Aberdeen Airport Ready for Expansion
The number of passengers using Scotland’s third largest airport, Aberdeen, increased again last month. The total number of passengers using the airport in the first four months of 2008 has exceeded 1 million with 280,700 using the terminal during April. This is an increase of 1.6% on the figures for April 2007.
Aberdeen continues to be Scotland’s fastest growing airport offering flights to over 35 destinations. It is also the main heliport for the North Sea oil industry providing helicopter flights to and from the oil rigs for oil workers.
Up until March 2005 aircraft were not allowed to take off from the airport between the hours of 22:30 and 06:00 due to local noise restrictions. These were lifted by the local council, despite opposition from local residents. The airport is now set to undergo development to extend the main runway.
City councillors have agreed to an extra 300 metres that will enable larger, international aircraft to use the airport. Initially an extension of 125 metres is to be added to the runway. Whilst this expansion has been welcomed by the Scottish tourism board, it has met with strong opposition from environmental campaigners.
For the local tourism industry to continue to grow, expansion of Aberdeen airport is essential.
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Airline condemns Luton aircraft parking fees
Monarch airlines have condemned the high aircraft parking fees that are being charged at Luton Airport. Luton Airport currently charges £7,000 a day for each aircraft that is parked at the airport for more than 48 hours in comparison to the £1,000 per day charged at Manchester airport.
Monarch’s managing director Tim Jeans said that Luton Borough Council, the owners of Luton Airport were not investing the money made back into the development of the airport. Mr Jeans went on to claim that the agreement between the airport operators and the council did not give a provision or commitment for the development of the infrastructure at the airport.
Mr Jeans went on to say that “The lack of vision on the part of the council is a crying shame” and that “the terms of the franchise make it more advantageous for it to sweat the assets than to invest in the airport. “The council should recognise its position as part of the London airport system and stop looking at creaming off £2 per plane that takes off.”
Monarch airlines said that they are currently looking at other airports to use as a fifth base for when it takes delivery of a new Airbus A321 that is due for delivery in August.
A spokeswoman for Luton Airport said that high aircraft parking charges had been set by the airport authority to discourage airlines from keeping aircraft at the airport. It’s claimed that this was necessary to prevent airlines from parking aircraft for long periods when not in operation which in turn could cause congestion at the airport during peak times. Travellers will undoubtedly be relieved that the airport authority doesn’t charge the same rates for Luton Airport car parking.
Ryanair expands Scottish air network
Ryanair have announced plans for a multi-million pound expansion into Scotland that could bring about a significant boost to tourism in the area. With the planned 19 routes that will operate to and from Edinburgh Airport, Ryanair predicts that the new services will attract more than 1.2 million extra passengers a year to Scotland.
With Glasgow Prestwick Airport being their first, Edinburgh airport will be Ryanair’s second base of operation in Scotland and their 27th in Europe.
The airline claims that the expansion of operations in the Scottish sector will indirectly create up to 1,200 jobs in Edinburgh and the East Scotland areas. Inevitably, with the creation of new routes and services comes a greater demand for additional ground based operations such as Airport car parking and Hotels at or near to Edinburgh Airport. This demand for additional services is likely to bring an economic boost and jobs to the local and surrounding areas.
Sean Coyle, Ryanair’s director of finance, said “Our 19 routes will deliver significant economic benefits for Edinburgh by capitalising on Scotland’s huge tourism potential and making it cheaper and easier than ever before to get here.”
New Munich link for Air Berlin at Stansted
From November 5th, the German carrier Air Berlin will start a twice daily service from Stansted airport to Munich with a one flight service on each day at the weekend.
Air Berlins country manager for the UK and Ireland, Titus Johnson, stated that the new route was formed after demand for the route from customers.
With fares starting from £24 one-way, including taxes, Stansted departures will be at 08:20 and 19:15 hours daily with one flight departing on Saturdays at 08:20 and another flight on Sunday departing at 19:15 hours.
Times Online names the top ten travel websites
In a recent article, the Times Online has named what it considers to be the top ten travel websites.
Rather than focusing purely on website statistics alone, sites with high visitor numbers which can also be low on thrills, the Times has opted to select websites that they feel are more interesting and offer ease of use plus extensive information on products and services for visitors.
As with any top ten list, it’s often found that some less well known companies are found to offer as much or sometimes more than the bigger well recognized organisations in the market reinforcing the advice to shop around.
An online comparison website that allows visitors to compare travel related products and services from thousands of service providers. Although one of the biggest players in the price comparison field, the service is limited to companies that pay to be included within its listings so alternative comparison sites shouldn’t be ruled out when searching for the best online deals.
Ok, so it may be blowing their own trumpet but for good reason. The Times Online is world renowned for the quality of its travel articles plus its feeds and links to other great quality sites, deals and travel blogs.
Another great comparison website that’s quick and easy to use, instantly returning availability and pricing details from the leading parking providers allowing users to quickly compare and book from a simple search. Covering over 120 car parks at 24 airports across the country, as well as central
With around 98% of its bookings now made online, the no frills airline claims that with it’s easy to use online search and booking facility, bookings can be made in around 3 minutes. The review concludes that although airport parking, airport hotels and car hire can also be booked via the site, better deals can be found elsewhere with other major comparison sites.
Does exactly what the name suggests. With a large range of availability for last minute bookings, discounts of upto 70% can be made on the published room rates if booked upto 7 days in advance. If you draw a blank on your search with laterooms .com, alternatives such as Wotif.com could provide the answer with a booking window of 28 days.
