The airline plans to take on more than 1000 new staff initially and will pay £18000 for short-haul work and long haul crew will receive £35,000.

As reported in my previous blog, Unite issued a warning to BA that they would ballot for another strike if an agreement is not reached by the end of the month, which could mean more strike action as early as August. So far no progress has been made as each side stands firm on its position.

Adverts for the new BA roles will be advertised shortly.

Madeira photo by Flickr User Leo-Setä

Low cost airline Jet2.comhave just launched a new route from Manchester to Madeira (Funchal) this week. One way flights start at £69.99, including taxes so book early to get the lowest cost flights.

An archipelago off the coast of Portugal, Madeira is a year-round sunshine destination. It offers beautiful beaches, rugged coastlines, volcanic caves and spectacular views. It’s brilliant for those who enjoy water sports as the island’s Atlantic location offers the perfect spot for diving, fishing, surfing, whale and dolphin spotting as well as one of Europe’s first underwater nature reserves on the Garajau coast line.

Miguel Perestrello, Director of the Portuguese National Tourist Office, said “Madeira is a fantastic holiday destination and we are delighted that the new flight route from Manchester will make the destination even more easily accessible for British customers based in the North West.”

Madeira’s capital, Funchal, provides a whole host of shopping opportunities as well as bustling squares and streets with many restaurants with fantastic local cuisine.

A range of flights to Madeira from London, Bristol and Edinburgh also already operate.

Passenger numbers totalled two million; and within this figure the number of travellers from overseas markets outside Europe increased by 22%.

The number of leisure passengers travelling between the UK and the continent went up by six per cent to 1.76 million.

New CEO Nicolas Petrovic said: “Whilst there is still uncertainty about the economic outlook, we have seen a big increase in leisure travel over the last three months, not just from the continent but from overseas markets.

“We are also seeing growing evidence of travellers wanting to switch from plane to high-speed train for longer, connecting journeys.

“Ensuring that our customers can enjoy seamless connections to other destinations on the continent is a key priority and we are committed to making that experience easy and efficient.”

 Eurostar shareholders (London & Continental Railways, SNCF and SNCB) have signed a ‘Framework Agreement’ enabling the final stages of the restructuring of the business into a single unified corporate entity to take place.

Eurostar is trialling a service with SNCF to allow passengers to travel between the UK and Provence, connecting via Lille, in specially reserved coaches on connecting TGVs.

Tickets for travel to Lyon and Marseille on connecting services are on sale for travel from 1st June with prices starting at £109 return to Lyon and £119 return to Marseille.

A new leisure loyalty programme, Eurostar Plus, has been introduced to provide cash-back to passengers. The scheme also offers earning points by booking travel for friends and family.

Travellers collect one point for every £1/1€ spent on travel booked via eurostar.com and receive a £20/20€ e-voucher for every 300 points collected for use to book future Eurostar travel.

Passengers must stand between two blue boxes so that the scanner can produce a ghostly, almost-naked image which should show up anything suspicious underneath people’s clothes. The increase in those who are willing to comply with the Manchester trial appears to have happened shortly after the Detroit airline bombing on Christmas day.

Privacy campaigners opposed the scanner earlier in the week, stating that the images amounted to ‘virtual strip-searching’ and called for safeguards to be put in place to protect passengers’ privacy. It has also been reported that some Muslim women are concerned about this exposure as many choose to dress modestly as part of their lives and may not be comfortable with this level of personal exposure. They are urging the airport to consider having women-only operators viewing the images of Muslim women.

Airport workers point out that images are not stored and are deleted within moments of the image being captured and checked; they also point out that the images are totally anonymous. The image is viewed in a separate room away from the passenger and the security staff standing with them.

The government is taking steps towards changing EU policy so that these scanners can become compulsory at airports. If this happens then Manchester airport alone would need 19 of the RapiScan machines which cost £80,000 each. A huge amount, but a necessary one to avoid events like 9/11 perhaps?

Eurostar picture by Flickr User OliverN5

Eurostar says services over Christmas and new year will not be affected by engineering work and the service is expected to operate normally.

As in previous years, services will be stopped earlier on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve and start later in the morning on 1st January.

No Eurostar services will be operating on Christmas Day.

Ski services to the French Alps (Moutiers, Aime la Plagne, Bourg St Maurice) from St Pancras International and Ashford International will start on 19th December (day service) and 1st January (night service).

