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Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Concerns that the death of Osama bin Laden could result in terrorist reprisals may mean a tightening up of airport security. The EU recently announced plans to relax rules restricting the amount of liquid a passenger is allowed to carry in their hand luggage. It is unlikely that this will now happen any time in the near future. Full-body scanners could also start appearing in airports across the country. The controversial devices are currently being operated at Birmingham, Manchester and Heathrow and have been attacked by human rights’ groups for producing nude images of passengers.
Airport bosses, pilots’ associations and airline chiefs are all calling on the government to tighten up security by concentrating resources on travellers who pose the most risk. Sir Michael Broughton, chairman of British Airways, recently attacked the policy of treating all passengers equally.
He pointed out that it was pointless to treat trusted flyers such as pilots in the same way as a student travelling from Yemen. He admitted that passenger profiling was by its very nature discriminatory, but added that it would be more effective in reducing airport queues than current security measures.
The US State Department has issued a worldwide travel alert warning of the possibility of retaliation against Americans. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned British embassies to be vigilant and review their security.
Eurostar already has similar baggage screening and security checks to airports. It confirmed that it was working closely with the French, Belgian and British governments and would increase security if advised to do so.
Tags: airport, airports, British Airways, Eurostar, Heathrow, Osama bin Laden, passenger profiling, pilots, scanners, Sir Michael Broughton, terrorist, William Hague
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Millions of Brits have decided to take advantage of Easter, the Royal Wedding and the bank holidays by taking a few days off work. This has been good news for travel operators and airlines, but not such good news for the economy as a whole. Some analysts predict that with one in every three workers not due to return until Tuesday next week, £30 billion could be wiped from the economy.
Business leaders have also predicted that some companies will have to shut down because of a slow in demand and a shortage of staff. The news comes as GDP figures show that the economy has tipped back into recession.
Financial experts are also warning that small businesses could suffer as banks might not clear cheques for a fortnight. Those using cheques to clear overdrafts or pay off their credit cards could be hit with extra charges because of the delays caused by the bank holiday weekends.
The surge in the number of people deciding to travel means that Ryanair sales have increased by 10 per cent on Easter 2010. Thomson and First Choice owner Tui said it was recording a rise of 22 per cent on its bookings compared to this time last year.
There has also been good news for retailers as shoppers returned to the country’s high streets over the Easter break. According to the New West End Company, two million customers visited shops in central London over the weekend which is an increase of four per cent on the same time last year.
Tags: airlines, Easter, First Choice, recession, Royal Wedding, Ryanair, thomson, Tui
Posted in UK News | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Travelodge is to team up with various pub companies across the UK as part of its £100 million programme of expansion. The hotel chain intends to open 36 new sites next door to pubs as a way of making the hotels more attractive to guests. The joint venture will also give a boost to the pubs, as Travelodge guests are likely to drink and eat in them.
The venture includes well known pub names such as JD Wetherspoon, Mitchells & Butlers, Marston’s and Greene King. It is estimated that 550 new jobs will be created by the joint-expansion by 2015.
The plan is either to put up a hotel close to an existing pub or choose a site where a new Travelodge can be built at the same time as a new pub. As well as a reduction in development costs, the joint-venture will allow both the pubs and the hotels to share facilities.
Many pubs have been struggling in recent years and many have been forced to close their doors as more people choose to take advantage of the cheaper alcohol available through supermarket chains and stay at home. A number of pub companies have announced that they will be opening establishments in leisure and retail parks in the hope that customers are likely to want to sit down for a meal.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, more pubs are now concentrating on the quality of their food offering rather than just selling drinks. The latest figures show that one billion meals are being served in pubs every year.
Tags: Greene King, hotel, hotel chain, JD Wetherspoon, Marston’s, Mitchells & Butlers, pub, Travelodge
Posted in Finance and Business | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
A 43-year-old woman is thought to have killed herself after deliberately starting a fire in a train toilet. The blaze is thought to have started at 17.05 yesterday on a busy commuter train travelling to London from Northampton. Firefighters, ambulances and the police arrived after the train pulled into Leighton Buzzard.
