It is giving away up to 50% discounts on flights every last Friday of the month from midday until 5pm.

Routes for this sale include cut price flights to Vienna, Zurich, Brussels, Washington and Chicago.

Seventy-five per cent of MPs surveyed will be visiting short-haul destinations and about a quarter going to long haul destinations. The Mediterranean fared well as most popular for overseas holidays and Scotland rated top for domestic tourism.

91%  of peers said they took two or more holidays a year while half of them said they enjoyed three or more!

57% of MPs said they took two or more holidays, which is slightly below the national average.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: “Our first ABTA Parliamentary Holiday survey clearly shows that a summer break and other holidays throughout the year, are as important for our political representatives as for the rest of us.

“ABTA is calling on Government to recognise this importance and cancel the planned drastic increase in Air Passenger Duty this November which will see a family of four paying £360 in tax for a flight to Florida at a time when family budgets are already under severe pressure.”

Over 40% of the respondents to lastminute.com’s survey said they are now confused by new rules on taking bags onto an aircraft, and a fifth said they had been caught out by new regulations and been fined accordingly.

Have any of you been caught out by the new rules and regulations? We’ve tried to cover news of such regulations on the blog as they come to light to prevent travellers from being stung by avoidable fines. A blog that continues to be relevant includes recent airline price hikes and also tips to beat or lower them, view the full blog here.

Below is a chart showing the average costs of carrying a single bag within the hold on a low cost airliner (flying short haul) sourced from MoneySupermarket.com April 2010. The figures are for return flights.

Jet 2 £24

Thompson £23

Flybe £20

Easyjet £18

Monarch £26

Aer Lingus £8

Thomas Cook £16

BMI Baby £28

Ryanair £40

Average £22.55

Fancy a cheap jaunt to Paris? Picture by Flickr User Timothy E Baldwin

Eurostar has put on 20 extra trains during August to meet a rush for seats to Paris.  There will be 4 additional services each weekend, for which tickets went on sale today – each of the additional 15,000 seats are priced at £69 return.

The train operator saw a 6 per cent increase in demand during the first half of this year, pushing revenues up 18 per cent to £404 million. The rise in demand was partly due to the ash crisis, but Eurostar claimed it was also down to an increase in the business market and a strengthening of business and leisure travel.

Chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said: “Over the last six months, we have delivered strong growth in both business and leisure bookings.

“As the economic environment has strengthened we have seen an uplift in the business market and an overall increase in the number of passengers travelling.

“Forward bookings are looking strong and with the increasing appetite for high speed rail travel in Europe, the trend looks set to continue.”

Now the US Department of Transportation has granted them anti-trust immunity, they are free to collaborate on fares, schedules and frequent flyer programmes.

In a joint statement, the carriers said: “This now frees oneworld to compete on a level playing field with the other global alliances – enabling oneworld’s carriers to implement their plans to strengthen competition across the Atlantic with easier, more seamless and more convenient travel opportunities to more destinations with better connections, improved flight schedules, and enhanced frequent flyer benefits.

“British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia plan to launch their transatlantic joint business this autumn, co-operating on flights between Europe, the US, Canada and Mexico. They say they will ‘provide more frequent and convenient schedules than any of the three carriers could offer on their own’.

“By working together, the airlines will expand customer choice by supporting routes that would not be economically viable for any of them individually,” said a oneworld spokesman.

“Customers will also benefit from greater access to discounted fares and expanded opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and elite tier benefits on flights.”

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh added: “This final approval is fantastic news for all three airlines and the oneworld alliance. We’ve waited 14 years to bring the benefits of the transatlantic joint business to our customers and level the playing field with the other two global alliances.Last week, the European Commission also approved the British Airways merger with Iberia, which the two airlines are aiming to complete by the end of this year.

Following the merger between Vuelingand former Spanish rival Clickair, passenger numbers have increased by 81% to 10m in the last 12 months.

30% of its passengers originated outside Spain, travelling to the country for both leisure and business, according to the airline’s figures.

“The merger between Vueling and Clickair was accomplished at a very complex time – in the teeth of an unprecedented economic slowdown,” said Vueling CEO Alex Cruz.

