It’s unlucky for those of you planning to go to Belgium on Monday (30th January), as there is a planned general strike which will disrupt travel services. The strike of public and private sector workers coincides with the EU summit in Brussels.

Ryanair is advising passengers to check its website for information as it might have to cancel all flights to and from Brussels Charleroi Airport.

“If we are forced to cancel flights a list of affected flights will be published on our homepage on Friday 27th January,” it said.

Eurostar announced this morning that services to and from Brussels will be cancelled from 22:00 CET on 29th January to 22:00 CET on 30th January. Trains will only run to and from Lille Europe station, but there will be a limited coach service from there to Brussels Midi stations, however these are likely to be very busy.

Eurostar will allow exchanges free of charge regardless of ticket conditions, but subject to availability.

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!

According to an article in the Telegraph, those landing at Heathrow today did not face the horrendous queues and delays predicted before the strikes. In fact, it seems that processing passengers through customs was even quicker than normal!

The airport had drafted in special ‘volunteers’ from other sectors of non-striking civil service that had been trained a month in advance of the strike and were overseen by members of staff not involved in the strike. BAA had brought in piles of water bottles and chocolate bars at immigration boarder control for passengers if the queues went on for too long, but not even a break down of the iris scanners slowed down the pace.

Many felt that they were getting VIP treatment as they were guided around by volunteers in purple ‘help’ sashes and many were even outnumbered by the baggage reclaim staff.

British traveller Victoria Malloy said she had feared the worst as she landed from her flight from New York: “We were told in the plane there would be delays of between eight to 12 hours. But it’s never been so quick. I’ll make sure I travel during a strike next time,” she said.

Some airlines had cancelled flights or flown at half capacity as a preventative measure, which seemed to contribute to today’s smooth running of boarder control.

Expect delays of over 24 hours from tomorrow evening (23rd November) for flights to Portugal as a general strike hits the country.

Airports will be hit by strikes from 21:00hrs on Wednesday until 04:00hrs on Friday. Passengers travelling after 22:00hrs on Wednesday are being advised to contact their airline or travel agent before going to the airport.

Portuguese pilots are also threatening to strike for a total of eight days, from 9th-12th December and 3rd-6th January.

Here’s a round up of this week’s blog posts:

New Manchester to Washington D.C. Route

United Continental Airlines launch route

Dreamliner Hitch

ANA report landing difficulty with new Dreamliner

IAG to buy BMI

BA and Iberia parent carrier reach deal with Lufthansa

Plans for Thames Estuary Airport

Lord Foster reveals his plans

Another Ryanair headline

O’Leary wants to allow passengers to access porn on board

Acas to help with Thomas Cook cabin crew dispute

Unite ask for help

Unite has asked for the dispute between Thomas Cook and its cabin crew to go to Acas (Advisory, conciliation and arbitration service).

Following talks in Manchester, Unite regional officer Mick Whitley said: ”We are waiting to hear from Thomas Cook if it wishes to go down the Acas route, which is allowed for in the agreement Unite has with the company.”

The dispute is over 500 cabin crew who face losing their jobs, Unite has requested a minimum of three weeks per year plus a £5,000 lump sum redundancy payment package, whereas Thomas Cook is only offering two weeks per year pay.

Read more about the dispute on the previous post here.

Over 70,000 people in over 22 nations have been affected by the recent Qantas dispute with unions, which saw all domestic and international aircraft grounded yesterday by order of Qantas management in response to the strikes. However, in an independent tribunal ruling forced by the action, a permanent end to the industrial action was ordered, with flights able to start again as early as tomorrow (Monday).

In August strikes started as a result of Qantas declaration that it is to restructure and outsource some of its work in order to combat the approximate $200m annual losses it has been making internationally. The unions claimed the need for more job security of staff and argued against the proposed job losses. Talks were not leading anywhere, which is why Qantas decided to take such a bold step in grounding all flights, thus costing the economy “tens of millions of dollars every hour” according to the BBC, and forcing the tribunal.

The Fair Work Australia ruling said: “We have decided to terminate protected industrial action in relation to each of the proposed enterprise agreements immediately.”

The decision requires both parties to get back into negotiations and to reach an agreement within 21 days.

Thomas Cook cabin crew have voted in favour of industrial action over 498 redundancies. 475 voted in favour, with 53 against and six spoilt ballot papers.

Currently Thomas Cook is offering two weeks per year redundancy pay, however the union Unite is demanding 3 weeks, plus a lump sum payment of £5,000. The average cabin crew pay is £15,000 a year.

Unite reps at Thomas Cook will meet in Manchester on Wednesday to decide their future strategy, which could include going ahead with a full industrial action ballot for strike action.

Unite regional officer Mick Whitley said: “The overwhelming vote shows our members’ anger and should be a strong wake-up call for the management to return to the negotiating table with a fair offer.

“And until we have had the meeting tomorrow, Unite is not going to speculate about Christmas flights by Thomas Cook. The ball is very much in the management’s court – they need to come up with a realistic offer for those facing redundancy. They are a very profitable firm; the group made £320 million this year and it is paying out a fortune in bonuses and dividends, as well as sponsoring the Olympics.”

A 24 hour general strike in Greece today has forced airlines to cancel flights to and from the country.

British Airways has cancelled seven flights between London Heathrow and Athens. Passengers can either cancel with a full refund or rebook for another time. BA’s London Gatwick and Thessalonika flights will operate but with lengthy delays.

Ryanair has cancelled its flights between Liverpool and Kos but it will offer additional services tomorrow.

EasyJet has also cancelled flights between Gatwick, Manchester and Liverpool to Greece and is offering passengers a choice of a refund or a free transfer to other services. It is warning that flights overnight will be delayed.

British Airways has not had the best time of it over the past two years during its dispute with the Unite union. Its reputation has suffered, so as a result the airline is launching a marketing campaign which it hopes will help to rekindle pride among both its staff and its customers.

The campaign, at a cost of £1.5m, will focus on the airline’s heritage with a 90-second film that addresses five decades of BA and its place in aviation’s history.

According to Marketing Magazine, images of BA staff will feature prominently in the campaign. The campaign follows an internal communications project intended to inspire pride in the brand among the 32,000 staff.