(SkyNewswire.com) --- Stratos Jet Charters Inc., a worldwide air charter agency, recently improved its North to South jet charter service by inviting one of the most reputable private jet operators in the Ft. Lauderdale area to join the Stratos Jets' Approved Vendor Program. Stratos Jets can now provide on-demand jet charter service for New England to South East routings on eight of the safest and most highly-maintained private jet aircraft.

The mission of the Stratos Jets' Approved Vendor Program is to ensure that every Stratos Jets vendor meets or exceeds with the highest safety expectations in the air charter industry. To become a member of the program, the Ft. Lauderdale-based operator was required to demonstrate its compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Stratos Jets' aircraft, maintenance and flight crew standards. These requirements were set forth to ensure the safety and quality of every jet charter flight.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Travelling can be a lot of fun but at times it also gets quite stressful when you have to visit quite a lot of places and have limited time on your hands, then it could be quite tiring to spend half of your time at airports waiting for flights. One of the best ways to travel in complete style and luxury is by luxury helicopter charter. When you have your own helicopter to travel, there are quite a lot of things that you can do with the amount of time that you save on your travels.


Time is essential for business executives- save time with luxury helicopter charters
Business executives who constantly have to travel can save a lot of time and get an edge over their competitors with the help of a helicopter charter. You can arrive at all the meetings in perfectly good shape and attend the meetings fully alert. You do not ever have to run the risk of reaching late for the meeting because of delayed flights. You would be able to enjoy your journey in a stress free way. Also, with a luxury helicopter charter, you do not have to stay overnight at any location because of the unavailability of flights. You would be able to travel to your next destination, no matter how late it is. There are no lengthy journeys for you from the regional airports since there are quite a lot of landing sites that are available for helicopters today.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- The boom in the aviation industry, the increasing competition has come like a boon for the passengers. Cheap flight tickets offered by various cheap airline flights have made air travel for more affordable for travellers. The ticket prices for cheap airline flights are sometimes available for as low as that of train tickets. This gives passengers the ease to book cheap flights online for their journey and saves on their travel time.


The information about cheap flight tickets is available easily to everyone. If you have an internet connection, then you can be the travel agent for your own vacation plan. You can learn about cheap airline flights that are available for your journey and book cheap flights online in no time at all. There are a number of different travel websites that can provide you with the information about cheap airline flights so you can plan your comfortable air journey.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- British Airways has reduced its Club World business class and selected first class fares in its luxury flight and holiday sale, ending 6 July 2010. Travellers can lie back and relax in the Club World fully flat beds, enjoy the luxury of First, or even benefit from the new flagship cabin that is currently being rolled out across the longhaul fleet. The airline recently announced an investment of GBP100 million in its flagship First brand drawing on its rich heritage to create an exclusive experience based on classic design and understated luxury.


Willie Walsh, British Airways' CEO, said: "Customers can take advantage of these great discounts with confidence. We recognise that some may be concerned about the possibility of future disruption but it is our intention to keep flying 100% of our longhaul operation throughout the coming months. We will keep the flag flying."

(SkyNewswire.com) --- British Airways is celebrating its first anniversary since the introduction of 'dynamic packaging' on ba.com. Online holiday bookings since the launch of the new technology are up 56% compared to last year as a result. The new technology, which allows customers to buy flight+hotel or flight+car packages in one booking, provides BA with a strong proposition in the increasingly sophisticated and price conscious leisure travel market. With an increased choice of product, guaranteed price savings and greater flexibility in their holiday planning, more customers than ever before are choosing to book their holiday on ba.com.


