The number of flight delays in the UK is at its lowest level for 14 years, as demand for air travel continues to decline.

Punctuality statistics, released today for ten major airports in the UK, show that 82 per cent of scheduled flights were on time in April-June this year, up from 71 per cent last year.

“On time” is defined as leaving or arriving at the aircraft stand within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

The latest assault by British Airways on no-frills carriers is designed to hit them where it hurts – on fares.

The carrier’s low fare finder, launched today, lists the lowest prices available to all of its 150 destinations, then shows when to fly to bag those fares. BA already has one of the most transparent airline booking engines online, but this new tool nudges them head and shoulders above other airline sites.

The airline will offer a total of 63 weekly return flights from March next year to destinations including popular summer holiday destinations such as Ibiza, Malaga and Malta.

It will also introduce flights to Palma, Limoges, Montpellier, Nantes, Carcassonne, Pisa, Venice (Treviso), Krakow, Faro, Knock and Murcia. Tickets are available from today.

The announcement follows the decision last month to add five new routes from Prestwick Airport in Glasgow.

A new BA ‘value calculator’ tool will allow customers to compare costs with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair.

British Airways is seeking to expose the extent of low-cost airlines’ extra charges by launching a “value calculator” on its website.

The tool enables passengers to select how they wish to travel – whether to check in at the airport or online, choose a seat, put luggage in the hold or opt for drinks or snacks.

British Airways and bmi took two of the bottom five places in a league table produced by the Association of European Airlines, covering the winter months.

It showed that bmi lost 17.2 bags per thousand passengers, which made it the fourth worst performer of the 26 airlines .

British Airways, meanwhile was one place better off, with 15.6 bags mislaid per 1,000 passengers. Virgin Atlantic was the third best performing airline, mislaying 4.9 bags per 1,000 passengers.

The Spanish carrier lost 19.2 bags for every 1,000 people who boarded its planes during the winter months, ending in March.

It was rated the worst performer among 26 participants in a survey carried out by the Association of European Airlines.

Air France came next, with 18.9 bags going astray per 1,000 passengers, followed by the Portuguese carrier, TAP with 17.3 bags and then Bmi, who “mishandled” 17.2 bags.

Airlines are reducing the size of spoons and dropping in-flight magazines to make planes lighter and save fuel during the recession, according to the International Air Transport Association.

In the United States, Northwest Airlines has excluded spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal does not require one.

It is not alone, according to Paul Steele, director of the environment at IATA

Mr Walsh wants to axe 4,000 jobs by the end of the month in an attempt to recoup losses at the airline, which has been hit by the high cost of fuel and falling passenger numbers.

Leaders of all the main BA unions are to meet with management for a week of crunch talks.

Mr Walsh said: “The trading environment is the toughest it has ever been, I don’t think there is any evidence that it is improving.

Mr Pearce, the aviation industry’s leading economist, said that transatlantic economy class fares have fallen by an average of 34 per cent over the past year, while those to Europe dropped by 31 per cent.

Business class fares have fallen by an average of 25 per cent during the same period.

“I think fares will fall by at least 10 per cent over the coming year,” Mr Pearce said. “People should shop around, there are some great deals to be had particularly on transatlantic routes.

British Airways has announced the biggest loss since the company was privatised in 1987.

BA reported a loss before tax of £401m for the year to 31 March, after seeing its results hit by a weak pound and higher fuel costs.

The airline made a revised profit of £922m in the previous year.

BA also offered staff the option of taking unpaid leave or working part-time. Chief executive Willie Walsh said he would work for no pay in July.

The new charges, which come into force next week, will also see passengers being charged £40 to print out a boarding card at the airport if they leave the original document at home.

Ryanair claims that the charges will save the company about £44 million a year which, it said, will be used to reduce fares.

The move will entail stripping out check-in desks at 146 airports across the Europe, meaning that nobody will face the £10 a flight charge for using the service at the terminal.

Under the new rules, a passenger travelling with three bags will now pay up to £120 in baggage charges on a return flight.

The checked baggage weight limit remains the same whether passengers carry one bag or three bags – at 15kg per person – but the intention behind the weighty charge is to encourage passengers to carry all 15kg in one case.

This “kiss and drop” charges were due to come into force last month but have been put on hold until further notice.
Luton would have been the first airport in the country to charge for dropping off passengers outside the terminal, although Birmingham forces everyone to use the nearby short-stay car park.

“We haven’t implemented it yet,” said a Luton airport spokesman. “There are some other things in the project we need to work on,
“There is no fixed date for it, we will advise passengers in due course. Nothing has been set in stone.”

The company has asked authorities if pilots could be authorised to officiate weddings in the air.

A spokesman said they had written to Luton Borough Council – the body responsible for registration in the area where easyJet’s London Luton Airport headquarters lie – to make preliminary inquiries about the feasibility of marrying people on board.

The move would appeal to a growing number of couples looking to get married somewhere out of the ordinary, and the company said it had already received numerous requests from couples.

The controversial move was announced today after a third of passengers on the Irish airline’s website voted in favour of charging fees for obese passengers.

“Over 100,000 passengers took part in our competition and almost one in three think that very large passengers should be asked to pay a fat tax,“ said Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara. “A ‘fat tax’ will only apply to those really large passengers who invade the space of the passengers sitting beside them.”

The Government’s plan to increase taxes on air travel could threaten the future of several regional hubs, airport authorities said this week.

The Airport Operators Association (AOA), which represents 72 British airports, wrote this week to Geoff Hoon, Secretary of State for Transport, to give warning that proposals to increase airport taxes and policing costs and to install new radar systems could have a negative impact on British airports during the downturn

Ryanair will tomorrow close a poll that asks what should be the airline’s next ‘tax’, to add to its catalogue of charges such as wheelchair use and payment by debit card.

It’s usually easy to ignore the airline’s naked thirst for publicity. But the poll results to date are irresistible.

Of 45,000 votes cast so far, nearly half are in favour of charging excess fees for overweight passengers. (The next highest rated suggestion is to charge £3 to smoke in a converted loo. Interesting…).

An analysis by the Telegraph shows that charges for anything from using a credit card to buying the transparent plastic bags needed to get through security often add up to more than cost of airline tickets.

Passengers at regional airports are hardest hit. It emerged this week that Luton is to charge a £1 fee for cars dropping off passengers at its terminal. The airport already demands that travellers pay a £1 fee to use a trolley and the same amount for a plastic bag to carry items such as toothpaste or cosmetics through security. Joining the fast-track queue through the airport scanners will set passengers back another £3.

Crews have been told that they will have to bring their own beverages on board – even though the airline will still allow them to use the plane’s hot water.

The move is the latest reflection of the downturn in the aviation industry which has seen airlines cutting unprofitable routes in an attempt to make savings.

Last November the airline reported a 45 per cent fall in profits, largely because of the soaring cost of aviation fuel during the summer.

The chief executive of Aer Lingus, Dermot Mannion, resigned on Monday.

The airline’s chairman, Colm Barrington, will take over Mr Mannion’s role until a successor is appointed.

The resignation came a month after the group reported a net loss of 108m euros for 2008.

Mr Mannion, who took up the job in 2005, said: “My decision to step down will allow a new CEO to bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the business.”