EU-US Open Skies Agreement

[London Calling]

This came into effect yesterday, and basically allows for more competition for flights across the atlantic opening the skies to other carriers other than Virgin and BA. In theory at least this should lead to a reduction in prices, although I have read that at Heathrow there are very few landing slots available and hence may not have the impact that we customers desire.

Any thoughts ?

[Revtel]

This came into effect yesterday, and basically allows for more competition for flights across the atlantic opening the skies to other carriers other than Virgin and BA. In theory at least this should lead to a reduction in prices, although I have read that at Heathrow there are very few landing slots available and hence may not have the impact that we customers desire.

Any thoughts ?

Some competition would be nice, especially out of Manchester!

Easyjet to Sanford :thumbsup2

[Goofyish]

As you say spare slots at Gatwick and Heathrow are very rare, so I'm hoping it will result in more direct flights from regional airports like East Midlands and Birmingham as well as from the smaller airports.

Anything to give more choice (and hopefully lower fares) is a good thing :)

[Netty]

Some competition would be nice, especially out of Manchester!

Easyjet to Sanford :thumbsup2

totally agree with you, we need more direct flights from Manchester:thumbsup2 especially scheduled

[DADAD]

My Local Travel Agents In Doncaster Told Me That Virgin Were In Talks To Fly Out Of Doncaster

[juliebrooks35]

More scheduled flights out of Glasgow would be fantastic. :thumbsup2

It certainly will be interesting over the next few months or so to see if this agreement makes a difference.

[Young Pooh]

DADAD - it does seem as if it may be true about VA flying from Doncaster in the future. In 2007 we met a family from Doncaster when on holiday in Antigua (we are fairly local). They actually live next to the airport in the old RAF houses and said that Richard Branson had been to the airport a couple of times. It seems that as Doncaster used to be an RAF base, the runway is very substantial and would not need much work on it to take the new double deckers. It seems VA are considering this as their northern base for the new planes!!

Sorry to go slightly off track but thought this may be of interest.

[susieh]

With a bit of luck perhaps they'll look at Farnborough (Surrey) for a new Southern base - the A380 flew from there at the last Farnborough airshow (I watched it take off and land - VERY impressive) so the runway is definitely long enough ;)

[Mermaid2sea]

I was hoping that there would be a flight from LHR to MCO

[EPCOTFANROD]

What would I do for a decent flight out of Belfast. There was some flights in the 90s but they seem to have gone. Only Globespan/Airtours now (so nothing really £££) I have to connect to Dublin or usually Gatwick to get to Orlando.

[poggs]

Remember open skies has absolutely nothing to do with any airport other than heathrow.

Airlines have been able to fly from any UK airport (apart from heathrow) to any Us airport since 1997! Very very few have decided to try. Continental and Delta are the only ones to really attempt it. Us airways too, to a lesser extent. What airlines want to do is fly very very high paying business passengers from heathrow to new york. They are completely uninterested in orlando or leisure travellers looking for cheap flights.

open skies will simply not affect passengers wanting to go to orlando in any great way.