Happy New Year to all our readers! Before we move on to this year’s news, here’s a round up of some of the biggest stories we covered on this blog in 2011, it certainly was an eventful year!

January started with the troubled BMI threatening to withdraw its Heathrow – Glasgow route after passenger charges at Heathrow were raised (this was confirmed a month later). Ryanair returned to Manchester with four new routes. And the political troubles in Egypt disrupted flights.

Spiraling conflict in Egypt caused complete cancellation of routes to popular holiday destinations in February. Meanwhile, Which? launched a super complaint on airline card fee charges,the cost of Qantas’ engine troubles were revealed, and airlines flying from the UK finally started to show clearer air fares.

March brought faster flight times under a deal signed by traffic controllers. But by far the biggest news of the month was the huge tsunami which hit Japan and led to re-routing of flights to avoid possible radiation risk, and advice to leave Tokyo.

A Skyscanner survey found Spain back in favour for British holidaymakers in April.

In May Belfast Airport started to charge for going for a cigarette break, and the ongoing battle between Unite and British Airways was finally settled!

More natural disasters happened in June with violent aftershocks in Christchurch, New Zealand and volcanic eruptions in Chile.

The News of the World phone-hacking scandal broke in July with airlines withdrawing their advertisements as a result.

In August research revealed the use of smartphones were ruining people’s holidays.

The Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand in September, where Wales’ hopes were dashed.

The first biofuel passenger flight took place in October, however green campaigners claimed it wasn’t as environmentally friendly as everyone thought.

Europe announced a ban on body scanners at airports in November, but the UK decided to go against the decision.

Finally, December saw 150mph winds hit parts of Scotland, which is where we are now at the start of 2012 as tremendous winds continue to batter the UK once more.

So, what travel news is in store for 2012? Keep up to date here!

French Eurotunnel employees are threatening to strike this bank holiday weekend. Their unions are demanding an 8% pay rise or will call a stoppage to working.

Eurotunnel is putting emergency plans into place to cope with threatened action; the cross channel rail link has suspended sales of tickets for the bank holiday period, over 25,000 vehicles, carrying around 100,000 people, are expected to use the service over the three days.

Eurotunnel says it hopes to rely on its British drivers to run services as usual, but has suspended extra ticket sales to ease the situation.

For those wanting to avoid the Eurotunnel problems, SeaFrance and DFDS Seaways (formerly Norfolkline) have both issued statements urging people to book with them as early as possible because capacity is already tight. SeaFrance Dover-Calais Ferries will be operating an additional 16 crossings for both car and freight traffic due to a huge surge in demand.

Customers travelling by ferry are advised to use the M2/A2 route to the Port of Dover to avoid potential delays as a result of the Eurotunnel strike.

Bilbao is the first new port destination added in 25 years by Brittany Ferries. The first sailing of the route from Portsmouth took place last Sunday and was served by the 33,000 Cap Finistère.

The Portsmouth-Bilbao crossing will be twice a week and take between 24 and 32 hours, it will arrive at Bilbao’s new terminal, close to Spain’s A8 motorway, with connections to Madrid, the Costa Brava and the south.

The operator made sure it was well placed to catch airline business last year when the ash cloud meant thousands of air passengers wanting to get to and from Spain were stranded and last week picked up an award for its marketing strategy based around this.

Brittany Ferries Group passenger commercial director Mike Bevens said: “As the numbers of air travellers from the UK to Spain have declined, we’ve witnessed a surge in demand for direct UK Spain crossings.

“Our customers welcome being able to relax on a comfortable and spacious cruise-ferry and the freedom that having their own car brings.”

Cap Finistère, which was added to the Brittany Ferries fleet last year, features a children’s playground, a cinema and cafe, a dedicated dog walking area and ten pet-friendly cabins.

Yesterday ferry services were suspended from the ports of Piraeus, Lavrio and Rafina in Greece because of continued snow storms. Many roads were also closed in the capital and a handful of islands lost power.

Today, schools were closed and residents told to stay home where possible, but despite the continued snowfall there was a limited service from Piraeus. The islands of Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissus, Andros and Tinos are still experiencing severe power failures that could take until Friday to restore.

