1, and plans to increase this to four times per week from the start of March.

The carrier has also launched weekly scheduled services to Erbil, Sulaymanyiah and Baghdad in Iraq, and says that timings have been designed to provide onward connection opportunities for UK passengers looking to reach Iraq.

SAS offers free City Cards

Scandinavian Airlines is offering all its guests free city cards for Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen entitling them to free city transportation, free entrance to over 100 museums, discounts in restaurants and shops in addition to city guide books. The cards are available from 1st March-30th April for Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen and 1st-30th November for Stockholm and Copenhagen. Ask your travel consultant for further information on how to obtain your free City Card

Increased Capacity and Japan's Nagoya for Etihad

Etihad Airways has announced further expansion of it's network with increased capacity on its Manchester service with the introduction of a B777 on this route. This follows on from the recent introduction of flights to the Japanese city of Nagoya and additional service to the Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.