Claire Bentley, managing director BA Holidays, said: "Our simple, easy-to-use dynamic packaging feature has been a huge success with sales up a fantastic 56% on last year thanks to the great value we now offer. "We have tailored our expanded range of 3, 4 and 5 star hotels to meet all our customers' needs as well as increasing our range of all-inclusive properties by 70% to meet demand.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- British Airways' new London City flights to Ibiza and Palma de Majorca have proved so popular with customers that the routes are to be extended this autumn, shortly after having been added to the airlines' flight schedule. The summer-only flights to Ibiza, launched as recently as May, were due to end in September, but will now be extended for a further five weeks. The Friday and Sunday flights to Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza, on brand new Embraer 190 aircraft, will continue until October 31st, enabling a long weekend or longer breaks. The extension also means flights will operate until the end of the school half-term holidays.


Holidays in Palma de Majorca offer a great escape for families, couples or those who just want to get away. Among the holiday properties available via British Airways is the 5* Castillo Hotel Son Vida, an elegant Mallorcan country house-style hotel surrounded by subtropical parks and the championship Son Vida golf course. For the lighter pocket, stay at the 2* Playa Sol Hotel, located minutes away from the beautiful beach of Playa del Palma. Ibiza is popular for people seeking the perfect party. Ibiza also has a number of beautiful beaches waiting to be discovered and travellers can stay at the brand-new 5* Quilibra Aqua de Ibiza for luxurious relaxation or the 4* hotel Simbad & Spa located on the beautiful beach of Talamanca Bay close to famous clubs such as Pacha.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Introduction of an airline credit card proved to be an amazing discovery and a boon for frequent travelers. Airline credit cards were aimed at fulfilling the needs of the travelers and thereby encouraging the consumer to spend. Constant and collaborative efforts of credit companies and various airline companies led to the creation of an airline credit card.


Airline miles credit cards is another innovation which allows frequent fliers to count each mile. These cards work on the same lines as normal credit cards, but differ only in the variety of services they offer and of course their ability of buying an air ticket. Both the cards follow similar procedures for fees and transactions.

(Reuters) --- A woman left locked alone in a plane asleep for about four hours after landing at Philadelphia International Airport is suing United Airlines.


Oddly Enough
Ginger McGuire, 36, is suing for false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and negligence, her attorney Geoffrey Fieger told the U.S. newspaper Detroit Free Press. McGuire fell asleep on a late-night United Express flight from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia. She failed to wake up after the 50-passenger plane touched down at 12:27 a.m. local time and everyone else disembarked.

(SkyNewswire.com) --- Volga-Dnepr Airlines also received a distinction in the 'Cargo Carrier of the Year' nomination category. Such prestigious recognition by the Russian aviation industry reflects the performance levels of the two airlines, which form the cornerstone businesses of Volga-Dnepr Group, and their consistent implementation of the Group's growth strategy for scheduled and charter _a href="http://www.airbridgecargo.com"_cargo services_/a_. "AirBridgeCargo's strong performance in terms of its growth in capacity and revenue is particularly significant because it has been achieved in market downturn conditions, supported by new business opportunities developed as a result of our 'Cargo Supermarket' strategy," noted Alexei Isaikin, President of Volga-Dnepr Group.


In 2009, ABC expanded its route network, added a seventh B747 freighter to its fleet and proceeded with hub development at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. These steps, along with other measures, enabled the company to increase its cargo traffic by over 20% and post a positive year-end financial result.

(SkyNewswire.com)--- Seeking to complement its original, although larger-capacity, A-300 on thinner sectors with a low-cost, minimally redesigned counterpart and thus expand its product range, Airbus Industrie explored a shorter-fuselage version designated "A-310."

A consortium of European aircraft manufacturers headquartered in Toulouse, France, Airbus Industrie itself had arisen because the design and marketing of an advanced, widebody airliner had exceeded the financial strength of any single, Europe-based company, the principle ones of which had included de Havilland with the DH.106 Comet, Vickers with the VC-10, Hawker Siddeley with the HS.121 Trident, and the British Aircraft Corporation with the BAC-111 in the United Kingdom, and Sud-Aviation with the SE.210 Caravelle and Dassault-Breguet with the Mercure 100 in France.