A planned public services strike set for today was cancelled to help tackle the situation.

Flights however are operating as normal out of Athens International Airport.

While the UK has been enjoying bright sunshine this start of March, Greece is facing snow storms that have halted ferry services and blocked roads . According to a BBC report, Greeks have been warned to make only vital journeys as the severe weather continues.

Some drivers had to endure traffic jams of up to nine miles overnight near Athens.

The snow and gale force winds struck late yesterday, there have been power cuts on a number of the islands, in Athens and in other parts of the mainland. The snow that closed down the road at Malakasa was comparatively light and Transport Minister Dimitris Reppas accused the consortium that manages it, Nea Odos, of failing to do its job properly.

The ports of Piraeus, Lavrio and Rafina are closed, but the Athens Airport website show that flights are currently operating as normal.

The cold weather is expected continue into tomorrow, with overnight temperatures in Athens due to dip just below zero.

Volcanoes grounding flights, snow grounding flights and stopping trains, strikes galore – 2010 has not been the best year for the travel industry, but in this run down of some of the top stories covered in the Villaseek blog throughout the year I’ll include these and also try to find some good news to include as it wasn’t all bad!

January started with the controversial full body scanner trial at Manchester Airport.

There was the awful Haiti earthquake which sparked calls for aid from holiday makers nearby and help from airlines to deliver aid packages.

The full review of the Eurostar travel delayswas revealed and spared no one.

Easyjet and Ryanair fought it out in a battle over an unflattering advert.

There was some increase in the business travel economy.

The year was plagued by strikes by British Airways cabin crew in a battle over pay and working conditions, the first were in March.

The BA and Iberia merger was agreed in April.

Perhaps one of the biggest pieces of travel related news was the volcanic ash cloud which closed down airspace across much of northern Europe and cancelled the travel plans of millions of people throughout April and May.

A coalition government was formed in the summer and one of the first things they did was to scrap the planned third runway at Heathrow.

There were more BA cabin crew strikes in May, the first for 5 consecutive days.

Despite the strikes and ash trouble, some good news for the aviation industry came as a study showed growing satisfaction with airlines.

A new campaign was launched in July to make passengers more aware of their travel rights, which made for a very informative read.

A study found that three weeks in a holiday villa is the perfect holiday!

Which? revealled airline processing fee rip offs in September.

Airbus’ with Rolls Royce engines got an awful couple of months of bad press after a mid-flight emergency on a Qantas flight.

The year ended with festive gridlock at airports and across the country’s roads due to the snow.

So, it’s been an eventful year indeed! If you want to catch up on the year’s UK travel news, then check out the 2010 review on our sister site, Holiday Cottages.

Last week, P&O Ferries got rid of its Portsmouth to Bilbao route after 17 years; Brittany Ferries however, has come to the rescue and announced that it will take over the service.

Starting next spring, Brittany will operate two crossing a week with its luxury cruise ferry Cap Finistere. The service will operate alongside the twice weekly Portsmouth to Santander and weekly Plymouth to Santander crossings.

“We are confident of making it a success because, with Cap Finistère, we have the right ship for the job. We know from CAA statistics that airline passenger numbers to France and Spain have fallen this year and we attribute this to a general disillusionment with no frills airlines.” said Brittany group commercial passenger director, Mike Bevens.

Following on from a previous blog regarding a new push from the European Commission to encourage rail and air passengers to know their rights; ferry passengers will be granted the same rights to compensation as air passengers should their journeys be cancelled or delayed. This is a result of a new ruling from the European Parliament.

Sea passengers currently only get their money back or a place on a later sailing if the journey they booked does not happen. Those flying by plane, on the other hand, are compensated for the inconvenience.

Unfortunately, this ruling will not be put into affect for another two years.

Head of Research at Holiday Which Rochelle Turner said: “This is great news for ferry passengers, putting them on an equal footing with airline passengers.

“All ferry passengers will now be able to rely on getting fair and adequate compensation if they are delayed or if their trip is cancelled, regardless of the ferry operator they use.”