When Did Stansted, Luton Gatwick or Even Heathrow Get A London Postcode?

If you jumped on a train that said it was going to London, but it was actually bound for Oxford, you’d be pretty annoyed. And rightly so.  So how come they can get away with it when it comes to airports?

Travel search site has investigated the world of ambiguous airports, where the airport is actually nowhere near the city it claims to serve.

Barry Smith, Skyscanner co-founder and director commented: “It’s easy to get caught out by flying to an airport that is miles away from where you want to be, especially if you’re not familiar with your destination, and that low price flight could easily be offset by the cost of a bus or taxi fare. Double check the airport location before your book, especially when flying on low-cost airlines.”

Some of the worst offenders:

And some of the closest airports

About Skyscanner:

Skyscanner is a leading travel search site based in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Skyscanner provides instant online comparison on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines, as well as car hire, hotel and holiday price comparison. With Skyscanner, users can browse without having to enter specific dates or even destinations, and Skyscanner is available in 20 different languages including French, German and Spanish.

Airport Information For Scandinavia Eastern The Baltic States, Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe Russia & China

This section features over 60 airports across western Europe & Scandinavia. The guide features all major european airports in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Included is every airport which serves a European capital city. It also includes other airports in other cities in the same country. For example Dusseldorf Hambrg and Munich in Germany.

Each euromost city guide includes an Airport Guide with details of the airlines and airports or airports serving the city. Where possible low cost airlines flying to the airport are listed seperately in the guides For info on UK Airports see UK Airport page.

Euromost Airports Principal Information

Airport Flight Arrivals & Flight Departures Board: Euromost offers direct live & updated flight arrivals and flight departures information boards from the major airports in Central, Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. This information includes details on internal national flights from each airport and information on European & International short haul and long haul flights from these East European airports and cities.

Airport Website: In addition to the arrival and departures board links links there is at the top of each airport guide a link to the airport website. This can be used for general information on the respective airport including: access by road, public transport - serving rail bus and coach services, airport location, airport parking and airport hotels, airport shopping, duty free, facilities and services, airline and tour operators, Please note all plus all relevant airport telephone numbers can be found by through the Airport Home page link

Airport Code: The airport id (identification) code is given as many airlines and companies use this on their itinary and booking forms as well as for identifying receipted baggage. Airport Facilities: In each city airport guide we have noted the important facts about the airports facilities. Where a service is known to be especially good we will say so. Conversely where there are issues of concern such as the attitude of Ljubljana airport to blind people and those with special needs we will highlight them.

Local Airport Guide & Travel From The Airport: Each city guide is supported by a guide to its local airport with details of the airlines that fly there with the emphasis on low cost airlines offering cheap flights to the city. This local airport information includes links to the airport website, including the live flight arrivals and flight departures pages boards. We have detailed how to travel from the airport to the centre of the city on public transport. the distance and average journey time this involves. This information should be read by visitors flying to the airport as public transport connection to the city centre may be non existend, sparse or difficult. see Tirana. Equally some airlines will offer flights which suggest that another city is close by. For example Bratislava in Slovenia for Vienna. This is a 50 klm jouney with no direct transport available unless you are on a Ryanair flight. A potential nightmare in the late evening or during bad weather.It also has iInformation on services not to use ie the taxis at St Petersburg.

United Kingdom City & Local Airports Information

Departures, Arrivals & Websites Parking Hotels

The UK Airport flight information includes direct links to the current flight arrivals and flight departures for each airport and the airport home page. It also includes airport parking offers & airport hotel deals from compamies & news from the airport. Link

UK And European Air Travel News

including airline, airport news and information air travel in Europe

BA Cabin Crew To Strike March 20 - 22nd & March 27th - 30th more

BA 'Stand-in' Employee In Bomb Plot more

Air Travel & Airline News & Information:

BA Cabin Crew To Strike March 20 - 22nd & March 27th - 30th

The Unite Union have announced that BA Cabin Crew will strike for three days from Saturday March 20 until Monday March 22nd inclusive and also for four days from Saturday March 27th to Tuesday March 30th. Further strikes may be announced but they will not include the Easter weekend.

In a televised statement British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh said he and BA management were not using the dispute as a means to break the union - they were simply trying to protect the future of British Airways which was struggling to survive. Mr Walsh confirmed that BA has 'robust contingency plans in place' to keep British Airways flying during the strike. These included transferring existing BA staff who had been specifically trained to take over the vacant cabin crew positions, leasing aircraft and crew from other airlines .and transferring passengers directly to other airlines.

Mr Walsh also confirmed that any passenger flying with British Airways between March 19th and March 31st could postpone or rebook their flight(s) for another date. Those passengers could also cancel their booking and receive a full refund. Full details of these arrangement and the latest strike information is available on ba.com. British Airways Executive Club members will continue to earn Tier Points and BA Miles for flights cancelled due to any strike action.

