Author: Shawon Hannan
Ireland-based low-cost air carrier, Ryanair, has finalised its $15.6 billion aircraft purchase deal with American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, at the Paris Air Show. At a specially-staged signing ceremony, Ryanair’s president, Michael O’Leary, and Ray Conner, the president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, confirmed the Irish airline’s order for 175 Boeing 737-800 airplanes, the biggest single deal that the airplane manufacturer has ever struck with a European airline. On signing the deal, O’Leary said, ‘Ryanair is proud to buy Boeing, who make great aircraft, and the 737-800 has been the foundation of Ryanair’s recent successful growth due to its great engineering and…
The UK government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the department responsible for the welfare of British citizens overseas, has issued updated travel advice for UK residents that are planning to visit Brazil. The new advice comes in the wake of recent violent protests that have erupted in a number of major Brazilian cities. Sao Paulo was the latest city to witness the violence, following similar incidents that had already affected parts of the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. What started out as a low-key protest over a 10 percent fare increase on many of the South American…
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has strongly criticised Heathrow Airport Holdings, the owners of Heathrow airport, over its objections to the possibility of a new airport being built in the Thames Estuary to address London’s need for more aviation capacity. Heathrow’s owner has stated that a third runway on its site would be less expensive and available sooner than a completely new airport, and that a new airport could also result in the closure of Heathrow with thousands of workers forced into redundancy or relocation. Boris Johnson, a supporter of the new airport option, commented in the Evening Standard…
Virgin Trains, the train operating arm of sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire, and the franchise holder for the West Coast Main Line, has announced that it is offering a number of cheap day return tickets between Glasgow and destinations in the north of England during the middle of July. The company is offering a 25 percent reduction on return fares for all 9 days between July 13 and July 21, for all passengers returning the same day to destinations including Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle and Glasgow. During the same period, Network Rail, the company responsible for the UK’s rail infrastructure,…
The county of Yorkshire in the UK is already benefiting from its coup in being chosen as the start point for this year’s Tour de France cycle race, by reporting an impressive increase in its tourism figures for the first part of the year. In January and February, Yorkshire shrugged off the effects of particularly hard winter weather to record the highest year-on year rise for tourism spend in the country. The county’s tourism revenue grew by 47 percent for the period. Figures from the Great Britain Travel Survey (GBTS) also reveal that trips to Yorkshire increased by 6.6 percent…
A report compiled by the owners of Heathrow airport, Heathrow Airport Holdings, has warned of massive job losses if a new airport hub in the Thames Estuary gets the go ahead. Instead of the alternative airport option, Heathrow’s management is promoting the addition of a third runway at Heathrow; an option that it claims would be ‘cheaper, quicker and better for the economy.’ In support of its claims, the airport has commissioned a report that it intends to present to the UK Aviation Commission, the body that is looking into the options for expanding London’s aviation capacity. In the report,…
Kuoni, a Swiss-based travel company is to open more concessions on the premises of stores owned by high street retailer, John Lewis. The travel company intends to open four new concessions in John Lewis stores around the UK, a doubling of the four stores where it first opened concessions in the autumn of last year. The new locations will be in stores in Brent Cross, Aberdeen, Welwyn and Leicester, adding to existing stores in Southampton, Reading, Cardiff and Oxford Street in London. The John Lewis store concessions are in addition to Kuoni’s own high street stores, of which there are…
Recognised for Excellence (R4E), a part of the EFQM Levels of Excellence certification programme, has renewed Virgin Train’s certification at 5 stars, the highest level. The certification is a renewal of the 5-star rating that Virgin Trains originally obtained two years ago, and follows the British Quality Foundation’s (BQF) bi-annual assessment of the company. Virgin was assessed on nine criteria and improved its overall score by approximately 20 percent. R4E claims to recognise successful efforts to implement excellence and good practice, and offers the benefits of a structured approach to identifying organisational strengths and areas for improvement. The 5-star rating…
Center Parks UK, the operator of a network of holiday villages in the United Kingdom, has revealed details of its new Woburn Forest park, which is currently under construction. Woburn Forest village is scheduled to open in the spring of next year and will house an updated version of Center Park’s Sub-tropical Swimming Paradise. The swimming facility is at the hub of all Center Parks sites, and the company claims that it is the most popular of the pastimes that are on offer, with the vast majority of guests making use of it during their stay. Woburn Forest’s Swimming Paradise…
Newly released figures for April this year has shown that spending by visitors to the UK increased by 13 percent for the month, despite an actual fall in visitor numbers. The 2.88 million foreign visitors that arrived during the month of April was 1 percent down on the same period last year, but arrivals from developing markets including Brazil and China were at record levels. With the final month’s figures in place it can be revealed that visitors to Britain spent GBP19.19 billion during the year to April, which was a record. For the first four months of 2013, visitors…