All part of a masterplan…

There’s some bizarre rumours floating around these days. One concerns the current economic ‘slowdown’ – in which cooler heads are prevailing thanks to the “we’ll save the banks” move – which suggests that it is being investigated by the FBI. Why? Well the rumour is that it may have been caused deliberately by a couple of bankers. Certainly a very odd rumour.

Another odd rumour and one closer to home, or the HX offices is that millions will soon be flying from the unfortunate Kent International Airport. The master plan for expansion is pitching to get the airport up from it’s current 16,000 a year passenger level to one million within three years and up to six million by 2033.

It’s not just passengers they’re looking for over at the former RAF Manston. The project is also after moving from 33,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes of freight a year to make Kent International one of the UK’s largest international airports. It would be nice to have such a hub so close but I hope it’s before I’m the age I’d be in 2033. At the moment the airport offers one-off departures to destinations in Italy, Croatia, Madeira (home of the cake?) and Malta.

On the subject of flights and destinations – though these are fact not rumour – there’s some additions and subtractions for your mental flight calculators. Clickair have announced they’ll be canceling flights from Heathrow to Valencia from October 28th citing “disappointing passenger numbers.” The airline will still be making use of its much-prized Heathrow slots by switching flights to Bilbao from Gatwick to the hub.

On the addition side of the equation; Whizz Air have added new services from London Luton Airport to two Ukraine destinations. Flights from the hub will head to Lviv from January 15th next year along with the service to Kiev which will take off from December 17th.

Skirting back to BAA airports, with Gatwick already on sale how long before the operator puts up signs outside Stansed and Edinburgh? This is going back to the announcement that BAA would have to lose two of its London hubs and either Glasgow or Edinburgh. The airport operator already stated it has no plans of handing over Heathrow – and who can blame it with all that’s been pumped into T5 – but losing Stansted will be a bitter decision after the government confirmed that the hub must expand.

It’s unlikely, in my mind, that BAA will sell Glasgow. The airport is just days away from the opening of the new Skyhub which marks a massive £31m investment from its owners. While it makes sense to tidy up a house before selling it (if you’re brave enough to do so right now) by painting up the walls and deep-cleaning the carpets, the new extension on Glasgow is a bit more than something to attract buyers. Hence Edinburgh up for sale in a year or two?

Apologies for Delay. Normal services to resume shortly

This last week or so, which was really too long to leave the blogsphere, has been pretty hectic.

On a professional note: here at Holiday Extras we’ve been continuing with the updates and changing products over to their new looks.

On a personal note: I took a slightly interrupted service Eurostar over to Paris for a weekend of French cuisine, culture and other Parisian pursuits.

On a travel news note: LOTS happened.

Let’s start from the almost-personal issue of the Eurostar service issues. This is something regular readers will know I’ve been keeping up with due to my oft-use of the speedy link to the continent. After a fire in the tunnel back at the start of September the service was halted for a weekend and then gradually began operating at a slower pace.

Through September the services were reduced in frequency and lengthened in journey time. What it meant for travellers was a bit of a wait to get into the tunnel and a bit more time while you’re down there. Once the train gets out of the hole though it’s usual speediness is resumed. To be honest it wasn’t that annoying and was still preferable to the ferry+train=loooooong journey that could serves as alternative.

While I was speculating that, come the end of September, normal services would resume it appears otherwise. Eurostar will be offering 93% of services, about one less a day with variations on usual stops, and the altered time table is expected to go into 2009.

More bad news for the service today though as strikes in Belgium mean that Eurostar will not be operating any trains to Brussels on Monday. Nor will there be a service from the UK to Lille on Monday 6th October either.

Ryanair have also been affected by strikes this week, shame, though of a different nature. They’ve had to cancel 25 return flights to and from Birmingham due to strike action at Boeing which have delayed the delivery of new aircraft. No flights on 21 routes in and out of the hub from October 24th to October 28th. If you were unlucky enough to have journeys booked for these dates give ‘em a tinkle and you’ll get a full refund.

Enough of the gloom, eh? There’s some good news in the travel world too. There’s expansion news for Premier Travel who have opened seven new Travel Centre branches.

Also hoping for expansion is Hilton. They have hotels not just trashy waste-of-press blondes named after my favourite European city and now they’re hoping to knock up 150 new properties in the next five years in locations including the Caribbean, Latin America and South America.

