Now that high speed rail has got the go ahead, there have been calls for the government to take another look at building a third runway at Heathrow to link to the London to Birmingham rail line.

The GMB union has called for politicians to re-look at building a third runway, as it claims it will be much less time consuming and expensive than starting from scratch on an airport hub in north Kent or the Thames estuary.

The CAA‘s Aviation Policy for the Future report concurs with the need for a new runway in the south east of England, as it warns that customers will face increased airfares and less choice on international routes if one is not built.

Mick Rix, GMB national officer for the civil aviation industry, said “This go ahead for HS2 is welcome but it should be extended to Heathrow. GMB calls on all political parties to reopen the issue of the third runway at Heathrow.

“The site for a third runway at Heathrow is adjacent to the existing runways at the airport. Those with expertise to operate an international hub already live in West London. The transport links are mostly there already.

“Heathrow’s worldwide destinations are already decreasing, due to capacity constraints, which have not been addressed by successive governments. New runways at many European hub airports are already taking Heathrow business.”

What do you think about the case for a third Heathrow runway being re-opened? Is it good or bad?

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!

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.

Those looking for a quick trip to Germany and who don’t like flying will be happy now that German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has announced plans to start a full inter-continental high speed rail service in 2013.

It had a successful test run through the Channel Tunnel to London St Pancras, so plans to operate high-speed services to Rotterdam/Amsterdam and also Cologne/Frankfurt using Brussels as the connecting point.

The chairman of the DB Management Board, Dr Rutiger Grube, said, “By making full use of the opportunities afforded by the liberalisation of the European rail transport market we are able to offer our customers genuine alternatives to air travel.”

Travel time from Cologne and Amsterdam to London is expected to be under four hours and from Frankfurt just over five hours.

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.

I’ve been writing quite a bit about air travel recently as this has dominated the news. However, for a little bit of a break how about travelling abroad by train instead?

The trainline.com has just signed a deal with Rail Europe so you can find and book European inter-city train tickets.

The trainline.com (in conjunction with Rail Europe) now offers information and tickets for travel on SNCF’s TGV services, Deutsche Bahn’s ICE, Thalys and overnight services. You can also book an extremely useful InterRail pass which allows rail travel in 29 European countries if you’re travelling around a bit.

Head of Partnerships at thetrainline.com Omid Golshan said: “At thetrainline.com we believe taking the train is the most convenient, cost efficient and carbon friendly way to travel – and now the scope of what customers can book with us online is even greater, meaning we can help them to make even more savings on their train travel.”

Eurostar is to extend the opening hours of its dedicated agent support team. The move comes after pressure from the Guild of Travel Management Companies to increase the time to aid agents.

The Eurostar4agents helpdesk will be open for an additional 30 minutes a day making the new opening times 09:00 to 17:30 Monday to Friday.

GTMC chief executive Anne Godfrey said: ”We are delighted that GTMC Partner Eurostar took on board the comments made by GTMC members about trade support and acted speedily on this issue. We look forward to working closely with them in future.”

Darren Williams, Eurostar’s head of UK & international sales said: “ We value the trade business and will endeavour to make further adjustments as necessary to strengthen our relationship.”

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.

Speed restrictions due to the weather on Eurostar lines mean that the company won’t be able to run as many trains as planned. It is urging passengers with non-essential journeys to cash in their tickets or defer their trips until after Christmas.

The speed restrictions mean some journeys are taking two hours longer than normal, and as a result, some passengers with booked tickets are being forced to queue for up to eight hours.

Passengers without tickets are being urged to stay away from the train station as Eurostar said there is no chance of them getting seats.

The latest update from Eurostar at 1.00pm today (22nd December) said that services are getting back to normal but because of the speed restrictions some services will remain cancelled. Passengers whose trains are still running should turn up to check in as normal.

Tightened security measures are being implemented at airports and railway stations across Germany after a new threat of terrorism has emerged.

Parcel bombs were discovered on cargo planes last month, one of which had been sent via Cologne in Germany but was intercepted in the UK.

The country’s interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said extra security measures will be in place until further notice after a tip-off from an unnamed country gave “concrete indications” of attacks planned for the end of this month. He told a news conference in Berlin: “There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria.”