More bad news as the seemingly never ending dispute between cabin crew and British Airways progresses to more threats of strikes.

The recent dispute over the suspension of over 80 staff and sacking of 13 has hindered peace talks between the Union and BA as detailed in my previous blog.

The complications in the talks has lead to a fresh strike ballot likely to be called on Monday for action over the Christmas period. Unite are reluctant to hold the ballot so soon but face pressure from the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA). 

Duncan Holley, BASSA’s branch secretary said in an article in the Telegraph: “We are looking for the green light for a strike ballot next week, which would encompass the Christmas period and there is every likelihood we will be out then.

“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.

“Our members are still being suspended and sacked unfairly. In some cases remarks on a private union forum are being treated as bullying.”

The largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, landed in Manchester for the first time today. This huge aircraft can carry up to 517 passengers and is split into two ‘decks’, economy on the lower deck and luxury first class on the upper deck.

The aircraft travels between Manchester and Dubai with Emirates airline; passengers will expect to pay around £600 economy and over £3000 first class for a return trip.

First class boasts a huge amount of space, wide-screen TV and personal satellite phone, a ‘no disturb’ button on the reclining leather bed seat and two large shower rooms (a first for this type of service and an impressive engineering feat).

Many people turned up to watch the aircraft land at Manchester Airport, one told the BBC: “It’s fantastic to see it land for the first time. I think it is a monumental occasion.”

See video of it landing at the BBC Manchester website here.

Ryanair has decided to cut flights between the UK and Belfast at the end of October. The decision comes as Belfast City confirmed that a public inquiry into a proposed runway extension would be further delayed.

Ryanair had threatened the withdrawal earlier in the year as my previous blog detailed, so the move is no real surprise.

In a statement the airline said: “Ryanair had planned to open up a wide range of low fare European routes from/to Belfast City once the promised runway extension was delivered, but this has sadly failed to materialise.

“Today’s closure of Ryanair’s Belfast City base means that Belfast and Northern Ireland tourism will lose up to one million passengers annually.”

Ryanair will switch its one Belfast City-based aircraft to another European airport at the start of November.

Passengers on a flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong were horrified to be played an emergency message which told them they were going to make an emergency landing in the sea. The automated message told passengers “This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.”

Luckily, the message was played in error and the flight was not in any trouble. Cabin crew quickly reassured the passengers that the message was a mistake, but the airline, British Airways has had to make a more formal public apology to passengers.

BA said the emergency message was triggered by a computer. A spokesman for the airline added: “We would like to apologise to passengers on board the flight for causing them undue distress.

“Our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was played in error and that the flight would continue as normal.”

There was a slight dip in Ryanair’s punctuality last month. According to its own customer service statistics only 78 percent of its flights were on-time in July, compared with 85 percent in July 2009.

 The airline also received 0.73 complaints for every 1,000 passengers compared with 0.67 complaints per 1,000 last year.

There were fewer baggage complaints however; only 0.37 for every 1,000 passengers compared with 0.7 last year. This could be because of the large increase in baggage fees this summer which must have encouraged more passengers to travel with only hand luggage.

Iceland Express is launching three new US routes over 2010/2011. The airline is adding Orlando, Chicago and Boston to its network.

The Orlando service will run temporarily from 2-24th October 2010 and every Saturday from London Gatwick, with return flights departing on a Sunday. Prices will start at £224 one-way including taxes.

The Chicagoservice launches on 10th June 2011 and will operate every Friday from London Gatwick. Flights will start from £221 one-way including taxes.

Boston flights from London Gatwick will begin on 13th June 2011 and run four times a week, Monday to Thursday. Prices will start from £231 one-way including taxes.

Iceland Express will offer a stopover in Reykjavik for all flights to the USA.

Skyscannerhas revealed that 59% of travellers would like a ‘families only’ section onboard flights in a recent survey of 2,000 people.

The survey was prompted by the news that a woman claimed that a baby’s screaming on a Quantas flight made her ears bleed. It found that 68% of non-parents liked the idea, but less than a third of parents surveyed were in agreement.

It also found that almost 70% ‘wanted to sit as far away as possible from children’ and almost 25% of non-parents said that they would prefer to flights that were free from children altogether. 45% of parents said they didn’t want a families-only section because they didn’t want to sit next to ‘other people’s horrors’.

Skyscanner users also put forward suggestions as to how to solve the problem of noisy children on flights, these included the provision of a baby nursery, only allowing well-behaved children to travel, and on user (we hope as a joke) suggested “children should go in the hold”!

Skyscanner PR manager Mary Porter said: “As a relatively new mum myself I can still remember that feeling of dread when you found yourself seated next to a baby on a long flight; however since regularly flying with my one year old, I am much more aware of what a stressful, and often embarrassing, situation it can be for parents.

“However, I’m not surprised that in a previous poll we found young children were deemed to be the “most annoying” factor on flights. When tempers are frayed, a screaming child can cause a major disturbance for fellow passengers.

“If passengers are prepared to pay extra for child-free flying, perhaps the solution is a premium adults-only section, rather than a pre-allocated families section, giving airlines yet another extra they can charge for?

“I am sure this service would prove really popular on routes that attract a lot of families such as flights to Orlando.”

Talks between Virgin Atlantic and BALPA, the pilots union, were adjourned last night to be resumed at a later date. A BALPA spokesman said that progress had been made and the talks were constructive but could not comment further. Neither could he confirm when the talks would resume.

The dispute is between the airline and pilots is over time off. The union says the airline is denying pilots their entitlement to the minimum number of days off agreed.

It says this is 120 rostered days off a year, “the equivalent to an office worker’s weekends and bank holidays”.

A sigh of relief came as BAA managed to halt a strike of staff at 6 of the largest UK airports last week, however now Virgin Airlines pilots are threatening to ballot for a strike as early as this week. A last attempt at talks for a resolution are currently being held.

The strike threat comes as the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) claim that Virgin is denying pilots their right to a minimum number of days off as previously agreed to by the two sides. The current right that pilots hold is to have 120 days off in addition to a normal holiday time  in return for frequently working at weekends and bank holidays.

Long gone are the days of many suitcases! Picture by Flickr User kthread

It may come as a surprise that women are better at packing to go on holiday, according to a Holiday Extras survey. The misconception is that women pack more, which may be true sometimes, but the survey revealed that women will wear most of the clothes they pack, whereas men return with 20% of the clothes in their suitcase unworn.

In the web survey of 600 customers, men were far more savvy when it came to shoe packing however. 92% of them get away with three pairs or fewer whereas a quarter of women surveyed claim to take between four and nine pairs, with 7% even admitting to taking over 10 pairs!

Holiday Extras beauty expert, Michele Betzner, advises laying clothes out before packing to avoid taking similar items, restricting your colour range so more things coordinate and settling on three multi-purpose pairs of shoes plus some flip flops.

Follow these tips and you could have cheaper hold luggage or avoid charges altogether by reducing your luggage to carry-on only. It will make travelling easier too as no one enjoys lugging a huge suitcase around a new holiday destination, especially if you have to get to your accommodation by public transport.