With an eye on adding 1,000 hotels to their international chain in the next 10 years it’s got to mean a bit of work for a lot of construction companies and Leisure and Tourism graduates in need of a reception desk to stand behind. Right? Too harsh a joke?

Airlines…. Well, lately that word and all that it suggests has usually been followed by news of a collapse. However, I have some positive news. Jet2.com – who, if you remember, recently announced flights to one of my desired destinations – have announced they’ll be dropping their Barcelona route. BUT, they have started two new routes with services to both Dubrovnik in Croatia and Cornwall in, well, England.

Keeping the expansion news rolling just a paragraph longer, work has begun on a £45 million expansion project at Bournemouth Airport. The work on redeveloping the terminal is underway and is expected to be completed within a few more weeks. I’ll be honest: I didn’t know there was a Bournemouth Airport but, then, there’s a lot of things I don’t know.

When I know more things of note you can bet your London to Brussels Monday 6th October Eurostar tickets on my placing them here.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with one of my sights from the weekend. I’ll admit I didn’t take this as I failed to take a camera with any battery charge.

Where is it? What’s the film? Answers on a postcard.

Come on now, keep travelling

It really isn’t a good time to be a tour operator. Or a bank. Or an American mortgage provider. Or a concerned citizen really.

Amongst all the hubub of big names going under a smaller, though still significant of the financial climate, tour operator has folded. Lidana has ceased trading leaving something like 200 holiday makers abroad and 1,000 travellers with forward bookings.

A specialist operator, the company traded as Respect Holidays and Wildwind Hilidas. The CAA is making the usual arrangements but I’m afraid to say that those with forward bookings are going to need to make a claim for a refund as they won’t be able to travel.

This brings the tally of collapsed operators up to 5 in only 2 weeks with Seguro, K&S, Throb Holidays and, of course, XL. It really is a worrying time for some. Still holding on bravely though are Alitalia. The loss-making airline is “facing the abyss” according to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (now that is a great name for a PM, forget Gordon). The airline is continuing to take bookings and even running a promo targeted at us Brits. Let’s all hope they can pull through.

In continuing thought on the Eurostar vs Ferry and Train to Paris issue I touched on yesterday I would like to mention the other option: flight. It’s actually cheaper to fly, for me at least, from Heathrow to Paris than it is to get the train from Ashford to Paris.

A quick search on one of the many cheap flight websites – I won’t give them advertising space by mentioning names unless they want to help me fly for even less – found me return flights for under £100. Unless you book pretty far in advance its hard to get that with Eurostar so while it may not be convenient for those in Kent the many thousands put out by train losses from London – that glamorous Ebbsfleet – a flight may be a great option.

If you’re travelling this weekend then bon voyage. If you’re sat at home toying with the idea of booking but scared by all the news – BOOK. The more we as travellers book the quicker the operators, airlines and, eventually, the industry and economy will recover.

Stepping into the breach and farewell Gatwick?

As my previous blog reported, the weekend past wasn’t a good time to be a traveller, and I didn’t even mention those (one of my co-workers among them) that were evacuated from their holiday because of the hurricanes.

Since then many companies have appeared to assist those caught out by the collapse of XL. Many a plane was chartered to rescue the stranded and even Bruce Dickinson, singer of Iron Maiden, got drafted into the effort as the charter airline he flies for – Astraeus – was part of the assistance. Though I only hope he didn’t sing or offer any lyrics during his announcements, the passengers had already been through ordeal enough.

It could be, and has been, suggested that a lot of companies are embarking on a bit of profiteering on this matter.

Meanwhile on a more personal note, things are shaping up quick for Eurostar as the company are now offering 12 of their 18 daily services, albeit at a slightly different schedule and longer journey time. Though the company still suggests holding off on non-urgent bookings until October. Happy enough to help those looking to get over to Paris, or France in general, SeaFrance have added extra capacity to its sailing schedule to accommodate those travellers caught out. Presumably they’re assuming that the idea of sailing to Calais and then boarding with the SNCF from Calais to Paris via Lille is likely to attract as many as Eurostar are losing. Though I will point out, from personal experience, that it’s a long and tiresome journey that way.

Of course, while the above serves as an update and follow on from the news so far it is time to look at something big and important, news wise:

BAA GATWICK – FOR SALE

It’s a shocker that comes a matter of weeks after the Competition Commission suggested BAA sell two of its airports including two London hubs. While it’s not shocking that Gatwick is up – I noted before that the operator had no intentions of losing Heathrow – I, for one, certainly wasn’t expecting the ‘For Sale’ board to be up so soon.

