Airport And Travel Information

Bands and solo acts are competing for a £1,000 music prize by performing live for for travellers at Glasgow Airport, in the main terminal building. The first six acts, which were chosen from  a shortlist of 24 played last Thursday as part of the airport’s “Airplay” sessions.

Travellers may then vote for their favourite act through a web page. The competition hopes to strengthen  Glasgow’s status as a United Nations (UN) City of Music, awarded in 2008 because of its rich musical heritage. Around 100 acts originally entered the competition and the best were selected to play to travellers as part of a “free entertainment”

Four heats are being held on Thursday 15, 22 and 29 July consecutively, and one on  Thursday 5 August.

The winner of each heat, determined by public vote, will go forward to the live final on Thursday 12 August. The ultimate winner will be chosen by a panel of judges. The final winner/winners will be selected by a panel of judges, and Glasgow Airport’s terminal manager, Mark Johnston,  stated that the festival may become an annual event .

He added that it was a great opportunity for new solo singers or bands to showcase their music in front of thousands of people, and that they had received many entries from right across the country.

Ryanair is trimming its UK capacity by 16 percent for next winter, which will mean 2 million fewer passengers, as it moves operations to its European bases to take advantage of cheaper air passenger duty.

All of its British bases will be affected apart from Leeds Bradford and Edinburgh. Stansted is the worst affected with 135 fewer weekly flights.

European base in Malaga will see the launch of 44 additional routes. 

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary blamed the UK cuts on high airport charges and aviation taxes, stating that a combination of BAA’S  high airport charges and the UK’s tourist tax are damaging the tourism market and the economy .

Growth has returned to the Belgian, Dutch and Spanish markets after their governments scrapped tourist taxes and/or reduced airport charges which has encouraged the tourism market as a whole and the job sector.

In November, APD is set  to increase  from £11 to £12 on short-haul flights, from £45 to £60 on flights between 2,001 and 4,000 miles, from £50 to £75 on flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles, and from £55 to £85 on flights over 6,000 miles.

These figures were put in place by the previous Labour government, but after last weeks emergency budget, plans to review the aviation tax system were announced.

APD has already risen by up to 325 per cent since 2006, and senior aviation members claim that further increases will hit families hardest and lead to a decline in the travel industry as a whole.

A recent survey conducted by Broadband Expert, has shown that nearly everyone questioned admitted that they would seek internet access whilst on holiday. A massive  94% said that they couldn’t cope without using the two main social networks, Twitter and Facebook whilst abroad, and also needed to access their e mail accounts.

There are several ways that holidaymakers can do this, under half stated that they would access the internet/facebook by using their mobile phones. The survey also  revealed that many people woulod use internet cafes of which there are now many in nearly all destinations, whilst others said that they would take their lap-tops on holiday with them .

Only a handful of people said they were not interested in accessing the internet at all while on holiday.
Broadband Expert  commercial director Rob Webber  commented that it was getting easier and easier to access the web as phones get more sophisticated. The survey heavily proved, that even while on holiday, people cannot bear to be out of touch , and find it a real necessity to be able to access social sites and their e mails.

Most internet cafes can charge anything between 2 and  Euros an hour, depending on the country and also supply and demand. People with laptops can use mobile “Dongles” or WIFI access, which sometimes is free,if the person is lucky enough to pick up on a signal!.

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow have been scrapped  as was promised by the new Government. Yesterday was an excellent day for campaigners who have been  fighting  against the airport expansion.

BAA gave in to the inevitable, and made a formal statement stating that they had ruled out any plans for a third runway. Expansion at Gatwick and Stansted has also been ruled out at present.

But as leading anti-aviation expansion activists admit, this now causes problems as expansion plans at other regional Airports are still viable.

Plans for an extended terminal and extra passenger numbers have been approved at Bristol Airport, Liverpool Airport is undergoing expansion work at the moment and there are major plans for Manchester Airport, which are being considered at the moment.

Passenger numbers fell last year by  7.3 percent, which will have an effect on government decisions, and the recent ash cloud saga and BA strikes have impacted heavily on passenger numbers.

But the fact remains that the public at large are still flying, and many will take several foreign holidays a year.

At 10pm last night, Airlines were given the go-ahead to resume flights from the UK, but now the post mortem begins, with airlines (led by BA)  questioning whether there was a need for a blanket ban.

 IATA have estimated that airlines have lost in the region of 1.7 billion dollars, and Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive has stated that he didn’t think it was neccessary to close all airspace last Thursday.