The A-300, its first joint design, not only signaled its launch as an aircraft manufacturer, but that of the aircraft itself and the concept it represented—a large-capacity, widebody, twin-engined "airbus." Intended to compete with Boeing, and particularly with its still-envisioned 767, it provided a non-US alternative to continental carriers and a foundation on which a European commercial product range could be built, offering the first serious challenge to both Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas.

(SkyNewswire.com)--- Excited about the thought of virtual flying? An A.I. program that simulates flight down to the cockpit controls. In the making of this game an actual hydraulic actuator was used, powered by computer technology. Flight simulation in aviation varies from pilot training and flight deck crew to to design + development in military aircraft. Aerospace companies also utilise flight simulators to test + develop flight hardware, software + aircraft systems. Mostly pilots use flight simulation to train for flying. From a technical aspect, advanced full flight simulators (FFS) with motion platforms are able to move in all(6DOF) six degrees of freedom combined with visual system to view the outside world. A high-tech simulator provides a pilot with the realistic three rotations and three linear movements of a control loading system.


Advanced flight
The skillful utilisation of 100's of finely crafted navigational instruments, and precise calculations to masterfully command a technological marvel through the turbulent winds of the night sky!

(SkyNewswire.com)--- The volcanic disruption occurred just as experts felt the airline industry had turned the corner following two years of record losses, however this natural disaster highlights the continued fragile state of the sector. In the event of insolvency of a non-bonded ticket, Airflights.co.uk have undertaken to refund customers their lost monies and will even arrange their flight home if they are away at the time of the collapse. These repatriation costs can often be several times more than the original ticket costs.


‘Many of our clients are protected by the CAA’s ATOL arrangement because they are booking charter flights, however there is a massive volume who arrange unprotected flight tickets only and as a result fall outside of the government sponsored protection’ explained Colin Gill, Sales Manager at Airflights.co.uk. The decision to include the service is to assist those customers who, many times unknowingly, travel with no financial protection. Section 75 of the consumer protection act also has limited protection as it only applies for credit card purchases in excess of £100 which is little assistance for many low cost fares plus it will not pay additional and increased costs in getting someone home.


‘The collapse of airlines like Globespan and XL, which left thousands out of pocket, highlighted the gap in consumer protection which we are now addressing and our message to consumers is to find out what protection you have from your ticket issuer and make sure they can meet their obligations’, added Gill. ‘As a responsible travel organisation we have taken steps to protect our clients.’ ‘An airline failure would result in huge problems for our customers so we have arranged added security directly with International Passenger Protection Limited, the specialist in providing solutions to the travel industry. Now anyone who books with us can now have peace of mind against their airline’s insolvency’ concluded Gill.

(SkyNewswire.com)--- The Demoiselle, a small, frail monoplane seemingly incapable of supporting a single pilot, not only reflects the equally short man who designed it, but the long lineage of lighter-than-air craft which had preceded it. That designer, five-foot, four-inch, 110-pound Alberto Santos-Dumont, who had hailed from Brazil, had spent most of his life in France, site of the world's first successful aerial balloon ascent by the Montgolfier Brothers in 1783 and an event which may have subconsciously sparked his own related experimentation. Unlike fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft, which employ the science of aerodynamics for lift, these balloons attain lift by means of the buoyancy principle.


Air is compressible—that is, its own weight compresses it. The lower its location in the atmosphere, the more air—and therefore weight—is above it, rendering it densest at or near the ground. Conversely, as it rises, it becomes thinner. Hot air balloons utilize these varying conditions to attain lift. Heated air, or lighter-than-air gas, within a balloon's envelope, causes the balloon itself to rise, because its internal air is less dense than the surrounding air. When it reaches the altitude where the density of its internal air equals that of the surrounding air, it ceases to rise and attains a state of internal and external equilibrium—that is, its internal gas density equals the external gas density. At this point, the downward pressure exerted on the balloon equals the upward pressure on the balloon. Balloons are designated "aerostats" because their lift is attained in a static air mass—that is, an air mass which does not move. An aerostat moves vertically, but relies on existing wind direction and speed for its horizontal motion. As a result, it cannot be relied on for specific-direction transportation.


