Archive for the ‘Travel News’ Category
After narrowly avoiding strikes over the summer holidays that could have disrupted thousands of families, Unite have announced that they could strike over Christmas again as ongoing talks between BA and the Union United have stalled again. A Union spokeswoman has said: “a new strike ballot was ‘always an option’ and that there would be a mass meeting of its members on September 6 to decide on future action.”
It thought that the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association is hoping that a strike over the holidays will put enough pressure on BA, Duncan Holley, branch secretary of BASSA said: “It would be prudent for the travelling public to take this into account and make alternative arrangements to ensure their holiday travel plans are not wrecked. What we are trying to do is give people plenty of notice this time round. We are also trying to put pressure on BA by hitting their bookings during one of the busiest times of the year.”
The threat of more strike action could mean the number of passengers traveling with BA could be affected with many people refusing to now book with them just in case their travel plans are affected.
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Around 70,000 travellers have been affected after the collapse of Kiss Flights there are currently 13,000 holiday makers abroad with another 60,000 with forward bookings, which are with London-based Flight Options that traded as Kiss Flights. The company, which arranged holidays to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands, ceased trading on Tuesday. Earlier this month travel company Sun4U collapsed leaving approximately 1,200 customers stuck abroad, most of them in Spain.
For those currently on holiday, the CAA said they would be able to get home on other flights that would be arranged for them and for those who had future booked trips with Kiss Flights they would receive refunds under the ATOL protection scheme.
A spokesperson for the CAA said: “Nobody currently overseas will have their holiday cut short and we don’t expect passengers to experience lengthy delays when they are allocated a new flight. We try to get people home on the same day they are due to travel.”
The London-based Flight Options was launched in 1995 as a small tour operator that offered holidays across the Mediterranean, since then it has bought a number of travel firms including Kiss Flights in 2009.
After the collapse of travel firm Goldtrail last month, it believed Kiss Flights took on a large number of bookings from that which at the time affected as many as 50,000 travellers.
Senior agent, for Top Class Travel in Cheshire Franco Renzulli said: “With the Goldtrail collapse we rebooked all our customers on Kiss Flights and so we have a massive flying problem. It’s going to give the industry a massive headache. It’s in the middle of the school holidays and we’ve got the bank holiday coming up. It’s going to be a nightmare.”
Swarms of jellyfish have plagued the coastline of Spain forcing holiday makers off the country’s most popular beaches such as several on the Costa Blanca, north of Alicante it’s thought to be the worst invasion of the Mauve Stinger jellyfish for two years, which is why resorts have taken such drastic action as to ban people from the beaches and from swimming.
Although these bright purple jellyfish deliver only mild stings they have been known to cause severe allergic reactions and can even lead to heart failure in some people, at one point the Red Cross treated 50 people for the effects of stings in just half an hour on a beach in Denia, which mean it could reach the levels of 2008, when 4,000 people were needed treatment in Denia alone.
Each year around two million tourists visit the popular Spanish resort of Denia, with some 800,000 of them from Britain, with this new invasion of jelly fish its causing concern that tourism could be hit. There are Environment Ministry boats patrolling along the Mediterranean coastline on the lookout for swarms of the jellyfish.
Each year tens of thousands of holidaymakers require treatment for stings from various different types of jelly fish, including Box jellyfish, which marine experts have found to have increased in number this year along the Costa Brava. It’s thought that the numbers of Mauve Stinger jellyfish have increased over the last few years, due to the effects of global warming and overfishing of their natural predators.
On top of increase sightings of the Box jellyfish, the potentially deadly Portuguese Man o’War jellyfish was spotted off the coast of Asturias causing nine beaches along Spain’s northern Atlantic coast to be closed.
Professor Just Bayle who is head of marine sciences at the University of Alicante said: “’We are surprised by the sudden explosive growth in numbers of this species. They are concentrated in areas of lower salinity, such as is found off Denia, where freshwater flows into the sea.”
