Author: Shawon Hannan

Monarch Airlines, a UK-based airline with its main headquarters at London Luton Airport, has announced major construction work at Birmingham Airport in the West Midlands. The airline has said that it will create up to 300 jobs at Birmingham Airport with the development of a new hangar and engineering facility that is large enough to accommodate two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, or ten narrow body aircraft. It has also said that there is the likelihood of the project creating a further 150 jobs at a later stage. The company currently has five bases at airports in the UK, and operates flights…

Flybe, a UK-based airline company, has reported a loss for the six months ended September 2012, due to fall in UK domestic traffic. The airline has reported a pre-tax loss of £1.3 million for the six months ended September 2012, compared to a profit of £14.3 million for the same period in the preceding year. Flybe chief executive officer, Jim French, said, ‘Our performance for the six months to 30 September 2012 has been in line with the revised expectations set out in our Interim Management Statement of August 2012. The continuing challenges of the UK domestic aviation market further…

US Airways, a US-based airline, has announced a new service between its hub in Charlotte, and London Heathrow airport. The new daily service between Charlotte and London Heathrow commences in March 2013, and the airline will be using an Airbus A330 aircraft to service flights on the route. US Airways chairman and chief executive officer, Doug Parker, said, ‘We are thrilled to make this announcement and look forward to starting service between Heathrow and Charlotte in March. This new service will augment our existing trans-Atlantic network and provide more choices for customers in markets up and down the east coast.…

It has become custom and practice with the travelling public to check how other visitors have reviewed a hotel before placing a booking. An independent study has found that more than half (53 percent) of travellers questioned for a survey said that they will not book a hotel that does not have any reviews on the Internet. The study, conducted by PhoCusWright on behalf of TripAdvisor, a company that operates an online travel community for collating user-generated travel information, has underlined how hotel reviews have become important tools for this Internet-savvy generation of travellers, when deciding on accommodation bookings. Around…

easyJet, a UK based budget airline, is offering a new non-stop scheduled service between Manchester Airport in the UK, and Moscow, the Russian capital, for 2013. The airline is to operate four flights each way per week, and bookings for the service will be available soon. The airline has previously announced five new routes from Manchester Airport, with a fleet of eight aircraft, two of which had been recent additions. Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of easyJet, said, ‘We are pleased to announce the launch of the first ever scheduled services between Manchester and Moscow. These new services exactly fit…

UK based hotels are not realising the full potential of the Internet, according to the recent report, eCommerce in Independent Hotels 2012. While 90 percent of UK hotels offer online booking facilities on their websites, around 60 percent of them are not taking advantage of cross-selling opportunities during the online booking process. Only 38 percent of hotels are offering extra welcome amenities like flowers, chocolates, or champagne on completing an online booking process. The report also says that only 37 percent of hotels respond to every TripAdvisor review of their properties, around 6 percent of hotels permit guests to book…

Kuoni Travel Ltd, a Swiss-based travel company, is partnering with John Lewis to offer new travel concessions in four John Lewis stores in the UK. The Kuoni concessions will be available at select John Lewis stores in the UK, and will be offering the entire range of holidays from Kuoni shops, as well as creating 19 new full-time jobs. Derek Jones, the managing director at Kuoni, said, ‘We are really excited about this partnership. Kuoni and John Lewis have a lot in common; we have a very similar customer base and share the same approach to business, putting customer service…

UK citizens take all of their allotted vacation time, according to a recently released report on the vacation habits of various nationalities that was conducted by Expedia, an online travel agency. The 2012 Vacation Deprivation study, reporting on vacation habits across continents, says that Asian workers still remain the most vacation deprived, while European workers often take all of their paid leave. The 2012 study features 22 countries in total. Japanese workers are granted around 13 days off each year on average, but take only 5. South Koreans take 7 out of possible 10 vacation days, while American and Mexican…

VisitBritain, the official tourism website for Great Britain, will be wooing the Chinees market, with a tourism delegation from the UK set to visit Shanghai, in China, this week. The visit is part of a trade mission, and will be aiming to re-ignite the interests of Chinese travellers in the UK, following the London 2012 Olympic games. The delegation will be meeting important Chinese travel agents through appointments and seminars. Keith Beecham, the leader of the China mission and director of overseas for VisitBritain, said, ‘The UK tourism opportunities from China are vast, numerous and there to be developed further,…

Virgin Atlantic, an airline subsidiary of UK-based Virgin Group, has acquired the London Heathrow Airport slots that were recently vacated by British Midland International (Bmi) airline, following Bmi’s acquisition by IAG, the parent company of British Airlines. Virgin Atlantic has acquired all 12 of the available slots at London Heathrow Airport and will be using them to offer short distance flights to Scotland. The airline chief executive officer, Steve Ridgway, said, ‘We have fought hard for the right to fly short haul and take a strong challenge to British Airways within these shores. For 28 years both airlines have battled…