Aerostats with controlled movement employ one or more propellers for velocity and direction, and are designated "airships," but these propellers do not provide or augment lift.

(SkyNewswire.com)--- Helicopter private pilot license is a license that permits the holder of the license to act and fly a privately owned aircraft. The requirements and other relevant guidelines to be adhered to are laid down by International Civil Aviation Authority, but the actual implementation differs in different countries. Different types of private pilot license are issued for the most common categories of aircraft. Some of them are powered airplanes which can be single or multi engine and for sea or land, rotorcraft which is the helicopters and gyroplanes, gliders, airships and balloons. A private pilot license is issued according to JAA which is European regulations or FAA which is American certification. However, each organization has their own and different set of requirements. Insurance rates of private pilot are much lower than the recreational or sports pilot because private pilots are trained professionally to a higher degree.


With private pilot license one is restricted to fly only non commercial aircrafts only. There are different licenses for transportation, commercial use and flying by instrument which is the night flying. Moreover one cannot each type of aircraft or helicopter with one basic license; instead a brief training program has to be taken for each specific aircraft to get the license to it. There are numerous steps which must be undertaken to obtain a helicopter private pilot license.


 The very first step is to ensure that one is healthy enough to fly. It’s mandatory for all private pilots to pass the medical examination and hold a medical certificate. The requirements include ability to perceive the colors necessary for a pilot’s duty and have minimum 20/40 vision in both the eyes.
 The next step is to get one self enrolled in the good training center. There are thousands of such institutes operating everywhere, but should make a wise selection which has a good faculty.
 Thirdly is to take the training. It all depends on the personal preference of taking these classes. One can opt for twice a week or may be 5 times a week also. But the classes are very expensive. One has to take minimum of 60 hours training under guidance and 10 hours of solo flying. As the instructor is satisfied he endorses the trainee s logbook and allows him to take the practical test with the FAA.
 Practical test includes an oral test where the student has to prove and demonstrate his aeronautical knowledge. This is followed by a field test where the student is required to show their flying skills. Students must undertake the practical test within 60 days of trainer’s endorsement.

(SkyNewswire.com)--- Many agree that this winter was the one of the worst in recorded history. Just as we were recovering from one significant snowstorm, another was on its way. But now spring is finally here, the weather’s getting warmer and the flowers are beginning to bloom. And what better way to get a good look at Mother Nature’s beauty than by enjoying the outdoors from new heights — from the pilot’s seat of an airplane. “Whether you’ve dreamed of flying an airplane, or just want to view nature from a different perspective, taking an introductory flight is a fun, easy way to say goodbye to cabin fever,” says Craig Fuller, president of the nonprofit Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).


It all starts with Let’s Go Flying, a learn-to-fly program sponsored by AOPA, where you’ll actually fly an airplane under the direction of an FAA-licensed flight instructor. You’ll sit in the pilot’s seat, take the controls, taxi out to the runway and finally pull back on the yoke as you take off and soar into the wild blue yonder. Just go to the Let’s Go Flying website, www.letsgoflying.com, where you’ll find a database of more than 3,500 flight schools. Many offer introductory flights for about $99; just enter your zip code to find the one closest to you. Plus, the site is jam-packed with everything you need to know about earning a private pilot’s certificate.


“There’s nothing like the freedom of flight,” notes Fuller. “And at this time of year the view from 3,000 feet is simply incredible.” With more than 415,000 members, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association represents nearly three-quarters of all U.S. pilots. Since 1939, AOPA has represented the interests of general aviation, which covers all flying except the scheduled airlines and the military. Its headquarters are in Frederick, Md.