Ordinary Gweilo

Cheap flights direct to London?  From The Guardian:

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines yesterday announced plans to operate five direct Gatwick-Hong Kong flights a week from October, with tickets costing from £75 one way, plus taxes.

Presumably this means that a small number of seats will be available at this price if you book far enough ahead, and prices will rise for later bookings – the classic "budget airline" model.

The start-up Asian carrier will offer free food and some business-class accommodation. Passengers can also pay a supplement to upgrade their meals. The new London service will be operated using Boeing 747s.

The airline will be competing directly against British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic on the route. BA’s lowest Hong Kong return fare is currently £389 flying out of Heathrow.

Gatwick is an altogether more pleasant place than Heathrow (with a direct train service to central London).  No news on the schedule or the seat pitch (but they bought the planes from Singapore Airlines, and I suppose they won’t have made many changes to the configuration).  Apparently there will be 81 business class seats, and 278 in economy.  Their website is here (but currently has no real information).

I predict that Virgin, BA & Cathay will offer a limited number of seats at a lower price (for advance booking) to try to reduce the impact made by their new competitor.