Man o'War jellyfish
Picture courtesy of scazon
There are many things that annoy us when on holiday, especially been ripped off, you pay all that money for your break away you shouldn’t have to fork out more for things you don’t need to, some of the worst charges which annoy many passengers include:
Charges for using mobile phones abroad
Hefty baggage fees
Poor exchange rates at airports
Many people find that these can cause extra stress which can ruin their holiday, when in fact you want to go away to relax, a recent survey found that we’re often irritated by the number of hidden charges levied at us while we’re on holiday. Most people find the cost of using a mobile phone abroad is by far the worst expense, with the European Union even wading in to force a reduction in sky-high charges this year. After that the charges acquired from using debit and credit cards abroad.
With the summer holidays here it’s interesting to note that last year less people travelled abroad for their holidays, ten million Brits in fact, with many choosing to stay closer to home for holiday, starting a trend known as the ‘staycation’. Many families chose to stay here in the UK in holiday cottages, B&B’s and small country hotels and enjoy the local area because of the drop in the value of the pound against the euro and the dollar, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Figures show that the popular holiday destinations such as , Spain, fell by 2.2million to about 11.5million last year, with France seeing its visitor numbers down 1.1million visitors to 9.8million as well as Portugal, down 720,000 to 1.8million. It’s not just European holiday destination suffering wither the number of people taking trips to the US slumped by 20 per cent, with only 3.2million, however the biggest drop was see in Mexico with 41 per cent drop in visitors after it was identified as the source of the global swine flu epidemic.
According to the 2009 Travel Trends study for the ONS, those who did go overseas found prices for meals, car hire and suntan lotion so high that they reduced their spending, with Spending overseas by families and businessmen fell by £5.1billion to £31.7billion.
However it’s not just the drop in the number of Brits abroad, the number of foreign tourists to Britain fell by 2million last year to 29.9 million. But with more people choosing to stay here in the UK tourism should pick up in resorts that have suffered in the past, with great prices for holiday rentals here in the UK at many popular destinations there’s no excuse not to have a holiday.
After the news that Cheryl Cole was diagnosed with malaria this week, British tourists are being warned to take proper medical precautions before travelling to exotic destinations, Cole had recently travelled to Tanzania for a brief holiday and although she is reported to have taken a full course of malaria tablets during her stay, she contracted the disease due to the fact some forms are resistant to drugs.
Although Cheryl Cole took her medication and was unlucky to get the disease, many people who travel to these destinations do not, as Britain has become the largest ‘importer’ of malaria in the western world, as some 2000 Britons contract the disease while abroad every year.
Frances Tuke of ABTA, The Travel Association states: “As we become more familiar with travelling to more exotic destinations, we can forget there are different types of risks that we need to be aware of and there are some easy things we things you can do to prevent those risks. First and foremost, if you are travelling outside of countries in Western Europe, North America or Australia, you need to go and see a health professional six to eight weeks before you go away to find out what vaccinations and preventions you need to take.”
For those who travel to the sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Tanzania are found to be at greatest risk, this area is also home to the most lethal strain of malaria, plasmodium falciparum and half of reported cases of malaria in the UK originate from this area.
Leicestershire-based consultant in health protection in, and member of the Malaria Awareness Panel, Dr Philip Monk, identifies Gambia as a particular hotspot for malaria and he has come across more cases of travellers infected in the west African country than anywhere else. He said: ‘As it’s a mainstream package holiday destination, people think it’s like going to the Balearics,’ he says. ‘It’s not. There are precautions you must take, especially in the rainy season when the risk of catching malaria is much higher.”
Figures show that Malaria causes more than one million deaths worldwide each year, and although scientists are making progress on a vaccine, it will be at least ten years before it will be widely available.
Warnings have been issued for holidaymakers visiting the south east coast to be on the lookout for swarms of Lions Mane jellyfish, after large numbers have been seen recently off the Cornish coast. The Lions Mane jellyfish can grow up to 8ft and have a toxic sting that causes muscle paralysis, which can lead to suffocation and heart attack.
