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!

Toulouse in the snow picture by Flickr User orange 74

To coincide with the ski and snowboarding seasons, Bmibaby has launched two new routes from East Midlands airport. The first is to Chambery launched on 16th December, and the second to Toulouse on 23rd December.

Flights to Chambery will operate on Monday and Friday and the service to Toulouse will run twice a week.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said: “As the gateways to the best French ski resorts both in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the new routes will enhance our appeal to skiers and snowboarders.

“With convenient flight times, low fares and a great service guaranteed, we are confident the routes will prove very popular, perfectly complementing our existing ski destinations from the Midlands.”

Eurostar‘s revenue has grown an impressive 7% to £197m for the third quarter of the year compared to that in 2010, pushing total revenues for the year to £617m, up 5% on last year.

Chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said: “We have delivered a solid performance during both the third quarter and the year as a whole, although the tough trading environment across Europe demands a cautious watching brief.”

Passengers numbers from January to September were up 1% to 7.3m. Business Premier sales grew 2% in the third quarter, and leisure travellers were also up by 2%.

The train company remains buoyant regarding the future outlook, saying:  ”Despite the global economic backdrop, London and Europe continues to be a big draw for international travellers. With London 2012 now less than a year away, Eurostar anticipates in increased interest in the UK as a destination as the world’s focus turns to the Games next year.”

Eurostar recently launched a free mobile app to make it easier for customers to book tickets. It also has a £700m investment programme which will also introduce on-board WiFi and a state-of-the-art infotainment system.

Prepare for delays when travelling by air, sea and through the channel tunnel from 6pm tonight and throughout tomorrow as the majority of UK Border Agency staff join in on the public sector walk out.

Airlines have received a letter from the Agency advising that their passengers should “travel on an alternative day” to avoid the disruption. 70% of UKBA staff are members of the striking Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), so travel will also be disrupted through UK sea ports and the channel tunnel.

There are some questions over the country’s security during the walk out as some have suggested that back office staff and managers will struggle during the strike.

The strike starts this evening and continues until midnight on Thursday. It has been organised by four unions protesting about public sector pension reform. Teachers will also strike which will mean childcare issues for millions of working parents tomorrow.

The UK is not the only place struggling to deal with strikes, Greek air traffic controllers are currently on a 48-hour strike, and Parisian taxi drivers are also on strike which will affect transfer times for passengers arriving in the city.

Easyjet has advised passengers of disruption to flights in and out of Greece, Ryanair has already cancelled a flight to the country today, and British Airways has re-scheduled two flights to Athens from London today.

The number of second homes overseas has finally overtaken the number in the UK. That’s the news we would almost certainly be reporting by now if the government had not stopped collecting the figures in 2008.
The official figures relate, oddly enough, to second homes owned by households living in England only – not the whole of the UK. And a recent departmental reorganisation means the figures only go up to 2007/8. But the full table from the turn of the millennium onwards makes fascinating reading:

So by 2008, the number of households owning a second home had gone up by 43.6 per cent, from 404,000 to 580,000. But of those extra 176,000 holiday homes, all but 35,000 were overseas.
While these figures show that in 2008 slightly more people still owned second homes in the UK than abroad, given the strong trend it seems likely that, three years on, overseas home ownership has powered ahead.
These figures for home ownership abroad are lower than many you see quoted – anything from half a million to a million is a popular estimate – but they would need to be increased by perhaps 15 per cent to include owners based in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And, of course, they are for second homes so do not include those who have moved semi-permanently to a home abroad.
According to research carried out for the Post Office, France is the number one destination for owning a property abroad (41 per cent) followed by Spain (38 per cent) and Portugal (5 per cent). British buyers in France are most likely to have gone for a farmhouse or a cottage, compared with buyers in Spain who prefer flats and villas.

Astonishingly, nine out of every ten Brits holidaying in Spain this year will have got there on a no-frills airline like easyjet or Ryanair. The percentage for most other European destinations isn’t far behind. And with the budget airlines’ charge for checking in a suitcase ever rising, an increasing number of holidaymakers are taking just what will fit into a cabin bag with maximum dimensions of 55x40x20cm. Ryanair also imposes a 10kg weight limit whereas easyJet allows any weight ‘within reason’.

Ryanair has been especially tough on slightly oversize bags, sometimes creating lengthy departure gate queues as passengers with a cabin bag bulging beyond the max argue with staff then desperately extract enough to slim the bag.

If no-one has yet coined the phrase cabin bag anxiety, it’s time they did. But what the extortionate bag check-in charges do mean is that it’s worth investing in a cabin bag that makes the most of what you’re allowed. Luggage specialist Antler has come up a bag specifically designed for that purpose. It claims the Duolite is the lightest, most durable case it has ever produced. Combining a hybrid ABS and nylon material with a frameless construction, the Duolite is super lightweight, with the cabin case weighing in at just 2.1kg. With dimensions of 55x35x20, it meets most airlines’ cabin bag size limits (but always check before flying).