“We are pleased to report that the marriage has been successful and has generated business synergies – resulting in a solid, healthy and profitable company in a highly competitive environment.”

He said in 2009 the airline managed to save €11.4m in cost synergies and plans to increase this to a further €15.5m in 2010.

Air France amongst others have already introduced mobile phone boarding pass technology, but British Airways are going one further by introducing a complete iPhone application which will not only contain the boarding pass, but also flight information, frequent flier points, check-in times and eventually boarding gates and boarding times. It is expected to be ready for all domestic routes by the end of August 2010 and on all short-haul flights within six months of the launch. Long distance routes will be incorporated by the end of 2011.

In addition, airlines are developing technology to put radio tags on baggage to prevent bags being lost.

The  final regulatory approval of the two airlines along with American Airlines has also been granted by the European Commission on a joint business agreement on transatlantic flights.

No conditions have been applied to the merger, which is expected to take place at the end of the year. With the agreement, the three airlines expect a final decision on anti-trust immunity from the US Department of Transportation soon.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said: “We await the DOT’s final decision but welcome this important and vital step forward. The high number of new services on London to US routes since the Open Skies agreement demonstrates that Heathrow is open.

“Between us, we have agreed to make available Heathrow slot pairs for our competitors to use on services to the US.

“This is a pragmatic decision so that we can get the joint business up and running as soon as possible.

“The slot commitments provide a further guarantee that there will be no possible loss of competition as a result of our joint business”.

The airlines plan to launch the transatlantic joint business this autumn.

Cheapflights Media, the international flight deals publisher, welcomed the deal. CEO Chris Cuddy said: “Cheapflights applauds the EU’s decision to open transatlantic routes to the One World alliance and to allow the BA/Iberia merger. This move helps keep the EU airline industry competitive for travelers which is good for everyone.”

BA’s rival, Virgin Atlantic, reacted differently to the news of the merger. Boss Sir Richard Branson said: “We have fought this monster monopoly for the past 13 years and are still resolute in our belief that this decision is shameful and consumers will suffer greatly as a result.

“The European Commission has let consumers down by agreeing to paltry remedies which are wholly inadequate.”

What are your thoughts on the merger? Is it better for travellers or is it the start of a monopoly?

Today, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was forced to unreservedly apologise to the Easyjet founder for suggesting he was a liar in a series of print adverts. He tagged a photograph of Stelios with a long nose like Pinocchio with the line “Easyjet’s-Mr.Late Again”.

In a High Court hearing today, Mr O’Leary’s solicitors agreed to withdraw the allegations. To make amends, Ryanair have printed a half-page apology in the Daily Telegraph and Guardian newspapers, where the adverts had appeared. O’Leary was also forced to pay out $77,000, which Stelios has decided to donate to charity.

“It is not very often that someone as arrogant and as powerful as O’Leary is forced to apologise to someone else in public and in writing,” Stelios said in a statement.

“I took this legal action to protect my reputation. I am not a liar and that statement was libelous.”

“I would like to dedicate this little victory to all those members of the travelling public who have suffered verbal abuse and hidden extras at the hands of O’Leary,” Stelios said.

All Flybe services into Paris Charles de Gaulle will connect to the Air France hub, which will ease the transfer onto Air France’s international routes. Air France customers will have easier connections through Birmingham, Manchester and Southampton onto 17 UK domestic routes.

Flybe chairman and chief executive officer Jim French said: “This deal is a further milestone in Flybe’s growth. Having cemented our position as the UK’s number one domestic airline, we have sought to grow our position in our next most important market, which is the European business city market.

“The codeshare brings benefits for passengers and the two airlines alike; it’s a real win-win agreement. For Flybe, it allows us to offer an even wider range of flights to our passengers, as well as provide superb levels of inter-connectivity that only an airline as big as Air France can offer.”

Air France chief commercial officer Bruno Matheu said: “Over the past few years we have watched with great interest Flybe’s growth and development and been impressed by its performance in becoming a respected leader within the sector.

“The future co-operation with Flybe is a major opportunity for Air France to strengthen its position in the UK, Europe’s biggest market.”

For further information on the codes, go to Flybe’s press release page.