A formal proposal by British Airways to end the dispute will be put to BA Crew by Unite via a electronic ballot in the next few days. Unite who are not recommending this proposal will cancel the planned strike action above it's members accept BA's proposal. However Mr Walsh has indicated that this proposal mayis no longer be on the table because it was made on the conditiont hat the the Union did not announce any stike dates. In return Mr Walsh said BA would agree to a three week extension to the period in which the Union could legally announce industrial action. . Len McCluskey, Unite's assistant general secretary in a BBC interview said withdrawing the proposal was ''confrontational and beggared belief''..

The announcement follows Unite Union proposals to end the long running industrial dispute between it's BA Cabin Crew members and BA Management which included a 2.6% pay reduction for all it's cabin crew, having been rejected by BA managers. Though the talks between the two sides have continued for six weeks and intensified since February 22nd when the union announced that 81% of its members had voted in favour of industrial action they have been unable to resolve their differences which centre around BA's seeking to reduce Cabin Crew costs

When the talks broke Unite stated that BA had rejected plans their proposals which it said would save the airline £63m. This included cabin crew accepting a pay cut of 2.6% this year alongside an offer by some members to work on a part-time basis. British Airways have rejected the proposals as they calculated they savings would fall considerably below the £63m estimated by Unite. BA estimated for that saving to be assured cabin crew would be required to accept pay cuts of '' between £1,000 and £2,700 a year". BA added that its original proposals would have reduced staffing levels on long haul flights but this would not have reduced the current earnings of existing crew.

BA Statement On Strike Announcement

Responding to the strike announcement BA said " British Airways is extremely disappointed that Unite has announced plans for massive disruption for hundreds of thousands of our customers in the run-up to the Easter holidays. Unites action has no shred of justification. British Airways crew are rightly renowned for their professionalism and skills. Our entire package for crew recognizes that and is reasonable and fair. British Airways is facing two years of record financial losses. Unlike other businesses, we have avoided compulsory redundancies and made changes designed to secure a long-term future for our company and our staff. Cabin crew face no pay cut or reduction in terms and conditions and remain the best rewarded in the UK airline industry.

For months, Unite has been claiming that we breached individual crew members; contracts by making minor changes to onboard crew numbers on flights from Heathrow. We have always said this claim was false. Last month, the High Court ruled that the changes were valid and reasonable. The changes save us more than £60m a year. We have made clear we would consider refinements of the changes, provided any additional cost was offset by other adjustments in the cabin crew budget. To date all proposals put forward by Unite fall significantly short of saving £60m a year. In addition, Unite's plans would cut crew pay and allowances. The reductions required to generate sufficient savings would leave each crew member between £1,000 and £2,700 a year worse off. These proposals lack credibility, and Unite did not inform crew of them when it asked them to vote for a strike.

Should a strike take place, we will do everything we can to protect our customers travel plans as far as possible. We plan to operate all British Airways flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York. From Gatwick, we plan to operate all long-haul services and about 50 per cent of short-haul. From Heathrow we plan to operate a substantial part of our long-haul and short-haul schedule. We are also in the process of obtaining seats on flights operated by other carriers to enable thousands of customers to fly to their chosen destinations.

We will aim to give more details four or five days before the strike is due to begin when we will announce our revised flying program. For further details, customers should visit ba.com or contact their travel agent. We will remain available for further talks with Unite at any time.

Advice To BA Passengers From Which Holiday

Following the announcement that BA workers plan to strike from 20th March for three days and from 27th March for four days, Rochelle Turner, Head of Research for Which? Holiday, says: "Once again BA passengers are left in limbo. Those due to travel with the airline over this period are unlikely to get a refund on their ticket until flights are officially cancelled, and risk losing money if they book a second ticket through another airline. "If you are due to fly with BA during the strike, go to the airline's website for the latest information before you leave home to avoid a wasted trip. "Passengers whose flights are cancelled should get a full refund, or may be able to rearrange their BA flight date, but that won't compensate for the time and money lost on hotel bookings or tour dates."

Not all flights will be affected, and other airlines may offer to take passengers that were due to travel on BA. Some elements of trips booked before the strike was announced may be covered by travel insurance but passengers will need to check individual policies; any flights booked since 22nd February are not likely to be covered by standard policies, but passengers should check with their insurance providers.

Alternative Flights

In order to give passengers impacted by the British Airways action a reliable and great value alternative, Flybe can therefore confirm it has increased the number of seats available on a number of our UK and European routes. Specifically, these are London Gatwick to and from Aberdeen, Jersey and Dusseldorf. Additionally, Flybe has upped the number of seats available for purchase from Southampton to a range of destinations to assist BA customers who otherwise might fly from Heathrow or Gatwick.