There were apparently no other casualties and all passengers were removed from the train after it had stopped at the station. According to one woman, who watched the incident from her flat which overlooks the West Coast line, there was thick smoke pouring from the carriage. She added that the emergency services were in attendance extremely promptly.
All services to and from Euston station had to be halted for a while during the busy travel period, but were resuming by 19.00. However, many services continued with delays and London Midland replaced a number of its scheduled services with buses. Virgin Trains also reported major disruption to its timetable.
For several hours following the incident the train was left by the platform at Leighton Buzzard. The authorities said it would eventually be moved to the sidings where forensic teams would conduct a thorough investigation.
The train’s conductor was alerted to the fire after a passenger saw smoke coming from the toilet. The British Transport Police said the situation was not being treated as an accidental fire and that nobody other than the deceased woman was currently believed to have been involved in the tragedy. A spokeswoman for the police has confirmed that the dead woman suffered from burns.
Tags: British Transport Police, fire, Leighton Buzzard, london midland, police, train, Virgin Trains
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
The latest phase in the search for the flight recorders of an Air France passenger jet which crashed into the ocean in 2009 has resulted in the discovery of a number of bodies. Specially designed robots capable of descending to depths of up to four kilometres have found a large piece of wreckage as well as some of the dead.
Nathalie Kosciusco-Morizet, France’s minister for transport, said an operation to bring the wreckage to the surface could be underway within the next four weeks. Reportedly, the government has already put out a tender for the project. The minister added that bodies had been located and they would also come to the surface for identification.
Flight 447 went down into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009. It was carrying passengers from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it encountered a tropical storm. Although it is not known what cased the crash, a transmission sent automatically from the aircraft shows that prior to the incident the plane’s flight speed indicators were relaying incorrect information to the pilots.
Most air transport experts agree that this could not have been the only cause of the crash, but until the flight’s voice and data recorders are recovered any discussions on the subject remain speculation. Sunday’s discovery has given investigators fresh hope that the black boxes will soon be found.
Officials have said that the families of the victims will be informed of any progress. However, some appear to want to have the bodies left where they are.
Tags: air france, airbus, black boxes, data recorders, Paris, pilots, robots, transport, wreckage
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
The latest ballot by labour union Unite has seen the majority of British Airways’ cabin crew vote in favour of further strike action. If no resolution to the situation can be found, then many BA passengers face having their Easter holiday’s disrupted.
Although the union initially said that it would do all it could to avoid such disruption, Unite has 28 days in which to announce possible strike dates.
Leader of Unite, Len McCluskey, said the vote proved that the carrier’s cabin crew remained committed to justice. He added that it was clear that BA’s management had to do something to regain the confidence of its workers and urged the board to reinstate travel perks, reimburse those who had their pay docked during previous walkouts, but who were genuinely ill, and cease action against a number of other Unite members.
McCluskey said that he was determined to reach an amicable solution and was still engaged in talks with BA’s management. The flag-carrier has also said it wants to arrive at an agreement not through confrontation, but through cooperation.
BA has said that it wants a good working relationship with its cabin crews and that workers’ were also desperate for an end the conflict which has been going on since the end of 2009. The dispute was initially sparked by cost cutting measures implemented by the airline including staffing reductions and pay freezes. It then morphed into a fight over travel concessions and action taken against a handful of strike supporters.
Tags: BA, British Airways, cabin crew, cost cutting, Easter, Len McCluskey, strike, travel perks, Unite
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Scotland has announced plans to make changes to the laws governing how much alcohol a driver is allowed to consume. The move comes after the UK government rejected recommendations to lower the amount a motorist is permitted to have in their blood.
A recently published report which was commissioned by Whitehall recommends that the amount of alcohol be reduced to 50mg per 100ml of blood from the current permissible level of 80mg.
Motoring groups have joined with Scottish ministers in condemning Westminster for not grabbing the opportunity to make the country’s roads safer. The AA has however said it strongly supports the fact that tests conducted by the side of the road can now be held up in court as evidence. This will mean that those who are over the limit according to a breathalyser test will not have the possibility of a drop in alcohol levels as they are transported to a police station for a blood test.
Philip Hammond, the UK’s transport secretary, defended his decision not to change the law on blood-alcohol levels by explaining that more of an impact would be made through improving enforcement. He added that the government would introduce a range of ways of streamlining that enforcement.
