Author: News Team

British holidaymakers have voted taxi drivers in Paris and Rome as the rudest in the world. According to the survey by airporttransfers.co.uk, cab drivers in the capital cities of France and Italy are seen as the most unhelpful. Their counterparts in holiday destinations such as San Antonio on the Spanish island of Ibiza, Dubai and Magaluf on the island of Majorca are also not polite with their customers, it said. The survey ranked taxi drivers in Pefkos on the Greek island of Rhodes and the Turkish resort of Marmaris as some of the friendliest in the world. Cabbies in Playa…

The fall of the Indian rupee, which has touched unprecedented lows, has affected tourism to and from India. Tourism officials said that travel to South East Asia and domestic destinations had received a boost as the weak rupee has made Indians choose them over dollar destinations for holidays. The value of the rupee, which has fallen below the psychological resistance level of 59.52/dollar, has affected the travel plans of many groups. From students who were planning to settle down in foreign nations to those who had plans to vacation abroad, all have been affected by the weak value of the…

Airlines cutting costs by limiting factors that increase fuel consumption is nothing new, but Indian low-cost airline GoAir looks to be going the extra mile here, announcing plans for a controversial policy of only taking on female cabin crew from now on. The carrier announced that such a move could save it up to £330,000 a year on fuel (30 million rupees), as female staff weigh in around 33lb to 44lb lighter than male staff would on average. It did however clarify that its existing 132 male staff would not be sacked – simply that no new male staff would…

Leading UK-based airline company British Airways is set to start the trial of its new hi-tech luggage tag. The state-of-the-art electronic luggage tag will replace the need for a new non-reusable paper tag every time one boards a flight. The company has partnered with creative product design consultancy Designworks to develop a high-tech replacement for the traditional paper bag tag. After checking in, passengers would only need to swipe their smartphone over the reusable tag featuring a scannable barcode. This would automatically update it with a unique barcode containing all the necessary flight information as well as a view of…

The days of affixing a disposable paper bag tag to every item of airport luggage could be numbered as British Airways launches a trial of an electronic version of the luggage identification label. The UK-based airline hopes that a successful trial of the state-of-the-art tag will save time and be a greener option for the future. It is designed for use by passengers that book in on line, and after completing the computerised process they will be able to update their details on the electronic tag by holding a smartphone above it. This will program the tag with a unique…

Gatwick, London’s second busiest airport, is attempting to reduce the fees charged to airlines. The airport’s owners want to cut the increases in the fees that airlines pay in order to convince regulators that levies should not be capped. The airport operator does not want to see fees increase by more than 1.5 percent in real terms during each of the seven years until 2021. If implemented, this strategy would see a rise of just £0.96 in the per passenger fee over the 7-year period. The proposal is the latest move in an on-going negotiation with the Civil Aviation Authority,…

During 2012 the UK economy benefited from a £2.5 billion boost, thanks to the cruise industry. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, and which is a major association for the cruise industry, dedicated to its promotion and growth, revealed the £2.5 billion bonanza from figures that it compiles on the world’s cruise companies. In addition to the financial contribution made by the industry in the UK, it has been revealed that it also supports 66,000 British jobs. The impressive figure was not entirely made up of passenger revenue however, as the association…

DFDS, a ferry line with its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, has had to suspend sailings between the port of Harwich in the UK and Esbjerg in Denmark after one of its ferries collided with the quay in Harwich. The DFDS vessel, Sirena Seaways, collided with Parkeston Quay on arrival in Harwich around midday on Saturday during its docking procedure. 489 passengers were on board at the time, but no injuries were reported and there was no resultant pollution. However, the vessel does require essential maintenance and as a result all of the company’s sailings between Harwich and Esbjerg have been…

apanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) has left the Paris Airshow with two SKYTRAX World Airline awards. The airline received the awards for World’s Best Airport Services and Best Cabin Cleanliness following what is claimed to be the world’s largest annual airline passenger satisfaction survey, which is carried out by research organisation, SKYTRAX. The survey covered 200 airlines and questioned travellers from over 160 countries on 38 frontline key performance indicators for the airline industry. These included the arrangements for check-in, boarding, on-board seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, food, beverages, in-flight entertainment and staff service. ANA has added these latest awards…

Virgin Atlantic, a trans-Atlantic air carrier and part of the Virgin group of companies, is the biggest selling travel company for 2012 on the Sunday Times Top Track 100 list. The Sunday Times league table ranks Britain’s top 100 private companies with the fastest growing sales over the last three years. Along with its sister company, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Atlantic increased its sales by five percent to a total of £2.9 billion in 2012, and while these sales figures could not prevent the company from registering a £35 million loss for the period, they were good enough to achieve 12th…