Danish airline Cimber Sterling cancelled all flights and applied for bankruptcy this morning, 3rd May.

Cimber Sterling is registered with the Rejsegarantifonden (Travel Guarantee Fund), which means that all passengers with future flight plans will be refunded. However, passengers currently abroad have been left stranded (unless they purchased separate travel insurance). Passengers having booked through a travel agent or with a credit card may be eligible for a refund through travel agent's insurance or by their credit card provider.

Airlines such as Norwegian have offered special rescue fares for Cimber passengers, starting at 75 euros each way.

While Cimber was the only airline flying on 6 domestic routes from Copehangen, anna.aero notes that "within hours, other airlines have been quick to announce their entry on selected routes". Danish Air Transport took over domestic flights from Copenhagen to Sønderborg and Bornholm, while British Airways (through it's Sun-Air of Scandinavia franchise) will launch three new routes to Stockholm and Oslo next week and Flybe Nordic has reportedly indicated it may add five domestic Danish routes.

Photo: anna.aero

The airline was originally founded as Cimber Air and bought parts of Sterling Airlines, which had filed for bankruptcy on 29 October 2008.

Flights from London Heathrow are reaching saturation point and 53% of airlines surveyed said they will be moving their flights outside of the UK as a result.

A survey by the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK), which represents 84 scheduled airlines, shows that  86% of airlines said that they would put on more flights to the UK if additional take-off and landing slots were available at Heathrow.

In his speech to today’s Transport Times Conference "A New Strategy for UK Aviation - The Case for New Hub Capacity", Colin Matthews, BAA Chief Executive, said: "These figures show that it is a mistake to believe that flights displaced from Heathrow will automatically fly to Stansted, Gatwick or Birmingham instead. The message I hear from airlines is clear: if there’s no room at Heathrow then flights will move out of the UK altogether. Instead of Britain taking the lead in forging new links with growing economies like China, we are handing economic growth to our competitors by turning away airlines who want to bring jobs, growth and trade to the UK.”

The survey supports the recent research by Frontier Economics that found there were twenty-one emerging market destinations with daily flights from other European hubs that were not served with a daily flight from Heathrow. European competitors already serve seven more cities in China than the UK does. Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam airports will boast direct flights to Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Nanjing, Shenyang and Qingdao this year, in addition to the flights to Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai served from the UK.

UK businesses trade 20 times as much with emerging market countries that have a direct daily flight to the UK as they do with those countries that do not. This lack of connectivity is expected to cost the UK economy £14bn over the next ten years in lost trade.

Turkish Airlines announced they will be adding new flights from Edinburgh to Istanbul this summer.

The airline will be running 4 flights per week, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, starting 16 July until 27 October 2012.

Flights will leave Istanbul at 09:10 to arrive in Edinburgh at 11:40. Return flight will leave Edinburgh at 12:40 and will land in Istanbulat 19:00.

We checked and found return flights for £182, including tax and charges. Tempted?

Virgin America landed at Philadelphia International Airport with low cost flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Flights from Philadelphia to Los Angeles commenced on April 4, with fares from $159 and flights from Philadelphia to San Francisco on April 10, with fares from $179 (restrictions apply).

Virgin America is the first U.S. airline to launch new service at Philadelphia in the past eight years.

"Philadelphia is a vibrant, world class city that deserves more airline competition," said Virgin America President and Chief Executive Officer David Cush. "In addition to bringing low fare competition to routes previously only served nonstop by legacy carriers, we believe our unique service will be a welcome change for Philadelphians tired of the typical domestic airline cattle car."

"With lower fares and award-winning service, Virgin America is a welcomed addition to our current aviation offerings," said Philadelphia International Airport Chief Executive Officer Mark Gale. "When airlines compete, consumers win, and we’re looking forward to a long partnership with this innovative air travel brand."

Connecting flights are also available from Philadelphia to Virgin America's Portland (as of June 5th), San Diego, Seattle and Las Vegas markets.