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!

New Year and Christmas is proving to be an even more popular time for holidaymakers to leave the UK in search of a different festive experience. According to ABTA, it estimates that 4.25 million Brits will be travelling away during this period compared to just under 4 million last year.

Peak travel days are expected to be 22nd and 23rd December so holidaymakers can touch down and settle in just before Christmas day.

Types of holidays vary greatly, some opt for warmer climates such as the Canary Islands, Dominican Republic and Cuba, whereas others want a Christmas snow at ski locations.

Paris, Reykjavik, Rome, Dublin and New York are popular New Year’s Eve destinations for a party vibe.

Mark Tanzer ABTA chief executive said: “With all the doom and gloom of the economy it looks like people are keen to escape for a break, whether they are visiting friends and family or looking to enjoy winter sun or guaranteed snow.”

Check out lots of foreign holiday lets at the Villaseek website to get your perfect festive getaway sorted.

Last year Easyjet announced that they were funding research into a way of avoiding the volcanic ash cloud aviation crisis. This research is starting to bear fruit as over the past two weeks, pilot Captain Uwe Post has successfully flown over 30 hours around Mount Etna and Stromboli through clouds of ash from the smoldering volcanoes.

The tiny plane has a special piece of technology tied to its wing. It’s designed to detect how much ash and what sized particles are in the air. Typically the ash we can see is so heavy that it drops in a matter of hours, however the most dangerous particles are very difficult to detect from far enough away to avoid easily. The default decision of the understandably safety conscious civil aviation authorities is to block off all of the surrounding areas, as we saw last year with the Icelandic volcano  eruption which caused travel chaos for about a month.

So far tests are proving positive, so much so that they are able to produce accurate models of where the ash is and how thick. These tests are only carried out at a speed of 120mph, but to work commercially, the technology would have to work much faster and at higher altitudes.

If it passes its field trials and is approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency then the company will be able to sell it to other airlines, which will mean that Easyjet will be able to recoup their research costs.

Currently scientists are predicting a large eruption from Iceland’s much larger volcano Katla, which if it does erupt, will be far worse than those of Eyjafjallajökull and Grimsvotn.

Following the months of flooding in Thailand, the Foreign Office has now advised against travel to the capital city and 26 other provinces.

It said: “Our advice against all but essential travel to the city of Bangkok does not include transit through Suvarnabhumi international airport.

“Flights to destinations elsewhere in Thailand (eg the resorts of Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Phuket, and Koh Samui) continue to operate normally.”

A five-day holiday has been ordered by the Thai authorities so that residents can evacuate the capital. More than 360 people have died in Thailand’s worst flooding in decades.

Torrential rain in parts of Italy is also threatening lives. Rescue workers are searching for missing people in Liguria and Tuscany with the province of La Spezia and its UNESCO- protected tourist site of Monterosso particularly badly hit.

The Foreign Office current update is: ”The A12 highway in Liguria has been blocked in both directions since yesterday afternoon because of a mudslide, and train services throughout the coastal region of Liguria have been halted. British nationals are advised to avoid these areas unless absolutely necessary.

Motorway flooding elsewhere is also a problem. IsoRadio has the best up to date information for travelllers, with a bulletin in English approximately every hour. There are also weather alerts for the Campania, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia regions.”

Ryanair and easyJet, the big two no-frills airlines, have become increasingly dominant in the UK low-cost flights market, with many smaller players either cutting back or squeezed out entirely. That has led to fears that reduced competition could eventually lead to much higher fares.

So it’s good to hear that Bmibaby, now owned by Lufthansa, has announced seven new holiday destinations as part of its summer 2012 schedule. The additional routes are from Birmingham to Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome (Fiumicino), and from East Midlands to Corfu, Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples.

Bmibaby is increasingly focusing on the Midlands, with the new routes bringing the airline’s tally of destinations served to 31 from East Midlands and 14 from Birmingham. The new flights will start in April 2012.

A similar strategy of regional specialisation has seen healthy growth from Jet2, which concentraties on the North of England. Exeter-based Flybe, on the other hand, has carved out a different niche by using its fleet of smaller planes to serve routes between regional airports with insufficient traffic to fill the larger jets used by the big two.

If you’re touching down in Rome for a holiday today, you may find that it is a little quiet. The reason for this is that many cautious Italians are taking a prediction made back in the 1970s that there will be a ‘huge earthquake’ on 11th May 2011 to heart. Many have taken the day off work to flee the city just in case, despite repeated attempts by the Italian government on TV to calm its citizens.

Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979, warned of the seismic event and his words have been treated with reverence. Reuters reports an 18% increase in the number of people who plan to stay away from work today.

Rome is planning to go ahead with an accommodation tax on 1st January 2011.

The city council said the ‘Contributo di Soggiorno’ would be introduced despite the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) expressing concerns about how the money would be collected.

Councillor Frederico Guidi said: “In order for the city of Rome not to tax Romans, we have decided to tax the tourists.”

The tax will be €3 per night for guests at four and five star hotels and €2 per night for guests staying in all other accommodation. Children under 2 and youth hostels are the only exemptions from the tax.

 The maximum number of nights taxable per stay is 10. Guests will be advised about the tax upon arrival by written notices and must pay for it upon check-out.

UK tour operators can collect the money on their clients’ behalf in advance, but the ETOA said: “‘This is like being on a plane and being charged extra to leave. As the Comune will be extracting money with an ‘instant’ tax, tour operators should not be expected to do this work for them”.

It has not been clarified if the tax attracts IVA (VAT). Alessandro Vannini, President of the Commission for Tourism and Fashion, conceded that the first few months could be chaotic.

This final confirmation of the tax is unlikely to come before the 20th of December however, and it may yet be challenged in the local courts.

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

Ryanair has stopped all flights from Bournemouth during the winter months of November, December and January, blaming the government’s £11 air passenger duty (APD).

Ryanair says its decision to suspend winter flights from Bournemouth will be reviewed next summer when, based on market conditions and UK APD costs, it may return to a 12 month base operation at the airport.

However, the airline has launched four new routes from London Stansted, to Faro and Porto in Portugal and to Bologna and Milan Bergamo in Italy. The flights start on 31 October.

A new service from London City Airport to Florence by Cityjet will be launched this winter. The service will run six times a week (every day except Saturday) and will start from 10th January. A limited service to the Italian destination will run over Christmas also.