New Route Information

Jetnav has just launched new information pages about airports abroad that are served directly from the UK. Up until now you could access route information out of any UK airport using the relevant UK airport information page, now you can access the (destination) airport page that you want to fly to around the world and jetnav will tell you which airports in the UK operate a direct route there. Simply visit the airport routes and info page, select the country you are interested in, choose an airport, and the available routes out of the UK will be shown.

New Winter Destinations

This weekend (16/17 December) sees the start of most of the new winter sports routes . The most popular destination airports are Chambery, Geneva, Lyon St Geoirs Grenoble and Salzburg but there are several others, and jetnav gives you full information about route start dates, airlines who fly there, as well as some information about the airport itself . See the relevant airport information page. Of course having checked out the route the flight finder page will give you the exact flight timings, flight numbers etc. When you find a suitable flight just click on the link to the airline and make the booking! - it's as simple as that.

News items added as they occur.

Keep up to date with what's happening in the world of air travel by reading our news items. They're posted on the jetnav site daily and give all the latest information on new routes and commercial developments in the air industry. Latest news is at the bottom of the home page, older items are archived for reference later.

Problems with outbound flight schedules

One or two customers have reported a problem to us about the validity of the flight search for outward flights (return flights were unaffected) on the jetnav flight finder search, some of the flights were missing, or showed up when they shouldn't have done. It was one of those tricky ones that was difficult to pin down, as it was only intermittent, but we think we've cracked it. If you are unhappy with the accuracy of any data from jetnav, please let us know, we will reply on an individual basis. Send us an e-mail at info@jetnav.co.uk

Winter Flight Schedules

Now is the time that the airlines and airports switch from their summer schedules to the new winter timetable. The european seaside routes get dropped and winter sun routes such as the Canary Islands kick in. The winter sports routes usually start up a little later. Jetnav keeps you updated with the changes as they are announced, if you want to check out which airports in the UK fly directly to which destinations then click here.

What is airline code sharing?

We see the term code sharing when applied to flights, what does it mean?
If airline A operates a flight on a certain route, then another airline, say airline B can sell seats on the same flight under a code sharing arrangement. Airline B will usually issue its own flight number and sometimes may not declare that it is not the one actually operating the flight. So you may see on the jetnav flight results, or on perhaps an airport departure board two apparently identical flight timings to the same destination, but there will be only one physical aeroplane.
Why do airlines do it?
Quite simply they are able to offer a wider range of destinations without having to commit the physical resources. It can suit both large and small airlines. The large airline perhaps operates an intercontinental flight to a major airport. A smaller airline based at that airport can then offer a range of flights that tie in with the intercontinental flight. The larger airline can fill its intercontinental flight and gain some revenue from the seats sold on the smaller airlines flights, the smaller airline uses the passengers from the intercontinental flight to fill its flights to the passengers final destinations. It can work well if the airlines choose their partners carefully and there isn't too much route overlap. This is the basis of the major alliances such as Star Alliance and Oneworld. On the jetnav website we have used an asterisk * to indicate which airline is the route operator and which is the code sharer.

What if there are no flight results on the search?

We get asked the question "What if there are no flight results on the jetnav search?" This mainly occurs when the Direct Flights Only box is ticked.
There may be several reasons why no results appear:
Firstly and most obviously, nobody flies the route. If that's the case then check out another airport pairing. It's easy to do from the results page - if you want to check on the same destination, date etc., but flying from a different airport in the UK, then Jetnav lists nearby alternatives, so with one click you can try another search.
If you think the route is one that actually does operate, but the result for your search is blank, then by accessing the Airport Information pages on the jetnav site and selecting the UK airport you want to fly from, all the scheduled destinations are shown. If your destination is shown then the service may not be a daily one, so either reselect to search on a different date, or using the link provided to the website of the airline flying the route, check out their flight schedules. Some routes shown may operate on a seasonal basis, low cost carriers in particular switch their planes from beach destinations in the summer to airports linking to ski resorts in the winter. We are hoping to show the start and finish dates of these seasonal routes on the website shortly.

See what the press think of Jetnav

Jetnav has received a couple of reviews in the national press.

For the Times Online review visit http://timesonline.typepad.com/online_travel_briefing/2006/06/findtherightfli.html#more

For the Guardian review visit http://travel.guardian.co.uk/saturdaysection/story/0,,1804349,00.html

Improvements to the Jetnav site

Three small mods have been made to the jetnav site
The flight finder search fields 'remember' the entry that was last input, so a fresh search with only a slight change saves having to laboriously input all the data in all the fields again.
On the flight results page there is now a tool tip decoder for the airport codes that appear as stopovers on indirect flights.
Again on the results page, asterisks are appearing against the flights where 2 or more airlines are operating a code share arrangement. Previously it was only possible to deduce this from their identical timings.

All in all it should help the site visitor

Have you seen the Jetnav website

This blog is designed to go hand in hand with the jetnav website http://www.jetnav.co.uk , which is a website for independent primarily UK based travellers. The site was launched in May this year and provides a worldwide flight search for all (or nearly all) scheduled airlines. So in one quick search you can look for flights from the big national flag carriers as well as the low cost operators. There's also a section under "Airport Information" that lists a bit about the UK airports, together with the destinations that can be flown direct from them and the airlines flying these routes. New routes that have just been announced are shown in a news section. I hope this blog will be a forum for anybody using the site who has comments or problems they wish to discuss.