Airport News Archive December 2008

13/12/2008

Lapland’s Largest ever Ice- Hotel
Igloo bedrooms in the hotel are decorated with intricate ice carvings and lit up with multi coloured lights. The hotel can cater for up to sixty guests per night, who will have to endure frosty temperatures between 32 to 23f  (0 to -5 c).  This is certainly not for the faint hearted, as guests must sleep on beds made out of blocks of ice!

Residents “igloo” rooms are supplied with sleeping bags, fleeces and instructions on how to survive the experience.

In the morning, hot berry juice is provided to help them warm up and thaw out.For less hardy travellers there are two “warm” subterranean rooms available.

It took a team of fifteen ice sculptors who spent three weeks building the hotel, using over a thousand lorry loads of snow.

This year an additional three rooms have been carved from ice, bringing the icy accommodation up to thirty suites.

The Ice Hotel is near Kittila in Finland, and also boasts an “ice bar”, restaurant and many beautiful ice sculptures. It has been built on a 7.5 square kilometre site, which has been used every winter for the last eight years. As the temperatures rise in the spring, the entire hotel will simply melt away.

The snow village designer Heini said, “ It seems that if we have a very cold autumn then the spring will be warm and the Snow Village will melt earlier.

“But, as like this year, our spring should be colder, so hopefully we’ll be taking guests until April next year.

There are many available flights to Finland including Birmingham airport, Manchester airport, Edinburgh airport , Newcastle airport and Bristol Airport.

The three main carriers are Finnair, SAS and Lufthansa.

12.11.2008

Aer Lingus has rejected Ryanairs latest takeover bid
Ryanair offered €1.40 (£1.18) a share for its rival, valuing Aer Lingus at €748 million (£635 million), half what the no-frills carrier offered with its previous bid in 2006.

A spokesperson for Aer Lingus commented "The board rejects this new offer and Aer Lingus shareholders are strongly advised to take no action in relation to the offer.
"Aer Lingus remains a strong business with significant cash reserves and a robust long-term future. The board believes that the offer significantly undervalues Aer Lingus."
Ryanair said it would operate Aer Lingus as a separate company, with its own brand and its own management and staff. It also said it would guarantee the slots at Heathrow Airport for flights to Cork and Dublin.

The government which owns more than 25% of the loss making Aer Lingus opposed Ryanair’s 2006 bid which was blocked by the European Union on the grounds of competition. A senior government figure has stated that there is now a lot less interest in the airline.

Ryanair already owns 30% of Aer Lingus, has stated that it will create 1,000 jobs and give the government full control over Aer Lingus’s valuable landing slots at Heathrow Airport.

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary says his offer is a lifeline for Aer Lingus, which is expected to announce operating losses this year and next due to the deepening recession.

“ We are the white knight here. We’re the only solution the government and Aer Lingus have to securing Aer Lingus’ future” he quoted.

The only other airline thought to be interested in buying Aer Lingus is Air France-KLM. The European giant already owns Irish business specialist CityJet.

12.11.2008

Chaos at Stansted Airport
Protestors yesterday invaded the runway at Stansted Airport leaving passengers with three days of delays. Armed police were called in to restore order after passengers surrounded check-in desks demanding information about cancelled flights, thought to be around 150.

Ryanair customers were advised to re-book on line and advised that there would be limited services well into the week as the airline had already cancelled 52 flights.

Many other flights were delayed for hours and other airlines caught up in the disruption. The protest was the work of a group called Plane Stupid who seeks to highlight government “hypocrisy” over granting permission to build a new runway at Stansted Airport, whilst claiming to reduce CO2 emissions.

Activists arrived in an old fire engine, and cut through the perimeter fencing while the airport was closed for maintenance work. More than fifty of them chained themselves to security fencing and it took Essex Police more than 5 hours to remove the protestors and 57 were arrested.

The airport has been criticised by Ryanair, who have asked BAA and for am immediate investigation into the incident.

Stephen McNamara who is head of communications for Ryanair commented “ There’s three very important questions that need to be answered here by BAA and Stansted. They are – exactly why were protestors able to breach security at 3am in the morning, why did it take over 5 hours to remove them from the taxi-way, and why as a result of this, thousands of passengers had their travel plans disrupted by what we see as just the latest management failure at Stansted Airport”.

Joss Garman who is the grandson of a British Airways pilot founded “Plane Stupid” three years ago. Most of its members are students.

We recommend you book your Stansted airport parking or Stansted hotel parking well in advance

8.12.2008
Worst delays for Holidaymakers in eight years
According to the Civil Aviation Authority only 59% of charter services either arrived or departed on time, which represented a seven percentage point decline on the same period last year.

Whilst these are not the worst figures, the performance showed that the gap between scheduled and charter services has been widening over the past year.