UK airspace is nearly all re-open, with just a few no go areas, where ash levels have been deemed to be more concentrated.

The situation is being regularly monitored, and more tests are being carried out.

Many tour operators and travel companies are calling for compensation,to cover the enormous amount of lost revenue.

The CAA said in defense of the ban, that customers safety was their “overriding priority”, and that many of the worlds aviation specialists had been summoned together to try and solve the problem.
Much new data has been collected from test flights run over the last few days, and manufacturers have analysed aircraft reactions to th ash in more detail.

The procedures that were in place, stated that volcanic ash should be avoided at all times, and because of the magnitude of the ash plume there was no way of flying around it as there was simply not enough air space. Weather conditions were static, so the situation had to be fully investigated before any decision could be made. Should the same thing happen in the future, there will be more understanding of aircraft tolerance to volcanic ash, which was the main factor of imposing the ban in the first place.

Ryanair, the leading budget Airline has created a new base at Leeds Bradford Airport,  with two planes servicing 17 routes.
To celebrate the opening of the new base, one million seats priced at just 5 euros were put on sale , covering routes to European destinations, for travel during April and May.

The opening of the new base is hoped to increase passengers to around a million a year, and keep jobs safe.

Flights are now available to Limoges, Venice, Knock, Pisa, Krakow, Ibiza, Palma, Alicante,Barcelona,Malta,Faro, Nantes, Dublin and Carcassonne.

A spokesman for the airport stated that the introduction of the seven new routes from Leeds Bradford was good news , as it gave passengers more choice of destinations , and also secured around 1,000 new job opportunites in the region.

British Airways has predicted  further flight disruptions this week as the strike enters its third day.

At present there doesn’t appear to be a solution on the horizon , and the  Airline is losing millions of pounds because of the dispute.

It is reported that a mere 300 staff out of 2,200 who were rostered on at the weekend, actually turned up, BA dispute these figures , quoting a 98% attendance at Gatwick Airport and 50% at Heathrow.

Cabin crew have organised a second  walk out commencing 27 March  until the 30th, and there are no plans for any emergency talks, to try and avert strike action.

BA has said that the walk outs have led to other problems, as staff are finding themselves in different locations, and many aircraft are not where they were originally supposed to be.

An estimated 1,000 flights have ben cancelled over the three days , which is just over half that were originally scheduled

The union Unite have claimed that BA are sending out “ghost flight” with no passengers on board, and that only a handful took off from Heathrow with travellers on board.

Many passengers have booked with other airlines, some of which have increased their number of seats by adding additional flights on some routes.

There have been picket lines in the Heathrow vicinity, with supporters and staff jeering at cabin crew,  aboard coaches bringing them into work. 

Tony Woodley, has asked senior members of BA to see sense, and initiate some new talks, in order to try and settle the dispute.

British Airways is expected to announce later today which flights will be cancelled, following a decision by cabin crew to hold a series of strikes later on this month. Unite have confirmed that from March 20th there will be a three day walk out and from March 27th, another four day strike.

British Airways in expected to cancel some flights to short haul destinations, but concentrate on manning the more lucrative long haul haul aeroplanes. The airline announced that it is no longer selling seats on the flights affected by strike days and were in the process of altering flight schedules.

At present British Airways have no plans to cancel  departures from London City Airport, while flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports to non Europe destinations will hopefully not be affected. The Airline have also pointed out that the service on board will be restricted due to skeleton crews. Hot meals will only be available to those passengers in first class, whilst others will be offered salads and cold meals.

Customers who have special dietary requirements (Hindu, Kosher etc) are being requested to bring their own food. Baby meals will still be ok. Passengers booked to travel between March 19th and 31st on affected flights will have the choice of rebooking or cancelling and obtaining a refund.

Leading travel firms Thomson and First Choice are to open up to 30 travel agency shops over the next two years, in a bid to increase their stake in the holiday market. The whereabouts of the new stores has not yet been revealed. A company spokesman stated that a large ratio of customers would still rather go into a travel agents and discuss their requirements face to face with a travel consultant. Many staff working in the agencies have first hand knowledge of specific countries and resorts and can provide invaluable information. The web and call centre, as methods for getting the best deal and choosing the best resort to suit the individual researching continue to play a huge role in the way people book their holidays. Many people do not trust themselves to book a holiday without a professional making the booking for them or have the time to research all the information they need, and many would be travellers have either no access to the net or indeed the skills to book a holiday online. A re-branding for 40 First Choice Holiday Hypermarkets to either Thomson or First Choice Holiday Superstores is already underway.