Author: Shawon Hannan
The Beaumont Hotel at Balderton Street in London’s Mayfair has held a topping out ceremony. The Beaumont’s topping out comes after the recent completion of public works on North Audley Street, Duke Street and the opening of the redeveloped Brown Hart Gardens, which the hotel overlooks. The construction of the Hotel was started in 2011 and completion is scheduled for summer 2014. Conceptualised as a joint venture between hotel developer, Grosvenor, and operator, Corbin & King Hotels, the hotel is designed to offer first class services in North Mayfair, a central area of London. It comprises 73 bedrooms and suites…
Nearly ‘100,000’ people living under the Heathrow flight paths have benefited from the noise respite trials carried out earlier this year, according to an independent report. The Helios Report found that the ‘Early Morning Noise Respite Trial,’ supported by Heathrow, British Airways, the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) and HACAN, which campaigns against aircraft noise, benefited thousands of people in South-East and East London as well as many residents of Berkshire. During the five-month trial, which ended in March this year, planes were directed to more specific flight paths to protect people from noise in dedicated areas between 04:30 and…
British Airways (BA) has rejected claims by passengers that it had put their lives at risk after it made two emergency landings owing to the same fault. The Boeing 747 in question had left Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for London on Wednesday but was forced to turn back for an emergency landing due to a fault with the wing flaps. The fault reoccurred when the same plane took off on Thursday, forcing it to turn back again. Passenger Sean Casey reportedly told the BBC that paramedics were brought on board to treat some of the passengers after the second emergency landing.…
The baggage-scanning operatives at Stansted Airport are set to go on strike during the bank holiday weekend following a vote over pay cuts. Members of the UK trade union, GMB, have voted in favour of strike action and said that pay cuts are not acceptable to members. The strike is planned from August 23 to 26 and the action will be effective between 3.30am and 6am and 3.30pm and 6pm each day. Members were 92 percent in favour of strike action over the pay cuts for staff employed to screen checked-in baggage before it goes into the holds of aircraft.…
Edinburgh and Glasgow airports have reported one of their busiest months ever for July. In July, Edinburgh Airport reported the busiest month ever recorded, with over one million people travelling through the airport, a rise of 13.1 percent on the previous year. Scotland’s busiest airport passed the million-passenger mark in late July, seeing a total of 1,082,938 passengers using the terminal. Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: ‘We’re over the moon with this achievement and is testament not only to the hard work of all at Edinburgh Airport – my team, our airlines and handling agents and other…
UK-based travel association, ABTA, has cautioned holidaymakers with regard to accidents on quad bikes when holidaying overseas, and the safety measures to be taken when hiring quad bikes. A popular holiday activity, tourists are hiring more quad bikes each year, but there has also been an increase in the number of related accidents reported each year. Holidaymakers that hire the bikes as a means of travelling on main roads and ride them without helmets and adequate experience may be putting their lives at risk, according to ABTA. While several tour operators offer travellers the opportunity of booking organised off-road bike…
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic has partnered with ‘Ceviche,’ one of London’s most popular restaurants, to offer the first ever pop-up restaurant at an airport. Housed in the loft area of London Heathrow’s award winning lounge, the pop-up will be available to Upper-Class customers travelling through Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse from August 12 to August 18. ‘Ceviche’, which is London-based, is a Peruvian restaurant in Frith Street, Soho. The Ceviche pop-up will serve Peruvian dishes to passengers from 12 to 12:30 pm for one week only. The menu includes Drunk Scallops, which is king scallops serviced with pomegranate, Pisco and coriander…
Railway investment has resulted in more than £3.2bn of work for businesses across Britain over the last year, according to data by Network Rail. The rail improvement schemes undertaken by Network Rail included the redevelopments of King’s Cross, Reading and Birmingham New Street stations, Crossrail, the Thameslink Programme upgrade and several other projects to improve stations, lengthen platforms and build new railway. According to the Network Rail data, nearly one third of the £1.2bn spent in 2012-13 has benefited small and medium-sized businesses, sustaining over 90,000 full-time jobs nationally, in addition to the 34,000 workers that are directly employed by…
The upcoming seventh UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit is set to discuss measures to help governments across the world to better align their tourism and aviation policies to benefit both sectors. The Summit – How to Bridge the Gap Between Tourism and Aviation Policies – will be held on November 5, 2013 and follows the discussions at last May’s UNWTO & ATM Ministerial Forum held in Dubai. The Summit will facilitate global tourism ministers and industry leaders to resolve all related issues for ensuring a better coordinated view, when formulating and implementing policies for tourism and aviation. It will particularly…
Budget airline, Ryanair, has been named ‘the cleanest’ airline ‘by passenger volume,’ according to a recent report by the US sustainability technology company, Brighter Planet. However, a report on independent.ie also said that the no-frills airline emits nearly as much carbon dioxide as the island country of Cyprus and its entire population of 1.1 million people. Cyprus, which plays host to more than two million tourists a year, produces 7.9 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, according to latest figures from the Environmental Assessment Agency in the Netherlands and the European Commission Ryanair’s vast fleet of aircraft produced about 7.5…