Author: Shawon Hannan

The planned strike by the baggage scanning staff at Stansted airport, UK, has been called off after the staff reached an agreement with employers, Mitie. The strike, which was announced after a dispute over pay, was originally planned from August 23 to 26, with action to be effective between 3.30am and 6am and 3.30pm and 6pm each day. The UK trade union, GMB, has now said that its members had reached an agreement after talks between the two parties. The dispute involving baggage scanners began in June this year when Mitie, the contractor who employs the GMB members to run…

The UK city of Birmingham is looking to build its growing Indian tourist market with the launch of a new Air India flight. With nearly 13,500 Indian visitors to Birmingham each year, the West Midlands is the most popular region outside of the South East for Indian tourists to the UK. Currently operating four times weekly between Birmingham Airport and New Delhi, the newly launched Air India service is expecting a significant increase in traffic in the coming years. The new Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’ service will see up to 1,024 additional passengers travel to Birmingham each week. Marketing Birmingham, which…

UK’s rail fares are far more expensive than air tickets, with travellers paying up to three times more to travel around Britain on trains than planes, according to research. According to separate surveys by The Sun on Sunday and the MailOnline, advance airfares on Easyjet are cheaper than train prices on nine out of ten of the most popular long-distance routes between major cities, the only exception being London to Manchester. Flying with EasyJet from Glasgow to Bristol on September 23 and returning one week later will cost £53, while the cheapest train ticket costs as much as £141. And…

London Heathrow has introduced pioneering technology across its terminals that it claims will help to improve departing flight punctuality and passenger experience at the airport. The ‘positive boarding’ feature will help reduce airlines’ last minute searches for passengers or their bags, as well as giving travellers more accurate and personalised information to help them make their flight on time. Now live in Terminals 1 and 3, the software program enables airlines to monitor the departure process and it is compatible with all airlines’ computer systems. Using the new boarding technology, passengers only need to present the barcode on their ticket,…

Virgin Trains is set to launch the UK’s first ever on board ‘high speed’ book signings on its West Coast route in autumn this year. For the ‘High Speed Book Signings’, a host of celebrated authors have confirmed participation, including Scandi-crime writer, Jo Nesbo, the British writer, Joanna Trollope, who is launching The Austen Project with a reworking of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, and comedian and author, Ruby Wax. All of the participating authors have either recently launched or will soon be launching their new books and will offer Virgin Trains’ passengers an exclusive opportunity to own a signed…

Irish budget airline, Ryanair, has launched a libel action against Channel 4’s Dispatches, as well as newspaper publishers Associated Newspapers and Mirror Group, over allegations regarding the airline’s approach to safety. Early last week, the airline said that it would take legal action against Channel 4 over a Dispatches documentary, ‘Ryanair: Secrets from the Cockpit’. The airline also sacked a longstanding pilot who had appeared in the documentary. On Friday, Ryanair said that it would expand the libel action to include Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, and Mirror Group, publisher of the…

Young British travellers are increasingly partaking of cheap alcohol while on holiday, putting themselves at risk of harm, according to a research. The research by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) found that 51 percent of 16 to 24-year-olds said they are likely to drink more on holiday than at home, with nearly two thirds attributing this to alcohol being cheaper. Nearly 40 percent said that they drink more due to peer pressure, as friends often compel them to drink more than they wanted to. The Foreign Office said that consular staff had already been called on to aid…

Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner has been hit by a further setback, as wiring defects have been discovered in the fire-extinguisher system on three of its aircraft. The fault was found on jets operated by Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), the model’s biggest operator. The fault is likely to trigger the wrong extinguisher in the event of a blaze in one of the two engines, ANA said. The problem, the latest in a series of setbacks for Boeing’s 787, was first discovered during pre-flight maintenance of a jet at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, an ANA spokeswoman said. Japan Airlines called back a…

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and Bank of America have announced the launch of the new Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard credit card and the long-term renewal of their co-brand partnership. The new Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard credit card rewards cardholders with three miles for every $1.00 spent on Virgin Atlantic purchases, and 1.5 miles for all other purchases. ‘The new credit card programme allows us to give our customers an extraordinary experience, both on the ground and in the air,’ said Chris Rossi, senior vice president, Virgin Atlantic North America. ‘Joining forces with Bank of America and MasterCard…

According to research commissioned by the UK’s luxury gay travel companion, Les Deux Messieurs, gay-friendly hotel staff are ‘very important’ to LGBT travellers when making their hotel and holiday choices. The research conducted by Out Now Consulting, a marketing agency that provides specialised gay marketing services to large companies by researching gay lifestyles and using the information to develop strategies to target gay and lesbian consumers, found that 92 percent of respondents across the UK, Europe and the US cited that gay-friendly staff were a consideration when booking a stay away. According to 54 percent of respondents, whether the hotel…