Previous Eurostar blog articles can be found here.

Sir David, a former permanent secretary to the Department for Transport, added: “The new board will work with Gatwick’s management tram to drive Gatwick to a competitive future in its target market through more efficient operations and a relentless focus on customer service.”

Independent investment fund GIP, which controls London City Airport, expects to complete the acquisition of Gatwick in the first week of December.

See my previous blog on the sale of Gatwick here

The  so-called “grey” market makes up nearly two thirds of the 54% of people who have declared their holidays sacrosanct and decided to completely ignore the economic downturn.

“Eighty percent of the public sampled admit issues such as poor currency exchange rates and flight taxes won’t deter them. And of those people, the over-60s is the biggest grouping (84%). They are fitter and more adventurous and are not prepared to let a recession spoil their fun.” said WTM chairman Fiona Jeffery

This attitude is in stark contrast to the cash-strapped younger 16-24 age bracket. The forecast for them is overcast with gloomy stay-at-home prospects.  Meanwhile, the 25-40 category of travellers are having to scale down their holiday habits. If this year’s experience is anything to go by, there will be far less of them adding short breaks or second overseas trips to their coveted main summer time off.

Ryanair picture by Flickr User scot_w_9

Ryanair made its inaugural flight from London Stansted to Agadir in Morocco yesterday, following up new services from the airport to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. They are marking the inaugurals by giving away one million free seats on selected routes for travel across Europe.

The Agadir service will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the Gran Canaria flights will head out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Lanzarote service will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

“Ryanair will continue to grow as other airlines pull routes and reduce capacity. With passengers becoming increasingly price-sensitive, Ryanair will continue to expand so that even more passengers can take advantage of Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares and no fuel surcharges.” said Ryanair’s Laura McCormack.

The new server is based in Dublin and is powered by Amazon EC2. The set up enables us to scale our infrastructure more easily and better cope with changes in demand as the site grows.

Many thanks

Tom K

Firstly, you need to get yourself a Visa Electron debit card. Then, you book and check in on line using this card. If you use any other debit card or credit card they will charge a £4 booking fee for each person checked in. If you use the Electron card, it really is free (sorry if this sounds like a puff for Electron cards. I don’t get commission!) If you put in the card details, the ‘cost’ will come up as £0.00!

OK. You’ve got the card from your bank. Are there any other snags you need to know about before you start the booking process? Well, yes, there is a problem but it’s not too weighty. Quite light, actually. If you check in on line to get your free flight, you are only allowed to take hand luggage with you – that’s just 10kg in a holdall or cabin trolley bag. 

Can you travel that light? You probably can, though most people think they can’t. Remember that your villa or apartment will be equipped with a washing machine, towels, probably a hairdrier and possibly, toiletries. Books are often available, too (there are plenty in the flat I rent out, from Danielle Steele to Ian McEwan and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus DVDs and even Scrabble, if you get really desperate). 

If you pack enough clothes for three or four days, it should be possible to wash and re-wear them without a problem all holiday. If you’re mad on clothes and like variety this will be a nuisance. But just remember that all those people who go off on gap year trips travel light, and they don’t have a terrible time because they happen to be wearing the same clothes a lot.

For the beach and pool you don’t need much: swimwear, shorts/sarongs, a top or two and light sandals or pumps. Then you need a sightseeing/day-out outfit or two, and a couple of evening things. If you intend to go walking, wear trainers or walking boots during the journey, or the first bit of it at least. Wear your heavier layers for travelling. Tie extra things – jumpers, shirts – around your waist. Put on all the jewellery you’re taking. You may look a bit, well, ridiculous but does that matter? There are no laws against it and you are beating the system. Anyway,  once you’re through security you can stick them in your bag which should be expandable for this very reason.

Furthermore, if the villa or apartment does not provide books, you can buy them – after the security checks. You might have to leave them behind but remember, you’re still saving money.

How much money? If you take a suitcase, you won’t be able to check in on line and, apart from all the nuisance of the check in queue, you will have to pay £6 for your suitcase each way. And then they will clobber you for a £6 each way booking fee. So that free trip will then cost you, actually, £28 –  £56 for two of you, rather than £0.00 with an electron card and a squashable cabin bag each.

Final tip: take your own food. In-flight grub, as I’m sure you all know, is a ridiculous price (though, unfortunately, you can’t take your own drinks but have to buy them after security at the airport or on board).