Maybe one of the lesser known sites but this great travel-networking site puts you in touch with the worlds travel community. The name which is short for “Where are you now?” currently has over 8 million members. Based in the
When booking a last minute departure, it’s now more important than ever to check the weather at your destination with ever increasing occurrences of flooding and storms. Although sunshine and rainfall figures can sometimes be found at travel agents, these can appear optimistic when compared with official meteorological statistics. The World Weather Information Service is run by the World Meteorological Organization and uses official data to create forecasts at more than 1,200 locations worlwide.
A great alternative to the various software options available, Multimap.com provides access to maps that are packed with useful details and driving directions in a clear and easy to follow format that can be printed. The site remembers your previous searches and allows you to send maps direct to your mobile phone. The site covers much of the worlds road network although the level of detail can reduce dramatically when comparing say a major city to some of the farther flung locations.
Established for almost 10 years, Expedia has built a reputation of trust and reliability within the trade. With a huge inventory of deals on everything from car hire to flights, it’s a great resource for travellers looking for the latest travel information and deals online.
Owned by Expedia, Tripadvisor is geared towards user-generated content. With over 10 million reviews, there has in the past been suspicion that a number of the reviews have been written by hoteliers and other individuals to falsely boost the rating of a service or venue. This said however, hotels with a large number of reviews tend to provide a good indicator of the overall standard; Tripadvisor is also getting better at spotting and weeding out false review submissions.
Airport Lounges : 10 of the best
With the ever growing popularity and number of airport lounges, there has never been a greater choice for travellers.
In a recent article by the Telegraph online, Jeffery Mills was given the enviable task of scouting the worlds airports to find and name his top 10 luxury airport lounges.
When searching for airport lounges, there are a number of web sites that take the hard work out of the process by providing easy to use search facilities. Once the country and airport required have been selected, these systems will return details of availability and pricing along with an option to book online in advance, saving on the normal ‘turn up’ daily rates.
One of the more well known sites for this is Simplylounges.co.uk, with a database of over 130 airport lounges in around 40 countries, this easy to use site provides instant access to the worlds airport lounge net work, including some of those highlighted by Jeffery Mills in his worlds top ten luxury lounges.
Coming to America, go ahead given for Virgin America flights
Sir Richard Branson, founder of the virgin group of companies, has been given the go ahead to launch a new Virgin America airline. The inaugural flight will take off from the operations home base in San Francisco to New Yorks JFK airport by mid-summer although no date has been yet confirmed.
The go ahead was finally confirmed after nearly 18 months of negotiations between Virgin and the US competition authorities, a further condition of approval was that Sir Branson limited his interest in the new venture to 25% with the remaining share being owned by US investment banks.
Within the first year of startup, Virgin America is aiming to offer flights to 10 cities within the US including Washington, Las Vegas and San Diego growing to 30 destinations by 2012. Further routes under consideration for future operations currently include Boston, Orlando, Atlanta and New Orleans.
Virgin America hopes to build on the reputation of the virgin group as well as providing a service that betters the conventional US carriers, part of the new operation will be the inclusion of first class cabins on the new services.
Manchester Airport key to BMI network
BMI has pledged to retain Manchester airport as a key part of its network of services. With eleven routes that include flights from Manchester to Barbados, Las Vegas, Chicago and Antigua, BMI says that it sees Manchester as a vital part of its ongoing expansion program.
With the signing of the open skies deal between the UK, Europe and the united states, BMI may now opt to fly from Heathrow to the US, BMI chairman Sir Michael Bishop went on to say that such a decision however would not effect the Manchester operation.
As a member of the Star Alliance, the Chicago route is of particular importance to BMI as the city is a major hub for fellow member United Airlines. Although BMI intends to continue providing long-haul service from Manchester in the future, it has admitted that the number of opportunities for long haul services from the airport are limited.
In addition to the existing services that operate to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, a new Lyon service that operates from London Heathrow airport has been added by BMI Regional.
Short-haul flights from Heathrow cut by BMI
BMI, the UK airline that operates cheap flights from the UK to Europe the Middle East and the USA is set to announce a reduction in the number of short-haul services that it operates from Heathrow airport.
Over the next two years, the company that currently operates 19 short-haul services plans to cut back on its short-haul services in favour of it’s medium and long-haul operations. The change has been attributed to intense competition on some of the routes from other London airports, the companies purchase of Bmed from BA and the introduction of the new open-skies agreement between the UK, Europe and the US.
BMI’s chief executive Nigel Turner said that the future reductions in short-haul services would likely affect domestic services as well as flights to Spain, these cuts would be in addition to the 25% cut in short-haul services that had already been made over the past 3 years.
The airline is said to be conducting a review of it’s position and considering it’s options following its £30 million purchase of Bmed from British Airways earlier in the year. The acquisition of Bmed gave BMI an additional 17 mid-haul destinations and several slots at Heathrow airport. Sir Michael Bishop, the BMI chairman said that the slots would be returned back to BA in 2009 meaning that BA would need to rethink its services to fit the medium-haul and proposed US routes into the restricted space at Heathrow.
Air France Restores Bristol-Paris Connection
A new service that will restore a link between Bristol airport and Paris is being re-introduced by Air France. The route that was previously operated by BA Connect will provide 3 weekday flights to Charles de Gaulle airport with a less frequent weekend service.
The new service that starts on the 11th June will be operated with a 48-seat turboprop aircraft that will depart from Bristol airport at 06:30, 10:40 and 17:75 Hrs daily. The service is designed to provide direct access to Paris and the AirFrance network as well as the many other long-haul connections that operate from the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
Economy return fares are expected to start from £105 and are combinable with KLM’s service from Bristol to Amsterdam providing round-trip options through both the KLM and Air France hubs.