From the BAA website, BAA chief executive Colin Matthews states:

“Gatwick has long been an important and valuable part of BAA and the decision to sell was not taken lightly. We believe that the airport’s customers, staff and business will benefit from the earliest possible resolution of current uncertainty.”

If, despite theses times of “financial adaptations” (thanks for that President Bush), you find yourself jingling the change in your pocket and casting an eye to the skies, the regulators have valued the London hub at a tidy £1.8bn.

Branson’s Virgin Atlantic has expressed an interest, saying they’d consider “the opportunity to bid for Gatwick as part of a consortium and inject our customer service expertise into any future running of the airport.

As soon as I hear, I’ll report it here.

It never rains… it just comes pouring down

Thousands upon thousands of us have found ourselves suddenly without a holiday or short break this weekend.

I say ‘us’ as I was one of those with a booking to get over to Paris this weekend (today infact) with the currently service-suspended Eurostar. Thousands of passengers yesterday (Thursday), today and, probably, tomorrow have had to look for exchange or refund situations for our tickets after a fire blazed through one of the vehicle trains yesterday afternoon.

The current word from Eurostar.com:

Meanwhile thousands more lost their holidays today to destinations further flung than Brussels or Paris as XL added to the list of airlines. Not only are thousands left without holidays but at least 85,000 passengers are left stranded abroad across Europe, the Caribbean and the US amongst their 50 worldwide destinations.

Stepping in to help, the Civil Aviation Authority is chartering planes from airlines, lease companies and tour companies to get people home. There’s also a lot of people needing to cancel their car parking and airport hotels as a result – our contact centre has been a hive of activity and ringing phones since the early hours.

It’s a sad state of affairs and truly a worrying in these times when businesses, banks and consumers alike are hiding and taking shelter from the dreaded “R Word.” XL Airways are now the largest UK carrier to declare bankruptcy and all their flights were grounded at 1am this morning. Gives the idea that there were talks going on until the precious last minute to try and save the carrier, doesn’t it?

While I’m off to make sure I get my tickets on the Eurostar amended and sorted pronto I suggest that all those who had a booking with XL Airlines do the same. If you’re one of the other unlucky thousands upon thousands remember what the good book says: Don’t Panic. You’ll be covered by insurance from the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing and you can claim compensaton by calling 0800 068 8992 from here in the UK or +44 20 8242 4783 from abroad. You can also try their website but it is likely to be suffering from high traffic.

Good luck and endeavour to salvage fun from the weekend. Remember; a horse called morbid never won a race

Come fly with me, come fly before we’re bankrupt

It’s not looking good for the airline industry right now. Perhaps the aviation world suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder too.

Zoom are not likely to be making a comeback, apparently the chances of them reviving the business are “very slim” according to one of the administrators called in after the airline filed for bankruptcy at the end of August and their flights were grounded after fuel bills went unpaid.

A bankruptcy petition has also been filed by the Irish arm of charter airline Futura International Airways in a Spanish court. Exec’s are hopeful that the airline will be able to secure new investment but for now all flights have been suspended indefinitely and Futura Gael’s staff have been temporarily laid off.

Zoom and Futura Gael are, unfortunately, just the latest – remember Silverjet, MAXJet and Eos? – and there are many more airlines teetering on the brink of financial collapse.

However, it really ISN’T all doom and gloom for, as the saying goes; as one door closes another opens. Flybe, for example, have restored several of their routes from Manchester Airport which they had axed upon taking over BA Connect last year. They’re reinstating services to Madrid and Lyon from the hub and the airline are keen to expand.

Also offering up a new service and one that tickles my fancy especially is Jet2.com who have announced the launch of a new service from Newcastle to Split. Remember my love for Split? Have a look back here or let this picture jog your memory.

Split

Beautiful isn’t it? And the flights are just in time for the cities expected tourism boom. It’s certainly still up on my list of destinations to visit as soon as chance, and financial climate predict. Though Newcastle is a bit out of my way as an airport to head from.

As airlines continue to look for ways to save, ABTA have offered some advice. The Association of British Travel Agents has urged the industry to make an effort to cut down on fuel costs by investing in greener aircraft.

While I’m firm in my belief that the aviation industry should do so for a sake of morals, ABTA may have the right approach in appealing in a financial nature.

Speaking of green issues and money grabbing airlines, I may have found something that casts a different light on a certain airline owner, more to come.