Deals of the Week: Planes past, present and future
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Planes past
"The Conquest of the Air" is the title of an exhibition of 20th-century art of the aeroplane, on show in Toulouse – home of Airbus – until 2 February. The work of artists such as Henri Matisse, Man Ray and Andy Warhol has been assembled in a gallery called Les Abattoirs (00 33 5 62 48 58 00; www.lesabattoirs.org) at 76 Allées Charles-de-Fitte, on the trendy Left Bank of the Garonne. It opens 11am-7pm daily except Monday.
You can fly to Toulouse from six UK airports: Birmingham on Flybe (08705 676 676; www.flybe.com), East Midlands on Bmibaby (0870 264 2229; www.bmibaby.com), Gatwick on British Airways (0845 77 333 77; www.ba.com), Heathrow on Air France (0845 0845 111; www.airfrance.com), Manchester on BMI (0870 60 70 555; www.flybmi.com) and Stansted on Buzz (0870 240 7070; www.buzzaway.com); the fare of £91 on Flybe on the weekend of 17-20 January looks good.
Planes present
All the low-cost airlines are staging January sales, but the underlying problem for them is how to fill a lot of capacity in the depths of winter. For example, easyJet (0870 600 0000; www.easyJet.com) flies five times a day from Luton to Paris, and three times a day from Liverpool, meaning 1,200 seats to fill each day, each way. Test bookings made for flights this month reveal reasonable availability at fares of £35 return from Luton and £37 from Liverpool.
Planes future
Five weeks from now, Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryanair.com) invades Spain from Britain. The Irish no-frills airline is launching its first route to the Iberian peninsula, from Stansted to Girona, on 20 February. Test bookings made this week found a fare of £59 return (note that the airport is misleadingly described by the airline as "Barcelona", a city some 60 miles away).
Nine days later, on 1 March, GB Airways (booked through British Airways, 0845 77 333 77; www.ba.com) is launching daily flights from Gatwick to the Costa Brava airport. Fares will start at £99 return.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments