Archive for December, 2009
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The situation for the car hire industry in Spain shows little sign that it has improved much, if at all, since the world went into economic meltdown in 2008. Customers are reporting a scarcity of vehicles and those who manage to find a car say that prices are exorbitant. Spain was hit particularly hard by the global recession. Car hire companies found themselves unable to restock their fleets as the banks refused to give any money to the lease companies so they in turn could no longer supply vehicles to the car rental firms.
The result of all of this is that there simply aren’t enough vehicles to satisfy demand from travellers requiring car hire when they visit Spain. The recession has also affected the number of people visiting Spain. In 2008 the figures for those visiting Spain from the U.K. for a winter break were down by eighteen percent. Suffice it to say this made the people involved in the countries tourism industry slightly nervous so car hire companies hiked prices by way of compensation for lost revenue. During the summer many customers were booking car hire at rates that were more than double the price of just a year ago. One holidaymaker said that she was shocked to find that the modest run-around she usually hired each year for £200 had suddenly sky-rocketed in price to over £500. She went on to point out that she was seriously considering buying a car and keeping it in Spain as it would probably work out cheaper than having to hire every year.
Tags: car hire, car hire companies, car rental, car rental firms, economic meltdown, global recession, Spain, tourism industry, winter break
Posted in Car Rental News | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Online searches for car hire related websites steadily declined throughout the year’s third quarter according to reports compiled by one of the U.K.’s leading internet search agencies. Greenlight announced in its Car Hire Sector Report – Q3 2009 that September searches were down 25% on August and 34% on July. Greenlight’s independent report also found that a number of the big players in the car rental sector had slid down the rankings of most searched for on the web by potential customers.
September’s report showed that the three most popular searches by people looking for car hire related sites were: Car hire, which made up 13%, Car rental making up 5% and Car hire UK taking 3%.
The Greenlight study also looked at the visibility of car hire firms on the web in terms of how many times a key word was used in a search and the respective positions they held on page one of Google. The three most visible car hire websites according to the Greenlight team were CarRentals (54%) Travelsupermarket (40%) and Easycar (32%). Falling down the rankings were AnyCarHire and EuropCar who both lost out to the more aggressive marketing tactics of both Hertz and Enterprise. Avis meanwhile stayed in it second quarter position being visible to only 21% of car hire related online searches in September.
Greenlight’s CEO, Warren Cowan said that achieving the top rankings in the car hire sector was incredibly difficult in such an aggressive market like car hire. He pointed out that it was a market where everyone was in direct competition with everybody else.
Tags: Avis, car hire, car hire UK, car rental, CarRentals, Easycar, Enterprise, Europcar, Google, Greenlight, Hertz, internet search, Online searches, Travelsupermarket
Posted in Car Rental News | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
A committee of U.K. MPs has announced that its investigations into a fund set up to help the country’s beleaguered car industry has found that not a single penny of the £2.3 billion invested has found its way to manufacturers. A spokesperson for the Automotive Assistance Programme which was set up in January said that the fund was created in order to help firms in the long term and that it was still deciding how best to manage the money supplied by the British tax payer.
Chairman of the committee, Peter Luff said that when the fund was set up it offered the automotive industry a real chance of help but since then and many months after its establishment not a single loan or guarantee had been made. He went on to say that it was up to the government to make sure that funds were released as soon as possible.
Since the Automotive Assistance Programme was set up at the beginning of the year the car industry in the U.K. has recovered somewhat from the affects of a devastating recession. A £400 million scrappage scheme put into place by the government has meant that buyers can get up to £2,000 off a new car if they trade in a vehicle which is over ten years old. The scheme was introduced in the summer and is set to expire by February next year.
Critics of the Automotive Assistance Programme have said that it is not working because it is too inflexible.
Tags: Automotive Assistance Programme, automotive industry, car industry, funds, government, tax payer
Posted in Finance and Business | Comments Off
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Scotland’s biggest airline, Globespan is said to be on the verge of securing a deal which could insure the budget carrier’s survival. Jersey based Halcyon Investments is supposedly ready to sign a deal with the airline which will be of enormous relief to both the companies employees and those who have bought tickets with Globespan.
However the company is still waiting to receive payment from credit card processors E-Clear and if those funds are not handed over then it will be very surprising if Globespan is not handed over to administrators. One of the country’s major accountancy firms has already been put on full alert and the Civil Aviation Authority is being given regular updates.