The jellyfish are normally found in cooler waters which are further north in the Arctic and northern Atlantic oceans but because of the colder winter the seas further south have become cold enough for them, experts also believe that the flourishing plankton in the south eastern coastal areas, which is a key food source for jellyfish have lured the creatures.
A spokesman for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said they were aware of the danger and advised beach users to be careful, because the Lion’s Mane can give a potent sting although the sting itself is not fatal it can cause blisters and severe muscular cramp, which can affect the respiratory system and heart function.
Pantone, the popular colour scheme which is used by many art directors and designers has opened a hotel in the Belgium capital, just off Avenue Louise, adding to Pantones range of consumer spin offs which include their popular coloured mugs. The hotel which covers 7 floors was designed by Belgian interior designer Michel Penneman and Belgian architect Olivier Hannaert it has 59 rooms and suites which use one of seven Pantone colour palettes.
The colours of each of the room range from tranquil and aquatic to daring and fiery, which means you can choose a room which as the hotel says that compliment your mood, the rooms feature a flat screen LCD TV, Luxurious beds and linens, designer furniture, Pantone Universe shower gels and lotions, hair dryer, electric safe, A/C with climate control and free Wi-Fi.
The hotel has a rooftop terrace which has its own bar, here you can choose from Pantone cocktails which include Pink Champagne Pantone 12-1107, Lemon Drop Pantone 12-0736 and Daiquiri Green Pantone 12-0435. Whilst staying at the hotel guests can also speak to Pantone consultants for informal colour consultations.
Pantone Hotel, Brussels
Picture courtesy of Gastev
Any hope that the situation between BA, cabin crew and Unite will be resolved have been dashed after BA rejected an offer to resume talks. Now Unite say its members plan to take 20 days of action after they rejected BA’s latest offer, the walk outs are planned for May 18-22 inclusive, May 24-28, May 30-June 3 and June 5-9. The last day of strike action will come just two days before the start of the world cup tournament.
Many passengers will be affected as the planned walk outs cover the spring bank holiday and half-term school holidays as well as the fans travelling to South Africa. So far BA has dismissed Unites pleas for further talks and the carrier is remaining firm with offers.
BA said it planned to operate a “substantial” part of its long-haul schedule from Heathrow and predicted that flights to and from Gatwick would continue as normal. A statement from the airline said: “British Airways is saddened but not surprised that Unite has announced further plans for extensive disruption for potentially hundreds of thousands of our customers over a busy period that includes the May half-term holidays. This decision has no semblance of justification. Unite’s officials continue to operate in their own world, showing callous disregard for our customers and their own members in all parts of our airline. We have made a very fair offer, which meets the concerns the union raised during 14 months of negotiations and also ensures that our crew remain the best rewarded in the UK airline industry. That offer remains available. We are confident that many crew will again ignore Unite’s pointless strike call and support the efforts of the rest of the airline to keep our customers flying.”
More Icelandic volcanic ash is once again causing air travel misery, airspace over Scotland’s Outer Hebrides was closed as well as Argyll and flights in Ireland and the Irish Republic have also been affected with the airports closed there since 0700 BST. Flights to Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry airports are cancelled as well as flights from those airports until further notice.
The plume of volcanic ash is once again drifting south from Iceland as is it did in April which caused massive delays and wreaked havoc for European Airports. Currently the rest of the UK is unaffected at this time however the situation is being monitored. This fresh disruption comes as European Union transport ministers meet in Brussels to discuss ways to improve air traffic management in the wake of last month’s events.
Travellers who are due to travel to Ireland and the Irish Republic are urged to check with their airline before travelling to the airport. After consultation with the UK Met Office and Nats, the air traffic control service, the CAA said “airspace had been closed because ash concentrations exceeded the levels agreed as safe by engine manufacturers. The CAA is closely monitoring the situation and will update the advice to operators and passengers as latest updates are produced by the Met Office.”