A weight of 2.1kg probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but we’ve been trying one out and the first thing everyone says is, “Isn’t it light?” The second is that  it nevertheless feels well made and strong in a high-tech sort of way, and the third is that it wheels along very easily. So although it has a recommended retail price of £89 (the lowest discounted price we saw online was £84), that could be a worthwhile investment. Our only reservation is that its width of 35cm is actually 5cm, or a couple of inches, less than most airlines allow, so you aren’t quite maximising the allowance. Having said that, the structure of the case intrudes very little into the internal space, which can also be expanded slightly by undoing a zip-fastened gusset extension to give a depth of 23cm if the airline isn’t being too strict. The bag has one zipped external pocket, and comes complete with a TSA padlock (which can be opened by security staff without having to break into the case).

For those trips where a cabin bag just isn’t enough, Antler does two matching suitcases of similar construction. The medium case (67x44x30/33cm) weighs 2.5kg, with a rrp of £105 and the large (74x49x33/36cm) weighs 2.9kg with a rrp of £109. With excess baggage charges of up to £40 per kilo, the two kilos or so saved compared with a typical case could almost pay for these cases, which all come with a 10-year warranty. Further details and stockists at www.antler.co.uk

French strike action continues as French airline staff unions have called for a four-day strike from 5th November. The strike is in protest of a new legislation that reduces discounts on some plane tickets as staff will have to pay tax on them.

Both the flight attendants’ union and the France pilots’ union have called for a strike from 5th-8th November 5. Separately, six unions at Air France have called for a strike on 4th November against president Nicolas Sarkozy’s recently approved pension reform.

The last French strikes were by air traffic controllersand disrupted many flights from the UK and France. This sparked strong words from Ryanair which called upon the EU to change legislation for air traffic controllers rights to strike.

Ryanair is calling on the EU to prevent air traffic controllers (ATC) from striking after the chaos caused by today’s strikes in France. It says that ATC workers should not have the “right to strike” and if they do they should be sacked.

In typical Ryanair fashion, it had further possibly unpopular ideas such as an EU reform on passenger rights legislation to say airlines will no longer have the “right of care” obligations to help stranded passengers.

Ryanair said it has been forced to cancel 2,000 flights and delay more than 12,000 flights as a result of Belgian, French and Spanish ATC strikes so far this year.

“European governments bungled and failed to keep European skies open in April and May after a volcano thousands of miles from Europe erupted and now they are once again failing to keep Europe’s skies open as passengers and airlines face yet more travel disruption due to strikes.” said Ryanair head of communication Stephen McNamara.

He added: “We once again call on the EU to remove the ‘right to strike’ for ATC as it is for other essential services like the police and fire services. Striking ATC controllers don’t care about consumers, they don’t care about passengers and they repeatedly strike because they know they can shut down Europe’s skies and hold EU Governments and passengers to ransom. The EU Commission must act now to end this ATC chaos.”

There’s a new reason for visiting Florida, especially if you have young Harry Potter fans in tow. Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando has just opened its newest, grandest and most ambitious addition: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The Wizarding World is full of sights from the Potter universe. Rides including Dragon Challenge, Flight of the Hippogriff and the Forbidden Journey promise to bring thrills to guests of all ages, while sights like Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Hagrid’s Hut and Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods will delight Potter fans.

If that list of whimsical flights of fancy leaves you cold, flight search website Skyscanner is trying to drum up business with a list of alternative wizard venues. Starting with New Zealand, used as the setting when JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed. With unrivalled vistas and great natural beauty, it’s the perfect setting for the wizard Gandalf to bestride Middle Earth. Tolkien fans continue to catch flights to New Zealand to experience the world of hobbits, elves and orcs for themselves.

Orcs no good? Then there’s always the Wizard of Oz, in Kansas, USA. In 1900, L. Frank Baum described the adventures of one Dorothy Gale, a young girl who is whisked away by a tornado, ending up in the Land of Oz. Befriending a talking scarecrow, a cowardly lion and a tin man, she journeyed to visit The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and get back home to Kansas, where today fans can visit the Oz Museum which holds masses of memorabilia from the books, films and musicals.

Possibly even more magical, if you’re a basketball fan, would be a visit to the Washington Wizards in Washington, DC. Based in the capital city’s Verizon Center, this professional basketball team had a genuine wizard of the court play for them in the form of superstar Michael Jordan from 2001 to 2003. They still fill their arena for every game and their skill and showmanship make for an unforgettable experience. Or so they say.

Closer to home is Parc Asterix, a theme-park 22 miles north of Paris that’s based on the world of cartoon character Asterix. There you can meet the wizard, a member of Goscinny and Uderzo’s tribe of rebellious Gaul warriors who comically torment Julius Caesar’s legions in ancient France. Getafix is a potion-concocting druid who can prepare an elixir that grants superhuman strength to those who drink it.

Much speedier trips on Eurostar could be in the offing as the operator has announced plans to spend £700 million on the redesign of its fleet and in investment of ten new trains that could reduce London to Paris journey times.

The move is privately funded by the operator together with cash and bank financing. The project will start next year and will see rolling stock receive a makeover by Italian designers Pininfarina.

The new Eurostar e3202 trains will be ‘interoperable’ which means they can operate across the European high speed rail network and provide non-stop services between London and a number of European destinations.

The trains will have a fifth larger capacity than current Eurostar trains and be able to take 900 passengers plus luggage. The train will be able to travel up to 200mph which will reduce the journey time between London and Paris to around the two hours mark, the London to Amsterdam journey to under four hours, and London to Geneva to about five hours.