In 2007 there was little to choose between them , especially with Heathrow having a dismal year and being constantly criticised by politicians and business leaders for the misery it inflicted on its passengers.

As punctuality worsened for charter flights regular scheduled services markedly improved with 70 per cent operating on time. This was four percentage poinrs better than in the same period last year.

Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport showed a six per cent point improvement while London City was fiver percentage points improved.

It is believed that part of this improvement is down to the breathing space that some airports experienced as a result of some flights being dropped by airlines hit by fallinf demand and escalating oil prices.

The collapse of several carriers also freed up space, especially at Gatwick Airport where Zoom XL and Oasis went into administration.

Stansted |Airport which lost two specialist transatlantic carriers, Maxjet and Eos- was also able to show a five per cent improvement on punctuality compared to the previous years figures.

Manchester Airport, which is not owned by BAA performed far better with 74 % if their scheduled services running within the 15 minutes allotted arrival and departure times.

5.12.2008
Tui reduces holiday packages
The owners of First Choice and Thomson tour operators, Tui Travel have announced that it is cutting numbers of holidays for summer 2009 by close to a  third.

Tui is expecting demand for holidays to be greatly reduced next year due to the present economic climate. Main factors include future unemployment, lack of customer confidence and the weakness of the pound against the euro.

The capacity reduction emulates cuts at the UK market leader, Thomas Cook, which revealed at the end of September will have 15% less holidays on its books for 2009 than it did in 2007. Both companies have stated that they will make additional cuts if need be.

Travel experts have predicted that the biggest casualties will be Thomsonfly’s scheduled short-haul flights which have to compete with no frills group airlines, and on budget deals in the major tourist resorts, especially the Spanish Costas.

A spokesperson for Tui Stated “ In the UK , we are continuing to focus on managing our capacity in anticipation of a weaker earlier booking environment.

By reducing capacity they are hoping to protect margins although cheaper holidays are expected to tempt holidaymakers. For cheaper airport parking and airport hotels with parking.

Gatwick Airport launches new Skills Centre
Laura Moffat yesterday opened the new Gatwick Skills Centre facilities at Gatwick Airport.The skills centre was originally opened in January 2006, and is a joint venture between Gatwick Airport Limited and Central Sussex Council. It provides cost effective training and skills development for businesses at Gatwick Airport.

The centre has proved to be so successful that a programme for expansion was approved in October 2007 to cope with growing demand. The “Landing Zone” was opened in March 2008, which provides areas of opportunity to attract new learners and IT facilities for online training.

The following expansion stage was the development of new accommodation on the ground floor of Ashdown House, including two new training rooms, office space and break-out and job search areas.

Laura Moffat MP commented “ Gatwick Airport is in the heart of our community, and people are at the heart of Gatwick. Providing training and development to ensure we have the right skills at the airport today, and for the future, the Skills Centre underpins Gatwick’s commitment to be a great place to work as well as a vital contributor to the local, regional and national economy”

The new facilities will provide vital accommodation for the ever growing numbers of potential staff, joining the 650 who have already benefited from the Skills Centre.

A new agreement was signed by Gatwick Airport Limited and central Sussex College to run the centre for the next five years.

Remeber to book your Gatwick airport parking or Gatwick hotel parking early to benefit from great savings

4.12.2008
Easy Jet postpones Airbus orders
Easy jet has delayed orders from Airbus Due to the present  downturn in the aviation and tourism market. The Luton Airport based airline which carries more passengers from the west that any other company, and is the biggest operator at Bristol Airport, has delayed the planned 2010 delivery of four Airbus A320 family jets.

With EasyJet  forecast to take on 109 Airbus planes over the next four years more delays could possibly be on the way. When asked if the airline would be postponing the arrival of more aircraft, a spokesman said “It is a decision that is taken every 4 months. Four is the number that has been decided now. There won’t be any further news until the first-quarter results”.

Chief Executive Andy Harrison said “Unlike many of our competitors our Airbus contract provides us with a flexible approach to fleet growth, which we intend to make full use of in such uncertain economic conditions.

EasyJet also said it would keep the remainder of the orders under review revealing that it could exercise its options to delay up to half of the orders by up to two years, provided it gives 18 months notice.

The Airbus orders form part of the airlines strategy of updating its fleet of around 165 aircraft to achieve maximum fuel efficiency, bringing down transport costs and aviation taxes.

EasyJet aim to withdraw 11 larger planes from service and 12 Boeings but stated that they were having problems selling the surplus aircraft because of the lack of credit available to potential buyers.

If they cannot offload some of the older planes this may well lead to deferment on the new Airbus craft. EasyJet’s decision to delay the four aircraft coincides with the announcement that their profits were down 45 per cent to £110 million in the year to September 30th

3.12.2008

Re-introduction of Saudi flights from Heathrow
British Airways has announced that from March 29th 2009 it is to re-commence its flights from Heathrow Airport to Saudi Arabia.

Tickets went on sale on Wednesday, November 26th, and the airline has stated that it will fly 5 times a week from Terminal 5 to the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah.

Commenting on the return of the routes, a spokesman from British Airways commented “ We are able to restart flights because the aviation market between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalised.”

Flights between Heathrow Airport and Saudi Arabia were suspended in March 2005 due to commercial performance.

A Boeing 767 will operate between Heathrow and Jeddah, whilst the route between Heathrow and Riyadh will be serviced by a Boeing 777.

BMI have also recently announced that it would double the number of flights to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh from January 15th next year, increasing their number of services to the city from three to six a week.

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Gatwick Airport auction commences
It has been announced that BAA, the airports group, will formally commence the £2 billion auction for Gatwick Airport this week when it issues the sales prospectus to potential bidders.

There are already two major bidding consortiums in the picture, one headed by Canadian group Vancouver Airports Authority and the other by Virgin Atlantic.

During the coming three weeks, the Competition Commission will publish its proposed suggestions for ending what it calls BAA’s monopoly in the south east and Scotland.

In August the commission inferred that BAA would have to sell two of its airports in the south east and one in Scotland.

BAA, led by Colin Matthews accepts that Gatwick will be sold but there would be fierce opposition against the commissions’ plans to force it to offload Stansted.

Virgin Atlantic has allied with Manchester Airports Group and is amid financing talks with Goldman Sachs.

It is also reported that budget airline Easyjet is interested in signing a revenue-sharing agreement.

The main rival consortium at present is the trio of the Vancouver Group, Citigroup infrastructure fund and US financial services group, John Hancock.

This latter consortium recently agreed to purchase Chicago’s Midway Airport, but may pull out if it undermines their financial position in the acquisition of Gatwick Airport.For more information about Gatwick airport.

First round bids are due after Christmas

Airlines blame BAA for the desperate shortage of airport capacity, especially in the south east, claiming its exclusivity has given it little incentive in pursuing expansion plans more rigorously.

BAA retaliated by blaming tight planning restrictions. For cheap Gatwick Parking or Gatwick hotels

2.12.2009

Edinburgh airport runway completed ahead of schedule
A £16 million project to resurface the runway at Edinburgh Airport has been completed within budget and ahead of schedule it has been announced.

Initial work on the runway started in April this year, and was not due for completion until the end of November but the newly resurfaced runway is already fully functional.

Over an eight month period, 25,000 tonnes of asphalt were laid, and some 1,000 new runway safety lights were replaced in an effort to prolong the life of the runway for an extra fifteen years.

Re-surfacing work last took place in 1991.

Airport Managing Director Gordon Dewar commented “ This has been a complex and challenging project, involving a number of organisations and many hundreds of airport workers”

He also added “ I am delighted that, working together. We have completed the resurfacing work on time, and on budget.”

Edinburgh Airport serves an estimated nine million passengers every year.To book Edinburgh airport parking or Edinburgh airport hotels online.

1.12.2009
Criticism of awards by Ryanair for Manchester Airport and Heathrow airport
Budget Airline Ryanair has today completely disagreed with the decision to award Manchester Airport a silver medal at an awards ceremony. Ryanair have conveyed their views by issuing a statement  saying that they should have not won the medal at the Recent Travel Awards ceremony, due to falling passenger numbers.

Dublin based Ryanair, which today announced its bid for competitors Aer Lingus, and is known for its controversial comments, also questioned Heathrow Airport’s award for best airport, citing the debacle over the loss of passenger bags and flight cancellations.

The airline however made no other comment about the airport, which, along with other regional airports has suffered a significant fall in passenger numbers in 2008.

Head of sales and marketing at Ryanair, Lesley Kane stated “ How can Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport be recognised as the best UK airports for 2008?. In March this year Heathrow Terminal 5 opened with the cancellation of over 700 flights and the loss of over 28,000 bags, clearly not the signs of an award winning airport.

She also commented “ The runner up award went to Manchester Airport, an airport with declining passenger traffic and job losses on the horizon. Taking these facts into account, it’s ludicrous to give Heathrow and Manchester any kind of award apart from booby prize”.

Ryanair stated that its reference to job losses related to Servisair’s announcement earlier this year that 180 jobs are to be cut at Manchester which was first revealed by Crains.

The airline flies to nine destinations from Manchester Airport and increased its offering significantly earlier this year. Passenger numbers for the financial year to date are down some five per cent that equates to approximately 747,000 passengers in the past seven months.

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