ROUTE NEWS

ASCENT:

BRITISH AIRWAYS will fly nonstop twice-weekly from Heathrow to the Seychelles from March 24, using a B787.

DELTA AIR LINES will place its A330 on flights from Heathrow to Atlanta, Detroit and New York JFK on March 24, boosting capacity and adding the new Delta One business class cabin.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC will gain almost 40,000 seats annually to flights from Manchester to Atlanta and New York when it starts operating its B747 on the routes “on most days”.

CATHAY PACIFIC will launch a new four-times weekly Dublin to Hong Kong route using an A350-900 from June 2018.

DESCENT:

RYANAIR cancelled or planned to cancel more than 20,000 flights between September 2017 and March 2018.

KENYA AIRWAYS is to axe its Hong Kong and Hanoi services from October 29.

MONARCH AIRLINES went bust in October, leading to the UK's biggest peacetime repatriation operation.