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.

Brits are looking to Spain for holidays over other countries once again, according to flight comparison site Skyscanner.

Searches for Tenerife, Malaga and Alicante have all shown significant rises for Easter this year as Brits take advantage of the potential 11 day holiday over the Royal Wedding period.

Skyscanner says Tenerife is now the second most searched destination on the site, jumping up 21 places from this time last year. City breaks have suffered; although Amsterdam and Barcelona are still in the top ten, they’ve both dropped four places compared to last Easter.

Skyscanner chief executive officer Gareth Williams said: “Malaga and Alicante remain immensely popular with the British, but it also looks as though people are taking advantage of the extra Royal Wedding holiday and going a little further afield this Easter with Tenerife, New York and Istanbul all up considerably compared to last year.

“This has come at the expense of city break destinations which have all dropped significantly this Easter. The fact that London doesn’t even appear in this year’s top ten certainly seems to suggest that many Brits are trying to escape the hype around the Royal Wedding ”.

Most popular destinations for British travellers Easter 2011

1. Malaga

2. Tenerife

3. Alicante

4. New York

5. Istanbul

6. Faro

7. Amsterdam

8. Barcelona

9. Rome

10. Palma

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.

Threats to hold 22 days of strike action by Spanish airport workers over Easter and throughout the summer have been cancelled.

The threat of strikes were made following publication of plans to part-privatise national airport operator Aena, however they were called off when guarantees of job security and certain conditions were made.

Union members said that around 70% of their 10,000 members had decided against action after the reassurances.

A statement from the union representing the staff, the CCOO, said: “The ratification of this deal means the cancellation of the call for 22 days of strikes planned on different days between April and August.”

Spanish tourism authorities will be pleased as they anticipate a popular spring and summer season as holidaymakers opt for Spain over Middle Eastern tourist spots.

The Spanish Airport Authority, AENA, has reached a preliminary agreement with airport workers’ unions, which looks set to put a stop to the planned strikes over Easter and throughout the summer.

“The agreement means the prospective strike will be called off if it is endorsed by the workers,” said a statement from the Ministry of Spanish Works.

This means both sides will commit to collaborate and to carry out talks in order to resolve any further disputes.

Easyjet has announced that it will fly the first direct service from Manchester to Bilbao and will also start a service from Gatwick to Sicily in the summer.

The budget airline will fly three times a week on both routes. The Bilbao service starts on 17th June and the Sicily service  on 25h June.

Easyjet’s UK general manager Paul Simmons said: “Sicily is a glorious island and a popular tourist destination. By launching the new route to Catania we’re making it more accessible and affordable for everyone.”

Commenting on the Bilbao service, UK commercial manager at EasyJet Ali Gayward said: “This new route will build upon Easyjet’s presence at Manchester Airport and further strengthen the region’s economic links with the Basque Country.”

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.

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

Spanish workers have a 24-hour strike planned tomorrow that is expected to disrupt flights in and out of the country, causing severe delays. 20% of European flights are expected to be grounded as a consequence of the strike.

British Airways is giving passengers due to fly tomorrow the option of cancelling their flights with a full refund or re-booking for another date. Iberia said it will be operating 35% of its flights tomorrow; Ryanair will be operating hand-luggage only flights to Spain and will give a refund to passengers who had booked check-in luggage.

Ryanair has called on the European Commission to act to prevent further air traffic control strikes.

 “Action must be taken at EU level to ensure that the ‘right to strike’ is removed from essential services such as ATC and competition must be introduced across Europe’s ATC providers to ensure that a strike in one country is not be allowed to disrupt million of passengers’ travel plans.” said Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara.

All passengers travelling to and from Spain tomorrow are advised to check their airlines’ websites for updates.

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.