Author: Shawon Hannan
The development of a major UK-based theme park has been halted by the discovery of a colony of rare spiders on the site. The proposed development on the outskirts of London is backed by US-based filmmaking giant, Paramount, and at 842 acres the rival to Disneyland Paris would be the third biggest theme park in the world once it is completed. However, tiny arachnid, sitticus distinguendus, or the distinguished jumping spider, has shown that it has little respect for the movie company’s ambitious £2 billion plans by claiming squatters’ rights once it was discovered during an environmental audit of the…
A new promotion by Visit England, the authority responsible for the development of English tourism, is to be co-funded by operators in the UK tourism industry. Popular plasticine animation characters Wallace and Gromit will be fronting the government-backed campaign, which is to be known as ‘Great Adventure.’ It has a budget of £4 million, £2 million of which is in direct funding from the government. In addition, the campaign will be backed by a number of high street operators and travel agents who will be launching a range of holiday packages in the UK and offering £2 million in ‘in-kind’…
The authorities in Florida, USA, have backtracked on a recently introduced law that penalised British visitors wishing to hire a car in the southern state. The law stated that all drivers of hire cars in Florida had to carry an International Driving Permit (IDP) in order that an English translation of their licence was always available for production. While the law was introduced to account for the many foreign language visitors that descend on Florida each year, there was no exemption for carriers of English language licences from the UK, Canada and Australia, all of whom had been able to…
UK-based airline, British Airways, has confirmed the order that it will be placing with US airplane builder, Boeing, for its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. BA has confirmed an order for 18 Dreamliners, with a total order value in the region of $4 billion. BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), has already ordered 24 of the aircraft as well as 12 Airbus A380’s as part of the fleet modernisation plan that it initiated six years ago. The new aircraft will be replacing some of BA’s Boeing 747-400 fleet between 2017 and 2021, according to IAG. BA’s order has been confirmed as…
A survey in the UK has revealed that all-inclusive and package holidays are enjoying a surge in popularity as the main holiday season approaches. The survey, which was carried out by GfK, an industry analyst, reported that all-inclusive holiday bookings are 14 percent higher this year than at the same time last year. This growth in popularity is believed to be due to the certainty with which this type of holiday can be budgeted for, as all food, drink and entertainment is included in the booking price. The lack of spending requirement also means that the exchange rate and security…
Delta, the US-based airline, is to become the first air carrier to reduce the size of its on board toilet facilities to make more cost effective use of the space. Despite in-flight toilets already being so compact that larger passengers can experience difficulty in carrying out their mission once wedged inside, Delta’s new design brief for its aircraft will see a reduction on the current standard cubicle size of 3ft by 3ft. The further hemming-in of the one seat on the aircraft that does not require a ticket is to enable the addition of more seats that do need to…
Easyjet, the UK-based budget airline with its headquarters at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire, has seen positive results from its first year of operations out of Southend Airport in Essex. The airline flew 700,000 passengers from its Southend operation last year, and has developed 15 routes with more being planned. Edinburgh, Scotland, will be added to schedules from May, with Berlin in Germany, Krakow in Poland and Newquay in the southwest of England being added in June. Hugh Aitken, UK commercial manager for easyjet, commented, ‘We’re fully committed to London Southend airport and have demonstrated this by investing heavily in new…
The UK’s Association of British Travel Agents, ABTA, has submitted its opinions to the Airports Commission on how Britain’s airport infrastructure should be improved. The UK’s well documented airport capacity problems have lead the Airport Commission to seek the views of interested parties on effective options that are also practical, in order to ease the situation. Amidst fears that the British economy is suffering as a result of its restricted capacity for air traffic expansion, ABTA’s opinion is that the airport infrastructure in the South-East of England should be prioritised for urgent development. The organisation also suggests that attention is…
Jet2.com, a British low-cost airline based out of Leeds Bradford Airport, is to commence flights to Budapest, Hungary, from East Midlands Airport in the UK. East Midlands will be the third UK airport from which Jet2 provides flights to Budapest, after Edinburgh and Manchester, and the flights will operate twice weekly with fares starting from £55 one way. Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet 2, said, ‘We’re thrilled to be the only airline to give travellers from East Midlands and central England direct flights to this popular central European city, right from their doorstep. We’ve made this route available following…
The head of UK-based Virgin Atlantic airline, Sir Richard Branson, took advantage of April Fools’ Day to promote the company’s new domestic offshoot service, Little Red, on his blog. The blog page showed a picture of a glass-bottomed airliner taking to the skies and described it as a ‘world first’ in aircraft innovation. In addition to his blog, the head of Virgin used twitter to circulate the hoax, saying, ‘This ensures the aisle in the plane’s underbelly is completely see through, allowing passengers to look down directly as the plane makes its journey through the sky. I’m thrilled to announce…