Sadly Astraeus Airlines ceased operations this week due to financial problems and the lack of work over winter months.

There may be hope, as celebrity pilot and Marketing Director for the airline – Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden fame) – has vowed to save it in some form, and secure the jobs and operating style of the airline.

But in the meantime, it has left Iceland Express in the lurch as they used Boeing 737s of Astraeus on a number of routes. Therefore, they have drafted in the help of Holidays Czech Airlines and their Airbus A320s, which will be operating on routes out of Keflavik to places such as Copenhagen, London Gatwick, Alicante, Oslo, New York, Berlin and Warsaw.

I don’t yet know whether this is an interim measure, or if the deal will last indefinitely, but it at least gives those of you at those airports something interesting to look out for!

CSA Czech Airlines has announced that it will no longer serve its two routes to the UK from the Winter 2010/11 timetable.

It will cancel its services from Prague to London Heathrow and Manchester from 30th and 29th October respectively.

The rest of their network continues as normal.