British Airways, BAA and UKinbound have united with ABTA to endorse the Fair Tax on Flying campaign launched today.

They are calling on Chancellor George Osborne to abandon plans for further rises in aviation tax, which has increased 26-fold since its 1994 introduction.

In an open letter to the Chancellor, the campaigners point out that UK has the highest levels of aviation tax in Europe. Denmark, Sweden, Malta and the Netherlands have axed aviation taxes.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “When it comes to the future of tourism in the UK, the Government’s words and deeds simply do not match up. The Prime Minister has identified tourism as one of the top five industries to drive growth, yet aviation tax has become a punitive stealth tax.

“It is vital that the Government understands the impact it is having on the health of the tourism industry in the UK. The industry is willing to pay its way, but a 26-fold increase since 1994 puts the UK at a competitive disadvantage when compared with our European neighbours and punishes UK holidaymakers and business travellers unfairly.

“Air passenger numbers have decreased by 22% since 2007 when the tax was last increased, and increasing it yet further will cause significant strain on hard-pressed family budgets and hamper the UK economy’s growth.”

British Airways chief executive Keith Williams said: “We recognise the exceptional difficulty of the country’s fiscal position and we are content to pay our fair share. But the UK airline industry is already the most heavily taxed in the world and any further tax burden will be counterproductive to the country’s economic recovery.”

UKinbound chief executive Mary Rance said: “We feel that it is vital for UKinbound to join forces with colleagues in the inbound and indeed outbound industries to stand united against this damaging tax, which only works to make the UK uncompetitive and unattractive as a destination.

“It acts directly against the wider objective of making the UK one of the top five tourism countries and is certainly a barrier to growth in inbound tourism, the third largest export industry to the UK. Our contribution to the UK economy could be even greater with a fairer tax on aviation.”

The campaign includes a new site on Facebook, afairtaxonflying, inviting members of the public to sign up.

The Kuoni Holiday Report 2011 shows some amusing regional variations in behaviour of Brits abroad. The report looked at behaviour before, during and after a holiday, including eating and spending preferences, manners, etiquette, holiday romance and sexual habits.

It turns out that Liverpudlians have more sex on holiday, Londoners most dislike body odour, Sheffield holidaymakers buy the most new clothes for their holidays, child-free couples worry about litter and Brummies abstain from drinking alcohol.

Despite the regional variations, the research found most holidaymakers changed their behaviour when away from home and not neccesarily for the best as they eat less healthily, exercise less, drink more, spend more and dress more provocatively. It is a holiday from the everyday though, so it isn’t surprising!

Shorter, quicker and less environmentally damaging flights should be the result of a new agreement between Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland to jointly manage their air space. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has praised the European Commission for this new step towards the long-delayed Single European Sky plan.

Until now, European airspace has been divided into 27 different areas under the control of national governments. This has forced airlines to zig-zag between the different airspaces and military exclusion zones, flying longer routes than necessary, increasing emissions and costs for operators and sometimes even jeopardizing safety.

Diagram courtesy of Lufthansa

The EU ‘Single European Sky’ (SES) initiative was launched in 1999 to create a single European air navigation system by setting up nine Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs). Two have already been agreed – UK/Ireland and Denmark/Sweden – and the new central European FAB is the third and most important, as 55 per cent of all flights in Europe pass through this block.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said he hoped the new agreement will be “an inspiration for the other member states in their efforts to have all the functional airspace blocks in place by the deadline of 4 December 2012.”

The six FABs still to be set up include the ‘Blue Med’ group which will gather together Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta along with associates Tunisia, Egypt and Albania as well as Jordan and Lebanon as observers.

Despite the current financial crisis, air traffic in Europe is expected to double by 2030, increasing from the current level of 10 million flights to 20.4 million flights per year.

There’s a new reason for visiting Florida, especially if you have young Harry Potter fans in tow. Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando has just opened its newest, grandest and most ambitious addition: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The Wizarding World is full of sights from the Potter universe. Rides including Dragon Challenge, Flight of the Hippogriff and the Forbidden Journey promise to bring thrills to guests of all ages, while sights like Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Hagrid’s Hut and Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods will delight Potter fans.

If that list of whimsical flights of fancy leaves you cold, flight search website Skyscanner is trying to drum up business with a list of alternative wizard venues. Starting with New Zealand, used as the setting when JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed. With unrivalled vistas and great natural beauty, it’s the perfect setting for the wizard Gandalf to bestride Middle Earth. Tolkien fans continue to catch flights to New Zealand to experience the world of hobbits, elves and orcs for themselves.

Orcs no good? Then there’s always the Wizard of Oz, in Kansas, USA. In 1900, L. Frank Baum described the adventures of one Dorothy Gale, a young girl who is whisked away by a tornado, ending up in the Land of Oz. Befriending a talking scarecrow, a cowardly lion and a tin man, she journeyed to visit The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and get back home to Kansas, where today fans can visit the Oz Museum which holds masses of memorabilia from the books, films and musicals.

Possibly even more magical, if you’re a basketball fan, would be a visit to the Washington Wizards in Washington, DC. Based in the capital city’s Verizon Center, this professional basketball team had a genuine wizard of the court play for them in the form of superstar Michael Jordan from 2001 to 2003. They still fill their arena for every game and their skill and showmanship make for an unforgettable experience. Or so they say.

Closer to home is Parc Asterix, a theme-park 22 miles north of Paris that’s based on the world of cartoon character Asterix. There you can meet the wizard, a member of Goscinny and Uderzo’s tribe of rebellious Gaul warriors who comically torment Julius Caesar’s legions in ancient France. Getafix is a potion-concocting druid who can prepare an elixir that grants superhuman strength to those who drink it.

It’s been a week dominated by flights news — and by one airline in particular, Ryanair.

First, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary suggested that costs could be cut by getting rid of the second pilot on flights. It’s been dismissed as another attempt to get column inches, though – a bit like his earlier attempt to charge customers for using the toilets on Ryanair flights.

Also this week, Easyjet stepped in to offer £10 flights to Ryanair customers stranded in Belfast. And French workers began a national strike which may affect flights between France and England.

In an attempt to avert the predicted chaos that the possible BA cabin crew strikes later this summer could cause, British Airways has thrown itself into a huge recruitment programme.

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.

Eurostar clocked up improved sales revenue of £178 million in the first three months of the year. The figure was up more than five per cent from the same period in 2009.

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.

The number of people agreeing to have their bodies scanned by the full-body scanner being trialled at Manchester airport has risen from 72% to 92%, airport authorities have reported.

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.