Airport And Travel Information

British Airways is facing a prolonged strike by  cabin crew next month after employees voted strongly in favour of a walkout. The poll saw 81% of cabin crew backing strike action against a proposed reduction of staff and a change to working conditions.

The Unite union did not announce any  specific strike dates, but a walkout can be staged within 28 days.
Unite officials and members of its cabin crew  will meet tomorrow to discuss possible dates, although the two week Easter holiday has been ruled out.

The assistant general secretary of Unite, urged BA to reach an agreement rather than end up in court adding that the situation would be better solved by negotiation and not itimidation.

McCluskey said BA’s 11,700 Unite-affiliated cabin crew would not walkout over Easter, to avoid disrupting families’ holiday plans. However, there is support within Bassa for a strike next month lasting at least 10 days.
A walkout by cabin crew is likely to bring most of BA’s operations to a halt ,however ,many auxiliary crew  from the workforce are being trained up

Unite is braced for a combative response from BA’s lawyers. Today’s ballot is a re-run of the earlier poll, which w as staged after BA unilaterally reduced cabin crew on long-haul flights by at least one person to reduce costs at an airline that posted a pre-tax loss of £401m last year.

However, BA won an injunction against the previous vote after it emerged that cabin crew applying for voluntary redundancy had taken part. Unite is confident that its polling database can withstand another injunction attempt under the 1992 Trade Union Act, which requires unions to give detailed information about the poll and the employees taking part.

Tickets are on sale now at www.flybe.com from £24.99 one way including taxes and charges for travel effective May 27th through to 30th October.

The new route, with a flight time of just 80 minutes, will be operated by Flybe’s fuel efficient 78- seat Bombardier Q-400 turboprop aircraft.

The Airport at kent is accessible to many popular seaside resorts such as Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate and should prove popular with those holidaymakers not wanting to undertake the long drive from the north.

The announcement further reinforces Flybe’s commitment to offering an extensive choice of convenient, affordable regional travel.

A spokesman for the airline said that the new service would satisfy a demand for a link between Scotland’s capital and the south of England.Edinburgh whilst being the first carrier to offer Kent travellers a scheduled service out of Kent International. 

Edinburgh Airport has welcomed the news with Gordon Dewar, Managing Director, commenting:  “The creation of this route underlines Edinburgh’s attraction as a destination in the domestic UK market and we’re excited that Flybe has picked up on the demand to create a link between Scotland’s Capital and the South of England.”

Kent International Airport is easy to get to , easily navigable once inside, and passengers may board the aircraft literally yards from where they have parked their car!

The runway is capable of accommodating all commercial aircraft and covers a total of 800 acres.

Ebay, the online auction giant, is set to liven up the online travel market after it announced that it is to sell holidays to UK customers for the first time after teaming up with online travel agent Octopus Travel.

The deal with the web-based holiday firm will allow eBay to offer 50,000 hotels and travel deals to UK customers from as little as 99p, as well as full package holidays.

The holidays are expected to follow the usual format of a fixed price ‘buy it now’ option and auction listings.

Gareth Gaston, Managing Director of Octopus Travel commented that he was excited about the prospect of the new venture, and partnering Ebay  to offer unique deals on the auction site. 

As more and more people are booking their flights and hotel rooms on  the internet, it should prove another media, through which customers may find excellent deals. 

A spokesman  from another popular holiday firm said that the move was a sensible idea from eBay but stated  that in the current climate consumers would still shop around for the best buys.

The  online market in terms of travel products is still growing and the move by Ebay is really a natural advancement. doesn’t come as a surprise, People have been selling holidays and villa owners auction off their properties on the site or a number of years.

Thomas Cook also have a holiday shop, and many timeshare weeks, and indeed full timeshare ownership may be purchased.

The move into travel follows a similar recent move by the retail giant to allow supermarkets and other retail outlets to sell their products through the site’s auction system.

An airline entrepreneur dubbed “Baby Branson” who launched a low-cost carrier as a teenager is back in business , following the collapse of his first venture.

Martin Halstead , still at the tender age of 23, is launching Varsity Express next month, which will offer  flights between Oxford and Edinburgh.

The airline aims to offer excellent customer service fast,  and affordable prices .

An across the board price of £49 single will apply on all flights up  untill 12 March.Passengers will be carried on an 18 seat Jetstream. Flights are only on weekdays, and he is looking to add another route in the near future.

Halstead shot to as a 19-year-old when he started Alpha One Airways, a low-cost carrier offering flights between Oxford and Cambridge. However the business folded just six weeks after launch.

He has since held a number of positions within the aviation industry, including working as a flight attendant on Branson’s Virgin Atlantic. He also secured an air transport licence at the Oxford Air Training School at the age of 18.

He would not disclose the identity of Varsity’s backers but they are understood to be a group of British businessmen with property interests in the Canary Islands, according to The Times. The deal could eventually give him a half-share in the company.

Nearly ten years after the Air France Concorde crash that killed 113 people and terminated the life of  the supersonic plane, five men and Continental Airlines are to stand trial in Paris, accused of responsibility for the disaster.

The four-month trial in Cergy-Pontoise will try and establish why the Air France Concorde crashed whilst taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport on 25 July 2000.

French prosecutors will argue that an 18-inch scrap of titanium on the runway caused the accident. A Continental Airlines DC-10 shed the “wear strip” on the runway shortly before takeoff, shredding the Concorde’s tyre and splattering pieces of rubber into the fuel tanks, which caused a fire, they will say.

Continental Airways is accused of using titanium, despite it not being allowed for temporary repairs on aircraft.

Lawyers  will argue that a key part of the undercarriage had been accidentally left out by Air France ground staff, causing too much weight to bear on the tyres, one of which exploded when it hit a bump in the runway.

The trial will also examine whether the aircraft should have been grounded earlier, after weakness and design faults had previously come to light. 

In the 24 years of Concorde flights prior to the accident, there were 65 incidents of burst tyres, six of which led to the perforation of fuel tanks.

If convicted, Continental Airways faces a maximum fine of 375,000 euros (£328,000), and the five individual defendants face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to 75,000 euros (£66,000).

Concorde was decommissioned in 2003.