Thomson Airways has confirmed that their new Boeing 787 Dreamliner will begin commercial flights on 8 July.

Their first aircraft, G-TUIA, has recently been spotted test flying at Everett Paine Field prior to its delivery some time in June.

The inaugural Thomson services with the airline will be from Manchester and London Gatwick to Cancun and Orlando, FL.

Last week marked the final flight in Europe of a BAC One-Eleven (1-11) aircraft, with QinetiQ’s (former Royal Aircraft  Establishment) last flying example, ZH763, making the short journey from Boscombe Down to Newquay, in the south west of England.

The aircraft is to be preserved under cover as a fully serviceable exhibit, which will hopefully be seen moving around the airfield under its own power at special events held by its new owners, Classic Air Force, who have a number of serviceable historic aircraft.

As the type approaches its 50th anniversary, it is fitting to retire an example in this way, for future generations to enjoy.

Meanwhile, Classic Jet Tours in the USA are organising four enthusiasts flights on the last remaining operational 1-11 in the USA this October. The aircraft, N999BW, is operated in a VIP configuration by Jet Place Inc. These tours are likely to be the last chance for anyone to fly on a BAC One-Eleven, so if you’re interested make a booking at www.classicjettours.com and get down to Dallas Love Field.

IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase 18 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, plus 18 options.

This move comes after speculation over whether an order for future long-haul aircraft to equip British Airways would go with Boeing or Airbus.

In the same deal, IAG agreed terms and slots that would allow it to also equip Iberia with A350s – a decision it will make when Iberia’s profitability has improved.

The A350 will operate alongside the Airbus A380 in British Airways‘ long haul fleet, in addition to the Boeing 747-400 and 787.

British Airways’ first Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been spotted at Seattle Paine Field, and we’ve got the picture for you here (courtesy of moonm’s flickr stream).

This comes shortly after the first pictures of BA’s Airbus A380, which was unveiled at Hamburg recently.

It’s a significant week for British Airways! I just hope the Dreamliner problems can be ironed out quickly so that the aircraft can be delivered as near as possible to the original schedule, which was July.

The first Airbus A380 for British Airways has been unveiled at Hamburg Finkenwerder airport as it emerged from the paintshop.

Here we present the picture of the first British Airways A380, registered G-XLEA (msn 95).

How great does it look?

Remember that you can book flights on these aircraft from London Heathrow to Hong Kong and Los Angeles, starting in October.

Virgin Atlantic’s new UK domestic arm, Little Red, begins flying today with the launch of its London Heathrow to Manchester flights.

The airline will also introduce flights from Heathrow to Aberdeen and Edinburgh on 9th and 5th April respectively.

The airline is using Airbus A320 aircraft operated in full livery (as seen here, (c) Malcolm Nason) with Aer Lingus crews. The first aircraft is EI-DEO

If you’re out and about with your camera over the next few days and catch a shot of the Virgin Little Red A320, please share it on our Facebook page or comment below!

Dubai has taken second place in the list of busiest international airports – that is, the amount of international traffic that is handled.

The airport is now ahead of Paris Charles de Gaulle and Hong Kong airports, which previously handled more international traffic. Dubai now has its sights firmly on top position as it approaches London Heathrow, which has occupied top slot for many years but is now at full capacity. Heathrow’s options have been severely hampered by the UK government declining additional runways at the airport.

Dubai Airport handled 10,640,120 passengers in the first two months of this year, a rise of 13% over the same period last year. It hopes to gain top spot by 2015. It recently opened the new Concourse A, which is developed to handle up to 20 Airbus A380 superjumbos at once.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s massive Lion Air Airbus order, Ryanair has come up trumps with its own record order (for a European airline) for 175 Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Ryanair currently operates 305 Boeing 737-800s on routes from its bases across Europe, offering low fares.

The new aircraft will partially replace older examples in the fleet, but mainly allow the fleet and route network to grow.

Ryanair CEO, Michale O’Leary, said: “Ryanair is pleased to sign this agreement with Boeing to purchase 175 new 737-800 jets, which will expand our fleet to over 400 units, creating over 3,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers, while allowing us to grow our low-cost airline service by about 5 percent per annum over the next several years and take our traffic to 100 million passengers by March 2019.”

So spotters in Europe will have some more numbers to crunch as deliveries arrive until 2018. Ryanair continues to evaluate the benefits of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft which enters service in 2017.

Sycamore Aviation has turned Durham Tees Valley Airport, in north east England, into one of the newest in a growing number of airports in which scrapping and recycling of old airliners takes place.

The company was founded by a former airline pilot, and he has big plans for the company, with potentially hundreds of aircraft ready to be disposed of over the coming years.

The company has already scrapped three Boeing 737 aircraft which had been retired in Russia – one -300 and two -500 models. The process involves removing usable parts for resale, whilst the fuselage is stripped down. One of the 737-500s is to have its cockpit section sent to an aviation academy.

Sycamore occupies Hangar 1 at Durham Tees Valley Airport. Aircraft will often be seen outside the hangar, and the company will potentially take aircraft on long term storage. These are likely to occupy one of the disused runways at the airport.

British Airways have made the first flights on their new Airbus A380 aircraft available to book.

The aircraft are due to enter service in October, and will operate to both Hong Kong and Los Angeles on selective flights from London Heathrow.

The tentative dates of entry to service, which can be booked now (and are subject to change) are:

LHR-Los Angeles-LHR
15 October, BA269, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
18 October, BA283, Monday, Friday
27 October, BA269, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday

LHR-Hong Kong-LHR
15/16 November, BA25, Monday-Sunday

Here’s a video promoting the new aircraft in the fleet: