News Archive

Mobile phones allowed on planes in Europe.

Passengers will be able to make calls on mobile phones on aircraft flying in Europe thanks to new legislation from the European Commission.

The EC says it has responded to demand from air travellers who want to be able to use their mobile phones during flights, as well as from the telecoms industry which would like to be able to cater for this demand.

Airport delays boost ferry travel.

The Port of Dover has benefited from problems at UK airports to record an increase in passengers using ferries to travel on holiday.

The Port says that tourist car journeys were up 7.2% last year to almost 2.84 million, the highest figure since 1999. In addition four million coach passengers travelling on 105,000 coaches used the Port of Dover.

The Port of Dover is one of the world's busiest international ferry ports and is used by a number of ferry operators including P&O, SeaFrance, Norfolk Line and Speedferries offering sailings to Calais or Boulogne in France.

Dover is also the second busiest cruise port in the UK after the port of Southampton. Last year 132 cruise ships carrying almost 212,000 passengers used the port, generating £3.8 million of income. Cruise lines sailing from Dover include Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), MSC Cruises, Hurtigruten, Swan Hellenic, Crystal, Fred Olsen, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Saga.

Heathrow - Terminal 5.

The new Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow airport was hit by new baggage chaos yesterday as a computer glitch forced British Airways to cancel 24 short-haul flights.

 "A software problem had arisen in the baggage system at Terminal 5. This is entirely BAA's responsibility," a spokeswoman for airport operator BAA Ltd said.

In a statement explaining the cancellations, British Airways said: "We are now having to manually reconcile bags for each flight, which takes considerably more time than using the automated system."

The 4.3-billion-pound (8.7-billion- U.S. dollar) terminal, used solely by British Airways, has become a public relations disaster, with computers, baggage handling systems, lifts and telephone wires meeting with problems shortly after it opened on March 27.

The airline said last week that it expected the chaotic opening of T5 to cost it about 16 million pounds (some 32 million U.S. dollars).

Low fares airline expands in France.

Budget airline easyJet is expanding in France as it opens a new base at Lyon airport and launches new flights to destinations including Venice, Marrakech and Lisbon.

The low cost airline says it is investing €600m over a four year period to strengthen its position as the largest low fares airline in France. In February easyJet opened another base in France, at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, and it has ambitious plans to double the number of passengers it carries in France from 6 million in 2007 to 12 million in 2011.

Monarch Airlines celebrates 40 years.

Low fares airline Monarch Airlines is celebrating 40 years in business this weekend with a special flight from Luton airport to the popular Mediterranean island of Menorca.

Monarch claims to be the longest established airline brand still trading and flying under the same name in the UK. The airline was formed in 1968 when Monarch Airlines was launched following a collaboration between Airline Engineering Ltd (now Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd) and Cosmos. The airline's first commercial flight was on 5 April 1968 when flight OM118 departed from Luton airport bound for Madrid.