Easyjet will soon allow eco-aware passengers to buy credits in UN-backed carbon offsetting schemes. Travellers will be able to contribute to projects such as tree planting to reduce the impact of their flight.

Holidaymakers face May bank holiday hell at Gatwick as fuel staff prepare to strike. The Transport & General Workers Union has ordered two strikes. The dates are Wednesday 2nd May starting at 5am and lasting 24 hours, the second is scheduled for Friday 4th May from 5am and lasting 48 hours.
During this busy weekend for the travel industry 30 airlines will be affected. Some airlines have already announced contingency plans to minimise the disruption to tourists.

Richard Branson has responded to Michael O'leary's pledge of transatlantic flights as low as €10 by stating that Virgin Atlantic "Won't be beaten on price", if Ryanair sell tickets to America for £7, we would sell them for £6 he said.

Branson also commented on the Open Skies agreement stating that the deal favoured the American Airlines. He wants Virgin to be able to operate internal US routes.

British Airways are showing an edited version of the new James Bond film Casino Royale on their flights.
The BA version does not feature Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson, who had a cameo role in the film for providing an aeroplane for the movie. The Virgin logo on the plane was also edited out.

The BBC received an official statement from British Airways:

"We do reserve the right to edit films, and many films are edited in some way on board," said a spokesman.

Labels: British Airways, Inflight Movies, Virgin Atlantic

A survey by Deloitte's examining airport fraud has found 7% of all airlines have said employees had stolen the identities of their passengers.
Scams involved credit card fraud, tax credit fraud, and diverting frequent flier points away from their passengers.

Labels: Airlines, Fraud

British Airways has won OAG's airline of the year award, voted for by frequent fliers. It won best transatlantic airline, best Europe to Asia airline and best Europe to Australasia categories.
This is despite the fact that British Airways lost more bags in 2006 than any other major European airline, and the other troubles BA has had to deal with in the past year. These include, delays and cancellations due to severe fog at Christmas and hundreds of cancelled flights during the stringent anti-terrorist measures put in place at airports in the summer.

Labels: British Airways, Flights

Common knowledge to the most astute traveller on a budget, but a survey by InsureandGo has concluded that buying your travel insurance from your travel agent will indeed cost you more.
If you shop around and compare travel insurance policies you find with those available from your travel agent you could save up to 9.3% on European trips and 23% for world-wide policies it was found.
The only excuse to buy your travel insurance from your travel agent is because it's convenient, but with the Internet and insurance comparison sites that excuse is wearing thin.

Labels: money saving, travel agents, travel insurance

Ryanair is the latest airline to claim their piece of the cheap transatlantic flights cake. Ryanair boss Michael O'leary has claimed that by the summer of 2009 we could expect flights to the US to be as low as £7 not including taxes. These flights will be to smaller airports, a method already used by the budget airlines to reduce cost. Long Island Islip MacArthur airport would be used for New York, Providence, Rhode Isalnd for Boston etc.
Transatlantic flights have recently been opened up to all airlines following the EU-US Open Skies agreement.
This news follows the news that Zoom will fly to New York from Gatwick starting from £129.

Labels: Flights, money saving, open skies

Zoom airline which mainly flies in Canada, is the first airline to take advantage of the Open Skies agreement and take on British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and the US carriers in announcing a Gatwick to JFK route for as little as £258 return. They claim this deal will provide savings of upto 70% over rivals prices.
Zoom will use the EasyJet model where prices rise as the planes seats fill up.

Technorati Profile

Labels: air passenger duty, Flights, money saving, ope, open skies

Despite all the recent press and media coverage about Global warming and reducing our CO2 emissions, more Brits are jetting off on holiday than ever before.
The Office for National Statistics revealed that in 2005 66.4million trips overseas were made. Aeroplane travel accounted for 81% of those trips. That was up 60% on figures released in 1981. Spain, the Canary Islands, USA and Ireland were the most popular destinations.

The FT published an interesting article yesterday. Apparently if you miss a flight for whatever reason, even if the ticket is non-refundable, you have a good chance of getting at least your Government taxes back. read the FT.com article in full.
Most airlines do not advertise this fact and pocket the money, but there is however a catch to making a claim; Most airlines will charge you an administrative fee to process your tax refund. Having said that, with the recent increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) that refund is becoming more worthwhile; especially on a long haul flight.

Remember, if you miss a flight, your first course of action should be to attempt to reschedule your flight. Your success will depend on which airline you bought your ticket from, and will almost definitely be subject to a charge.

Labels: air passenger duty, APD, Flights, money saving

There are several interesting surveys published in the newspapers today. The first concluded that one in five Britons is finding it difficult to shrug off the winter blues, and intends to take a career break to go travelling. It also claims that more and more firms are recognising that a good way of retaining and recruiting the best staff is to allow them to take extended breaks from work.

While the second survey suggests, contrary to popular belief, that London is not necessarily one of the most expensive places to live or have a holiday. However it also finds the reason why Eastern European destinations like Prague and Budapest are becoming very popular; Typical costs of a short break in Prague start at just £203.89 (Based on typical charges a visitor might encounter).

Labels: Career Breaks, Survey