When the Scotland Bill is passed ministers have said they will take the appropriate action to reduce blood-alcohol limits as quickly as they can. A spokesman for the government said that parliament had been asking London either to amend the law or give Scotland the power to do so for some time.
Tags: AA, alcohol, blood-alcohol, breathalyser, motoring groups, Philip Hammond, Scotland Bill, transport
Posted in UK News | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
One of the world’s largest international airlines, Emirates, is expected declare record earnings next month as its fiscal year comes to a close. For the first half, the carrier published earnings of $925 million and analysts expect this to at least double for the second-half. The positive results will be announced despite political and social upheaval in the Middle East, natural disasters and the spiralling price of jet fuel.
Emirates recently received the accolade of airline of the year from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Peter Harbison, the organisation’s executive chairman, said he did not think recent political upheavals and natural disasters would have a negative affect on the growing demand for international air travel.
He added that along with US carrier Southwest Airlines, Emirates was the most influential airline in the world. Harbison explained that it is now possible to link almost any two points on the planet via Emirates’ Dubai hub.
According to the Royal Bank of Scotland, Emirates and fellow Gulf airlines will concentrate on increasing their global reach by growing traffic to and from the Middle East, Africa, China and India. Emirates is expected to be flying some 250 aircraft by the end of the decade and will have added around 46 more destinations to its schedule.
The carrier already has close to 200 new aircraft on order, 75 of which are Airbus A380 superjumbos. According to RBS, the airline will also place greater emphasis on increasing its presence in the US market as well as various parts of Asia.
Tags: A380, air travel, airbus, airlines, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Dubai, Emirates, Royal Bank of Scotland, Southwest Airlines
Posted in Finance and Business | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Avis is forging ahead with its commitment to provide easy access to car rental across the UK by announcing that it has expanded the number of branches across the country by 50 per cent. The car hire firm said it had opened some 37 new branches supplying leisure vehicles to customers in the past two months.
The rapid expansion shows no sign of slowing down and the firm has confirmed plans to open at least 100 more locations across the country by the end of the year. So far the growth has seen the opening of brand new leisure locations in cities and towns including Huddersfield, Windsor and Sunderland.
Anthony Ainsworth, Avis UK’s commercial director, said: “50% growth of Avis’ town and city branches in just two months is a significant achievement for us and puts us another step closer to reaching our ultimate goal of having an Avis branch within a few miles of every household in the UK. Next year will see the number of Avis branches increase with a further 100+ locations, demonstrating our commitment to giving customers the choice to find a car hire solution that best suits their needs.”
Avis also provides car hire solutions in 38 airports. The company has joined forces with work place solution providers Regus. Leisure and business customers now have the option of booking a vehicle through 21 new branches.
The rental company has also opened up 16 new locations in partnership with hotels so that guests have better access to quality vehicles.
Tags: airports, Avis, car hire, car rental, hotels, Regus
Posted in Car Rental News | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Willie Walsh, chief executive of the newly formed International Airlines Group, has said he will continue to keep an eye on events in the Middle East to see how they will continue to affect the price of oil. The group has already passed on some 50 per cent of the rising cost of jet fuel to passengers in the form of surcharges and has not ruled out continuing to do so if oil prices continue to go up.
Walsh added that although there was currently no sign of a drop in demand for long-haul services, he is not too concerned about the possibility of passenger traffic falling away in the Middle East as the region only accounts for around six per cent of the carrier’s business.
Operating costs for the final quarter of 2010 were €3.8 billion. Although this was an increase of 9.5 per cent, many of these costs were non-recurring such as €26 million in completion costs for the merger of BA and Iberia and €71 million in costs resulting from strikes by air traffic control at the end of last year and disruption from severe winter weather.
However, operating profit for the three months ending 31 December was up to €6 million from a loss of €114 million a year earlier. IAG said performance remained strong in areas such as premium long-haul business.
The airline is still struggling against competition in the European short-haul sector. In the final nine months before the merger with Iberia, BA managed to post net profits of £170 million.
Tags: BA, British Airways, Iberia, International Airlines Group, jet fuel, middle east, surcharges, willie walsh
Posted in Finance and Business | Comments Off
