Author: Shawon Hannan
If you love snow sports, chances are you’re keen to attend the Winter X Games 2013. Held in Tignes, France from March 20th to 22nd, these give you a unique opportunity to see some of the top athletes for freestyle and freeriding snowboarding and skiing. Since they’re happening next month, I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of the events you shouldn’t miss. Before I start, I should point out that the official schedule has not been released yet (or it hadn’t when I wrote this, anyway!), so I can’t give you exact dates or times for each. What…
Thomas Cook, a UK based on-line/off-line travel company, has today announced major cuts in both its workforce and the number of its retail outlets. The company has announced that it is to cut 2,500 jobs from its back office and retail network, and close 195 stores as it attempts to restructure for future profitability. The job cuts represent just over 16 percent of the company’s present UK workforce of 15,500, and a 90-day consultation will now begin in relation to the losses. Jobs at Thomas Cook’s head offices in Peterborough and Preston are at risk, and the Accrington office is…
The chairman of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has hit out at recent UK television programs that focus on negative aspects of the travel industry. John McEwan, the chairman of the travel operators’ organisation, has said that he will initiate an investigation into how the travel industry can influence, what he described as, more accurate and informative holiday-based television programs. The chairman’s comments came in the wake of television’s latest holiday angst program, Holiday Hit Squad, a series that is being screened weekly by the BBC. The program covers a range of undesirable holiday features, from hotels that…
Thomson Holidays, a UK-based travel operator and subsidiary of Tui Travel Plc, has been forced to postpone the planned introduction of Boeing’s problematic 787 Dreamliner aircraft for its summer schedules. Thomson was proud to promote itself as the first UK airline to have the state-of-the-art, eco-friendly aircraft available for passengers to experience, to the extent that it had applied a £10 supplement to flights where it was utilised, but on-going technical difficulties that have plagued manufacturer, Boeing, have put back the 787’s delivery for at least 2 months. Passengers that have paid the £10 supplement for flights from May this…
British Airways, the UK-based air carrier, has confirmed the first routes to be flown by its superjumbo Airbus A380 aircraft. From October 15 this year the new aircraft will be flying from Heathrow Airport in the UK to Los Angeles in the US. Tickets for the flights are available to book from today. Today is also the launch date for tickets for BA’s second A380 route to Hong Kong, with that service commencing from November 15 this year. However, according to the company, other flights could predate these following delivery of the first aircraft in July, with a statement saying,…
The UK might be continuing to walk a tightrope of recession, and each day the news reports the latest privations and cutbacks that are being imposed on the nation, but first class rail travel has never been so popular. The latest report from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), which has compiled the figures for all of the UK’s regional operators into one total, reveals that more than 11 million first class or equivalent tickets were sold last year. That means that the luxury compartments are even more popular now than they were decades ago when rail was a…
Workers at UK-based British Airways are planning a show of support for striking employees of BA’s Spain-based sister company, Iberia. Both companies are owned by UK-based International Airlines Group (IAG), and BA workers are planning to hold a lunchtime demonstration tomorrow (Wednesday) in support of their colleagues’ on going industrial action. Iberia staff are now into their second week-long walkout in protest at proposed job cuts that IAG says are necessary if the airline is to be profitable again. A further strike is planned for March 18 to 22, with a previous one already having taken place between February 18…
Delta Air Lines has announced a plan that will give travellers the ability to change their travel plans. The airline is offering a dispensation that will allow customers, whose flight plans may be affected by winter weather in the Northern Plains region, to make changes to their proposed schedule. They will be allowed to make a one-time change to their travel schedules without incurring additional fees. After announcing the move, the airline asked customers to consider departing earlier and postponing or re-routing their travel to avoid possible inconvenience from expected flight delays and cancellations. Customers booked on Delta-ticketed flights to,…
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has claimed that the British economy is suffering due to the nation’s restricted air capacity. In its ‘Trading Places’ research, the CBI claims that Britain is missing out on billions of pounds of trade with developing nations, including China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and Russia, and that just one additional daily flight to each of these countries could generate as much as £1 billion in extra trade. Lack of hub capacity around Greater London was cited as the prime culprit for the assumed loss of trade. With little or no additional…
Flybe, the low-cost regional airline with its headquarters in Exeter, Devon, UK, has announced an expansion of its services to Scotland for the coming summer. The new flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports begin on April 6 with two new Saturday flights to Manchester. Prices for the new flights commence from £39.99 one way, including taxes and airport charges. Also, from April 1, the airline is increasing the number of weekday flights to East Midlands Airport from both Edinburgh and Glasgow to four from three, and increasing capacity on its Saturday services from Edinburgh to Southampton with the introduction of…