p5 nov7 5/11/08 20:54 Page 5
ttglive.com
news
In brief
■ Canvey Travel and Flight Masters go bust
Abta members Canvey Travel and Flight Masters
ceased trading last week. Retail agent and
Advantage member Canvey, based on Canvey
Island, Essex, had 90 forward bookings. Bolton-
based tour operator and agent Flight Masters
had 40 forward bookings and was an Atol holder.
■ BMI axes long-haul services from Manchester
BMI is pulling long-haul services from Manchester
in the new year, saying the routes were
“under-performing” and it wanted to concentrate
on Heathrow. The airline will pull its Chicago
service on January 14, with flights to Las Vegas,
P
A Photos
Barbados and Antigua being stopped after Easter. SALES DRIVE: Page & Moy was first off the grid to offer motor racing packages for those
wanting to see new Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton in action in 2009. It is
■ Singapore Airlines trims surcharges offering prices from £549, including flights, with race entrance tickets priced separately.
Singapore Airlines is lowering fuel surcharges
on all routes from today. For flights between
Singapore and Europe, the surcharge will fall
from $110 in all classes to $105 in business and
$95 in economy. It will stay at $110 in first class.
Obama’s pledge is a
■ Stansted faces expansion questions
The Competition Commission has questioned the
need for a second runway at Stansted. And it has
forced the airport to stop including estimates
threat to open skies
for the construction costs in figures it uses to
calculate charges on airlines for the next five
Chris Gray.
said it was “more imperative than
years, saying economic conditions made it BARACK Obama’s US election victory could ever” the EU “stuck to its guns”
C
difficult to estimate passenger numbers. scupper the open-skies agreement liberalising and either ensured the US
O
aviation between Europe and the US. honoured the second phase or
STO
VER
R
■ Thomson Cruises ditches Liverpool plan His victory is expected to give a major boost triggered the mechanism to scrap
Y
Thomson Cruises has dropped plans to operate a to tourism to America, but could threaten an the first.
cruise programme from Liverpool after the council agreement that ended some restrictions from A BA spokeswoman said: “Genuine
denied it permission to base a ship permanently March this year. liberalisation of the aviation industry would
there. The line had hoped to base Thomson Phase two of Open Skies is set to end bring significant customer benefits.”
Celebration at the new cruise terminal. The plans restrictions on foreign ownership of US carriers, Meanwhile, the travel industry is set to
would have seen 50,000 passengers a year use but Obama has pledged to maintain the existing capitalise on a surge of interest in the US in the
Liverpool and been worth £4.5 million in port fees. limit of up 49%. wake of Obama’s victory.
If the agreement did collapse, it could force US Some operators sprang into action the morn-
■ Gold Medal’s Lomax switches to Travel TV airlines out of Heathrow, reduce transatlantic ing after the election. Guy Novik, chief executive
Gold Medal business development director competition and push up fares. of USAirtours, doubled online marketing spend
Martin Lomax is moving full time to Travel TV to The deal allowed Continental and other US for the week. He has included Obama’s campaign
be sales and marketing director. Lomax has been carriers into Heathrow and British Airways to “yes we can” slogan in promotions and said the vic-
working closely with Travel TV to promote it to set up its OpenSkies subsidiary flying between tory would “relaunch the US brand worldwide”.
the trade and secure new content. A total of Amsterdam, Paris and New York. Visit USA chief operating officer Alan Waddell
300 agents have signed up to have Travel TV It is due to be followed in 2010 by the second said: “Europe has embraced Obama so it has to
screens in their shops. phase, allowing foreign companies to take help tourism to the US, particularly from the UK.”
controlling stakes in US airlines and operate Waddell said the US was on course for a record
■ British Airways hangs up on trade helpline domestically. Blocking this could see the original 4.8 million UK visitors in 2008.
British Airways is scrapping its phone trade sup- deal torn up too. Visit USA will brief members about the
port weekend service from December 1. It said European airlines such as Virgin Atlantic felt expected boost to the country’s tourism at WTM.
the volume of calls did not justify retaining it. phase one was biased towards the US but Kenya is also set to benefit, and Somak has
supported it on the understanding that phase added tours covering Obama’s father’s birthplace.
ttglive.com
For the latest news, reviews and comment
two would take place.
from the travel industry, visit
ttglive.com Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway ■ Steve Ridgway interview, p42
07.11.2008 05
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108