BA ' Stand-in' Employee In Bomb Plot

A British Airways computer expert appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court on 11th March charged with planning a terrorist on a British Airways plane. It is alleged that Rajib Karim, 30, from Newcastle upon Tyne applied to become a member of BA's emergency cabin crew who were been trained to staff planes during the threatened BA cabin crew strike. Karim is accused of two counts of planning suicide bombings and his own personal martyrdom. He is also charged with transferring monies to terrorists abroad. Mr Karim was charged after security services had raided his office and home The offences are alleged to have occured between April 2006 and February 2010.

Prosecutor Colin Gibbs told the court that he obtained work at British Airways and then disclosed information about the airline, including security issues and then volunteered for the temporary cabin crew position. Anti- terrorist officers are reportedly investigating whether Mr Karim had any connection with al-Qaeda militants in Yemen who attempted to bring down a US airliner over Detroit at Christmas. Mr Karim was remanded in custody and until March 26 when the case will be transferred to the Old Bailey.

EasyJet Poster Unfair To Ryanair

International Air Travel Begins To Blossom Again

International air passenger travel rose 6.4 percent in January, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The industry's trade group said international air traffic outstripped the 1.2 percent gain in passenger capacity in January, helping aircraft load factors and the percentage of seats filled with fare paying customers which rose to 75.9 percent, up compared with 72.2 percent in January 2009.

In a statement IATA said "We can start to see the future with some cautious optimism, but better volumes do not necessarily mean better profits," the association said. "Passenger yields are still 15 percent below peak. And we expect 2010 losses to be $5.6 billion." The areas with the greatest improvements were the Middle East, up 23.6 percent, and Latin America, up 11 percent in January.

Airlines in Northern America and Europe saw increases in demand of 2.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively. However airlines in these areas are still carrying 4 to 6 percent less passengers than in 2008.

British Airports Authority Return Pre-tax Loss Of £822m

BAA, the major UK airport operator Stansted, fell deeper into last year after it was forced to take a £665 million charge from the forced sale of Gatwick and after servicing its pension deficit.

The company, owned by Spanish Group, reported a pre-tax loss of £822 million for the 12 months to December 31, compared with a £324.2 million loss in the year before. Taking out one off factors which include a £277.3 million loss onf the £1.5 billion sale of Gatwick last year, losses narrowed from £190 million in 2008 to £156 million in 2009. Revenues in 2009 grew by 8 per cent to £1.9 billion..

BAA Chief Executive Colin Matthews said: "Our financial performance remains resilient, especially at Heathrow, which benefits from its position as the UK's only hub airport, higher retail spending by passengers and strong cost control." He added "We expect 2010 to present further economic challenges for the industry as a whole, and we will remain focused on improving our efficiency and the service we offer customers." Mr Matthews expects a "modest" recovery in passenger traffic this year, which would support similar growth in turnover and underlying earnings.

BAA is embroiled in a legal battle with the Competition Commission over whether it must sell Stansted. The Competition Commision initially ruled that BAA should sell both Gatwick and Stansted but the decision was overturned by the Competition Appeal Tribunal on the basis that the panel had a member who issued the ruling was also on the team that had investigated the BAA operation .

In early Febuary the Competition Commission announced it was seeking leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the aappeal tribunal's judgment

 

New UK Airline For Academics

A new airline low cost 'Varsity Express' is set to start flying passengers from twice daily Oxford to Edinburgh and Newcastle from March. The service with flights for £49 all in is aimed at academics travelling between the univesities and anyone who does not want to negotiate the traumas of making the difficult jouney by road or rail betweeen the two cities.

Varsity Express is the latest venture of a young entreprenuer Martin Halstead who five years ago at the age of 18 came into the limelight when he launched Alpha One which failed a couple of months later after promised funding for the project failed to materialise.. Martin (who is known in some quarters by the nickname 'baby branson') has obtained the financial backing of a Spanish consortium which includes two English businessman. Since his Alpha One venture he has aso gained valuable experience working for Richard Bransons himself and obtained his own pilot licence.

The new service will be incude Jetstream 31 which Martin Halstead has leased - and which he will persobally fly at times, The aircraft usuall can carry up to 12 passengers. Martin who believes that customer service is the one of the pre-requisites of a succesful airline is intially hoping that a free check-in of hold luggage will increase his customer base. Bookings.

 

Skyscanner Reveals Which Countries Air Travellers Flash The Most Cash!

