Airport And Travel Information

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.

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.

The result of the new vote by around 13,000 BA staff will be announced at the end of next month. Should they vote to strike in protest at the airline’s demand for cuts, the first action is likely to take place early in March. Unite would then be free to hold a series of walk outs which, with Easter falling at the beginning of April would have a large impact on the Airline over one of its busiest weekends of the year.

The union had planned to strike for 12-days over Christmas, but was prevented from doing so by a High Court injunction, despite overwhelming endorsement for industrial action in the original ballot. At the time Unite promised it would hold a fresh ballot as well as ongoing negotiations with the airline. A spokesman for the union reiterated what was said last month ie. they were prepared to meet with the airline at any time or place , to aim to reach an agreement between them and their employees.

Experts believe the ballot announcement will hit bookings with passengers choosing other airlines rather than have their travel plans put at risk. When Unite announced a strike ballot in November, there was a significant fall in bookings over the next five days before the BA then announced a seat sale which clouded the effect.

Those people travelling over the next two to three months, may book with a different airline than risk a repeat of what happened at Christmas. A British Airways spokesman said the company was “saddened” but not surprised by the strike ballot and was considering several options should the strikes go ahead. These included leasing aircraft and crew from other companies who would operate services on BA’s behalf. In addition Willie Walsh, the company’s chief executive, has written to staff asking if they would be willing to train as cabin crew to step into the shoes of those who went on strike.

British Airways is flying a second relief aircraft of emergency supplies and equipment to earthquake hit Haiti. A Boeing 747 freighter with capacity for up to 100 tonnes of cargo is scheduled to fly out on Friday (January 22) carrying aid from Oxfam, the Red Cross, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

Two Toyota Land Cruisers from the Red Cross plus 50 tonnes of food and blankets from Oxfam will be loaded onto the aircraft at Stansted Airport, ready for distribution. The aircraft will touch down in Denmark, where water supplies, tents and a further 25 tonnes of food will also be loaded.

Last Saturday, the airline’s UNICEF Change For Good Programme donated £3000,000 to the relief fund, and BA sent a relief flight with supplies from Heathrow Airport to the Dominican Republic. The aircraft, crewed by BA partners Global Supply Systems, will depart from Stansted Airport at 10.35 and fly to Billund in Denmark to pick up aid before heading to Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

A BA spokesperson said that it was important to work with the aid agencies in providing much needed supplies, and that they were proud that they were able to help.

Snow has continued to fall across the UK ensuing in  the closure of Gatwick Airport for the second time in a week.

Heathrow is currently open but airport operator BAA  has warned that there might be delays and cancellations due to the ongoing  adverse weather conditions. Birmingham Airport and Cardiff Airport were both closed earlier, but  have now reopened although delays and cancellations may be on the cards.

Train services have also been severely disrupted with East Coast, First Great Western, First TransPennine Express, London Midland, London Overground, National Express East Anglia, Northern Rail, South West Trains, Southeastern all experiencing delays and cancellations. Eurostar, which was forced to cancel services last week, is running a “near normal” service today.

Roads have also been affected and the M48 Old Severn Bridge is closed stranding drivers in Devon. The severe weather warnings apply to north-west England, the West Midlands, Wales and southern England. Forecasters are expecting up to 4cm (1.5in) of snow in some parts, before the weather eases at the weekend.

The runway at  Gatwick Airport is undergoing snow clearance at present, and is expected to open again around 16.00 hours for departing flights only. Passengers are advised to contact their airline for the latest flight information, as there are many delays and cancellations.

Heathrow remains open, but cancellations are possible today due to the weather. Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline. A spokesman for Heathrow stated that although the maintenance team were doing their best to keep runways open  more snow was forecast, and the threat of closure still remained.

All travellers are advised to leave plenty of time for their journey to the airport.