Airport And Travel Information

 A row has erupted over the proposed plans to build a Metrolink tram system that would cut through the Lower Hardy Farm Site of Biological Importance, the Mersey Valley and across the Mersey to Manchester Airport.

 The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive have outlined plans to route the link across the Mersey Valley which is well known as a green belt area.

Critics of the scheme have described  the site which is the home to an abundance of flora and flauna, including threatened species.

 
Lower Hardy Farm is a Site of Biological Importance and an integral part of the Mersey Valley wildlife corridor; it has a rich bird life, woodland areas and species of plants , many of which are rare and scarce including  Hawkweeds, Wood Club Rush and Ferns. 

 
The occurrence of other plants, such as Heather, Gorse and Broom, has led some observers to speculate that this site has many of the characteristics of lowland heath, which is a very rare habitat in modern Britain and not present in any other part of the Mersey Valley.

At least two kinds of Orchids have been observed in the site,as well as other plants including Great Burnet and Tansy.

Last but not least, the area is surrounded by two drainage ditches which at present are quite overgrown but provide the perfect environment for Water Plantain, Tufted Forget me Not and Water Horsetail.

 They are also good breeding sites for frogs, toads and newts.

Wildlife experts are questioning why the route must be built across the Mersey Valley to Manchester Airport in the first place, knowing that it a Green Belt area.

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.

Newcastle based  Monster Travel agency, which was part of the Freedom Travel Group has ceased trading, resulting in a loss of some 94 jobs.

The call centre and homeworking company was set up in April 2008 by David Hawke and Julie Gilmore. Hawke come from Hays Travel and was previously head of direct sales for Thomson Holidays.

The company sold package holidays but also put together dynamic options.

A spokesman for the CAA announced that all forward bookings would be honoured by Freedom Travel Group using the ATOL bond.

ABTA has issued a warning to agents who are advertising for customers to rebook following the cessation of Monster Travel.

It reminded agents that because Monster Travel was a managed branch of The Freedom Travel Group, Freedom will be honouring all bookings.

“If members encourage customers to rebook they will have been double-booked and may look to the member for recompense,” it warned.

Some of the staff working at Monster Travel had previously worked for Freedom direct, who had folded just a week earlier.

In an ironic twist, David Hawke commented on the closure of Freedom as “a sad indictment of the times” only to become a casualty himself a week later.

Hawke, who was employed by TUI  as head of the call centre before he founded Monster Travel with his wife partner Julie Gilmore.

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.