Flight comparison site Skyscanner has investigated which countries like to flash their cash the most when they travel and found that the Germans lead but that China is hot on their trail. With the world economy apparently on the road to recovery, tourism will play a huge part in many countries’ income and competition is high to capture the biggest share of that market. International tourism is on track for a rebound with growth of 3-4% projected for 2010 – a welcome recovery after 2009’s slump. But when it comes to international travels, who spends the most and where should travel and tourism organisations be targeting their marketing budgets to attract the big spenders?

At number one, it’s the Germans who spend over $90 billion a year on their travels, a disproportionate amount compared to their population which numbers just over 80 million, less than a third of the next biggest spenders – the USA, who splash $79.7 billion a year on holidays. Known for tipping big in restaurant and bars, Americans certainly know how to spend. In third place it’s the UK who splurge $68.5 billion to escape the UK on cheap flights each year. No doubt the lure of sun and sand plays a huge part in the mass exodus, with Spain by far our favourite holiday escape. See the Skyscanner site for their latest offers

This is also backed up by recent Skyscanner stats, with cheap flights to Malaga topping the most popular searched in January. France, which is also the world’s most popular country in terms of tourist arrivals, empty their wallets of $42.1 per year, whilst the Chinese spend $36.2 billion annually on their travels. China is part of a new force of international tourists. The country’s huge economic boom over the last decade has created a new middle class and with travel restrictions now a distant memory, more and more Chinese are taking advantage of their new found wealth and travelling the world – normally in tour groups.

Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia and the Netherlands made up the rest of the ten big spenders list. Barry Smith, Skyscanner co-founder and business director commented: “It will be very interesting to see how tourist spending changes since the downturn. So far, the latest figures show that only the Japanese spent less on international tourism than the previous year. China is fast rising, spending 21% more on their global travels, and are likely set to grow even more. Meanwhile, it’s the Germans who remain the world’s biggest spending tourists, and there would have to be significant change for anyone else to catch up with them.”

Sky Scanner Top 10: 1. Germany - $91.0 billion (+2%) 2. USA – $79.7 billion (+4.4%) 3. UK – $68.5 billion (+4.4%) 4. France – $43.1 billion (+9.6%) 5. China – $36.2 billion (+21.4%) 6. Italy – $30.8 billion (+4.9%) 7. Japan – $27.9 billion (-7.9%) 8. Canada – $26.9 billion (+8.4%) 9. Russia – $24.9 billion (+11.8%) 10. Netherlands – $21.7 billion (+9.2%)

 

New X Ray Scanner Will See Whats Under Through Your Clothes

Related Item: Scanners May Break Human Rights & UK Child Pornography Laws

The failed terrorist attack on the Detroit airliner is likely to increase the sales of controversial X-ray scanner which allows security staff to see through a persons clothes. These machines were not available at the airports used by the Detroit bomber. The all over body scanner which effectively 'undresses those its scans 'will reveal breast enlargements, body piercings, hip replacements and any items concealed in the clothes, attached or moulded to the to the body. The scanner will replace the need for 'pat down' body searches which some people are not comfortable with. The scans will be viewed by a security officer in a enclosed area from which he will be able to physically see the person passing through the scanner

The scanners which are known as 'image technology' cost around £80,000 each are manufactured by Rapiscan Systems who thought to be manufacturing up to 2,000 machines for the US Transport Security Agency who are responsible for security at American airports. In the UK the equipment is currently on trial at Terminal 2 Manchester Airport. Similar trial are underway in Europe. The machine has certified as safe by the National Radiological Protection Board who say that the 20,000 scans have radiation level equivalent to a single dental X-ray.

Richard Branson unveils Virgin Gallactic's SpaceShipTwo

At Mojave California Sir Richard Branson unveiled his Spaceship Two craft which during the summer of 2011 will take fare paying customers intially from New Mexico on short trips outside the earths atmosphere and later on from launch sites across the world.The craft has been built from lightweight carbon composite materials and will be powered by a hybrid rocket motor. The SS2 is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept - a plane that is launched by a by a carrier plane before it's rocket takes those on board to the edge of space.

Every Childs Dream Perhaps ? During the two hour round trip the passengers will be able to see all of euromost destinations from a height of 380,000 ft and for five minutes experience weightlessness. The craft which is approximately 60ft long will have room for two pilots and six passengers who gaving paid the equvalent of around £125,00 will all have window seats. Current 300 people have provisionally applied for seats. To date only 450 astronauts from across the globe have travelled into space. Virgin Gallactic aim to carry 1000 passengers in their first year. Booking At Monday's ceremony, Sir Richard said he had since watching the first moon landings of travelling into space. He believes there are thousands of people who would like to do likewise simply to look out of the window at the bueaty of earth. He added "Through Virgin Gallactic we will make it possible." Editorial Comment. Adds a new dimension to the term long haul flights and the meaning of its not rocket Science.