A spokesperson for Halcyon Investments has said that the investment for Globespan is already on the table and that it includes money that will ensure the company’s survival into the future. However another source has said that the situation has now become critical and that it is crunch time for the airline. The Edinburgh based carrier has been in operation since 1970 and employs around nine-hundred staff. It has more than ten aircraft in its fleet and flies passengers from Scottish airports to destinations like Orlando and Alicante.
If funding for the airline does not come through then it is likely that the carrier will follow in the footsteps of XL Leisure which folded last year as a result of the credit crunch. The airline’s owner, Tom Dalrymple remains positive that Halcyon will come through at the eleventh-hour.
Tags: airline, budget carrier, Civil Aviation Authority, E-Clear, Globespan, Halcyon Investments, Tom Dalrymple, xl leisure
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Friday, December 11th, 2009
U.K. Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis has unveiled plans to update the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme to give more protection to air travellers who book different parts of their travel itinerary through different sources. In the past only people booking their whole trip through a travel agency have been given ATOL protection but with the way in which people now book trips the system of protection needs to be updated. Adonis said that ATOL had been drawn up to protect travellers back in the 1970s and now needed to be redrawn because the idea of a package holiday had become more blurred. He said that he recognized the need for travellers to make informed choices about their holidays and also feel reassured that they are receiving the right sort of protection when booking a holiday.
Adonis has also said that he realizes the need to place the customer’s needs first when it came to the regulation of airports and as such would be appointing someone to look after those needs. Adonis said that he wanted to make sure that the proposed changes would ensure that the U.K. aviation industry remained both competitive and efficient.
He also talked about the Civil Aviation Authority and how it would now be given the duty of looking after the passenger’s interests at the country’s airports. He said that Passenger Focus would build on the work of the Air Transport Users Council and will be given the power to represent air passengers in the same way that they already represent train travellers.
Tags: air passengers, Air Travel Organisers' Licensing, airports, Andrew Adonis, ATOL, Civil Aviation Authority, package holiday, Passenger Focus, Transport Users Council, travel agency, travel itinerary, U.K. Transport Secretary
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
As the U.S. airline industry begins to celebrate the signs that it might at last be seeing an end of the devastating effects of the global economic downturn, one senior executive has voiced his doubts. Gary Kelly, chairman of Southwest Airlines says that he doesn’t feel comfortable about the predictions that the business traveller will be back in 2010. He said that even though he believed that the situation concerning a lack of business revenue would not get any worse he did not want to celebrate prematurely about the situation getting any better.
U.S. Airlines along with United, Delta and American all had slightly more positive predictions. Speaking at the Next Generation Research conference held in New York, treasurer and vice president of American Airlines, Beverly Goulet said that by reducing capacity they had seen signs of improvement especially in the domestic market. She went on to say that even though revenue for the airline was predicted to be down in the fourth quarter the rate of decline in profits appeared to be slowing.
Hank Halter, chief financial officer at the world’s largest carrier Delta said that he predicted profits to turn positive during 2010. The airline’s CFO, Kathy Mikells went on to say that even though Delta had performed less well than many of its rivals during the global economic crisis she predicted that it would perform better as the world’s economies recovered.
Even though Kelly said he could not see business travellers returning en masse to the airline next year he pointed out that he was pleased with Southwest’s on-time record.
Tags: airline industry, American, business revenue, Delta, Gary Kelly, global economic downturn, Next Generation Research, on-time record, Southwest Airlines, United, us airlines
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
In the hopes of attracting a new private sector operator Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has announced that it will be investing in the region of £4 million in the Cairngorms funicular railway. The money will be spent over the next few years on improvements which should bring the railway up to the standard which HIE expects will encourage bids form private operators.
HIE is a public agency and has already given £19.42 million to the building and maintenance of the railway which it took over last year. HIE also took over the Cairngorm ski resort after an agreement was reached over debts owed by CairnGorm Mountain Limited with Bank of Scotland and CairnGorm Mountain Trust. Highland Council has also found itself having to write off a loan of £1 million to CairnGorm Mountain Limited.
The Cairngorms funicular railway was first opened in 2001. Last year HIE say that 400,000 visitors used the car park where the funicular runs from and that around half of those visitors used the railway. HIE says that it is looking at the idea of charging customers to use the car park.
£26 million has been spent on the railway so far and members of the Scottish parliament are looking into how HIE have been using that money. An audit committee from the Scottish parliament has started to put together information on the spending following an independent investigation into funicular finances by Audit Scotland.
It is expected that as soon as the new wave of investment has been completed the railway will be put out to tender.
Tags: Audit Scotland, Bank of Scotland, CairnGorm Mountain Trust, Cairngorm ski resort, Cairngorms funicular railway, HIE, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, investment
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
New classes are to be rolled out to cyclists in Edinburgh to teach them how to cope with the recently reopened tram system after reports of a number of accidents. Edinburgh Trams have said that the new lessons will start next weekend. Although a final date for the lessons is still to be announced they are due to be given by independent cycling specialists and will be funded by the tram company.
Six accidents have been reported on Edinburgh’s Princes Street. One of which has already been documented on the website youtube because the cyclist had a camera attached to his handlebars. Princes Street was reopened just over a week ago after the new tram lines had been put into place. CitycyclingEdinburgh.info site manager, Chris Hill said that Princes Street was an extremely busy road and that if the council did not put up signs and street markings then there was going to be a serious accident involving a cyclist very soon. He pointed out that the new tram lines simply appear out of nowhere and that if any of the cyclists who had come off their bikes in the road had been followed by a large vehicle then reports would probably have been about fatalities. Hill also points out that Edinburgh aims to have fifteen percent of all road journeys to be taken by bicycle by 2020 and as such making Princes Street a road to be avoided was not viable.
Hill says that it is not a complicated matter. Edinburgh City Council simply needs to put up some signs.
Tags: accident, CitycyclingEdinburgh.info, cyclists, edinburgh, Edinburgh City Council, Edinburgh Trams, tram, tram system, Youtube
Posted in Travel News | Comments Off
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Volkswagen has been showing off what is claimed to be the most fuel efficient four-seater car in the world. The Up! Lite concept is just part of Volkswagen’s new small car line up and was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Volkswagen has concentrated on building an extremely light vehicle with slippery aerodynamics driven by a combination of diesel power and electricity.
When driving at lower speeds the Up! Lite is powered solely by a 10kW electric motor which is capable of producing 13.4bhp. When a bit more power is needed then an 800cc turbo two-cylinder diesel powered engine kicks in. Both engine and motor will propel the Up! Lite from 0-60 within around 12 seconds and the car is capable of top speeds of around 100mph.
The new Volkswagen may not be a supercar but its fuel efficiency makes up for this. It will go 116mpg and over that driving cycle will only produce 65g of CO2 for every km.
The Up! Lite is able to achieve such an astonishing mileage because it is so lacking in weight. Made out of carbon fibre, aluminium and lightweight steel the Up! Lite weighs in at just 695kg. Added to this lack of weight Volkswagen’s engineers have made sure that it literally glides through the air. The car has an overall drag coefficient of just 0.237. The Up! Lite’s body also features wheel-trims which slip through the air as well as an air-dam covering the engine grill which will remain closed when the engine does not need cooling therefore reducing drag even further.
The new Volkswagen Small Family series which it says incorporates many of the features seen on the Up! Lite is due to roll out in 2011.
Tags: aerodynamics, electric motor, engine, four-seater, fuel-efficient, hybrid, Los Angeles Auto Show, mileage, Small Family series, Up! Lite, Volkswagen
Posted in Car Rental News | Comments Off
Friday, December 4th, 2009
EuropcarClub has just launched in the U.K. The concept from Europe’s most popular car hire firm is geared up to provide customers with the simplicity of by-the-hour car hire along with Europcar’s low rates. It is a two tier service with membership of its ‘Easy’ level rental starting out at just £8.25 per month or £99.00 for a whole year. The ‘Easy’ service gives car hire customers access to a whole range of vehicles including compacts, vans and MPVs. Europcar claim that the ‘Easy’ service is ideal for those who do not have a car or who wish to upgrade to a larger vehicle for specific journeys like taking the family away for a holiday.
The EuropcarClub ‘Premium’ service is a little more expensive at £60.00 per month but allows customers to take advantage of access to any vehicle in the clubs range from compacts to the ultimate in prestige vehicles. Membership means that drivers will be given discounts on renting any vehicle whether it is a Mini Clubman or a Mercedes S Class.
Marketing Director for Europcar, Catriona Lougher says that EuropcarClub allows its members to take advantage of low rates all year round as well as change a vehicle whenever they wish. Customers can leave their rental car at any Europcar station throughout Europe and never have to worry about wear and tear, depreciation, tax or insurance. She also points out that customers have access to the most environmentally friendly vehicles on the market so they can be that little bit greener.
Tags: car club, car hire, car rental, compacts, environmentally friendly, Europcar, EuropcarClub, insurance, low rates, membership, Mercedes S Class, Mini Clubman, MPV, tax, vans
Posted in Car Rental News | Comments Off
