Skyparksecure Travel Blog - THE TRAVEL BLOG by Skyparksecure

Two UK airlines have cancelled all flights in and out of Libya as Britons are being advised to leave the strife-torn country.

British Airways and British Midland International both scrapped their service to the capital Tripoli on Tuesday. Others are thought to have followed suit. Almost 90 per cent of the 3,500 Britons who currently reside in Libya are thought to have already left the country.

The Foreign Office said it was looking at chartering an aircraft for Britons unable to get a commercial flight home. Meanwhile Italy, Greece and the Netherlands are sending transport planes to Libya to get their citizens out. Austria and Portugal have already done so.

The airport operator BAA managed to shake off the effects of the volcanic ash cloud and snow to post much reduced losses last year.

The pre-tax loss at BAA fell from £821.9m in 2009 to £317m last year. Revenues rose 5 per cent to £2bn, reflecting the increased tariffs.

Colin Matthews, BAA’s chief executive, backed the “robust” performance, adding that “strong passenger growth at Heathrow in the second half of the year reflected the ongoing improvement in the global economic climate”.

BAA, who sold Gatwick airport in December 2009, raised £2bn in new financing last year as it intended to invest in Heathrow, including an overhaul of Terminal 2.

Mr Matthews was enthusiastic over the company’s future prospects. He said: “In 2011, we expect to deliver a strong increase in profits and cash flow, enabling us to make further investments in improving facilities and further strengthening our financial position.”

The threat of a strike by ground staff looms over London City airport as union leaders meet this week to discuss balloting members.

Workers at the Docklands airport are unhappy with current pay and conditions offered by management.

GMB executives will debate initiating a ballot this week after a poll showed 97% of members were in favour of putting the decision on whether to strike to a vote.

Airport operator BAA says it is pleased with rising traffic volumes being handled by Southampton Airport, which enjoyed a six per cent rise in the number of flights in January compared with the previous January.

The figure was up by 8.9 per cent at Heathrow. Air cargo was particularly strong there, suggesting a recovery in the manufacturing and export sectors.

Figures for the numbers of passengers were also positive for Southampton. January passenger figures there were 4.8 per cent higher than the previous January – though this was as much as two per cent down taking into account that the previous January was artificially low because of the snow that month.

Heathrow, meanwhile, recorded an increase of 4.6 per cent, half of which is attributed to the bad weather in January 2010. This was Heathrow’s strongest ever January long-haul performance.

Stansted had a reduction in both traffic and passenger numbers.

A total of 2.9 million passengers passed through the airport during January 2011, an increase of 11.8% on the same period last year. However this rise in passenger numbers can be put down to the snow and weather conditions hindering passenger numbers during the previous January.

Gatwick’s chief executive Stewart Wingate said: “We are delighted to be seeing increased volumes from our existing carriers.

“Only last week, British Airways announced it is to move its high-end, leisure route to Mauritius from Heathrow to Gatwick, and we are equally delighted to welcome a new airline to Gatwick – airberlin – which is now operating twice-daily services to Hanover and Nuremberg.”

You may not have noticed but fog has been sweeping across Britain recently and just like the snow and ash it’s affecting the airports.

Currently most of the major appointments are suffering disruptions at the moment.

We advise all clients to check with their airline for any possible disruptions to their flights and to ensure they leave plenty of time before leaving to reach the airport.

Please visit the site below for more information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/air/

Be safe.

Southampton was the worst hit of BAA’s airports during December’s snow disruption, it has emerged. It had a 22% reduction in passenger numbers compared with the previous December, a figure far higher than the average reduction of 10% across all airports.

Heathrow passenger numbers were down 9.5% and Stansted fell 10.9%.

The company estimates the snow cost it £24m, a Company spokesman said “The reductions were almost entirely due to the weather, said the company. Had it not been for the weather, passenger numbers would have stayed about the same as the previous year.”

For the year as a whole, BAA handled 103.9m passengers, a drop of 2.8% on 2009. At Southampton, numbers were down 3.2%, Stansted down seven per cent and Heathrow down 0.2%.

If it had not been for the weather, strikes and the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, there would have been an overall yearly 0.6% increase in passengers, BAA said. Heathrow in particular did well, experiencing record totals in all of the months from July to November.

Newcastle Airport was forced to run off emergency generators Thursday morning as a power failure left more than 7000 properties in the area without electricity. Fortunately Newcastle Airport said the loss of power has not affected passenger services at the Airport.

Power Company CE Electric said it was investigating the incident, which happened at about 0500 GMT on Thursday. Affected postcodes were NE3, NE5, NE13 and NE20 with the largest number of properties hit around the Darras Hall and Ponteland areas.

A spokesman described the incident as a “high voltage fault.”

Tyne and Wear Metro services to the airport were suspended for a time, but are now running normally.

Britain is looking into the possibility of passing law that will make it possible to fine airports that fail to make adequate preparations due to issues like bad weather resulting in travel disruptions. The move comes after tens of thousands of Christmas travelers were left stranded when major Airports across the UK, including heathrow, were closed due to snow. If approved, these new penalites will affect the busiest airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond says that it’s unacceptable no punishment from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has been handed down on BAA, the owner of Heathrow. There should be an economic penalty for their failure to serve, he continued, and their performance and passenger satisfaction ratings should carry more weight.

Ministers are now considering a new bill on airport economic regulation, which would give regulators more power to impose fines on airports for a wider range of failures of service. Under the existing system, the CAA can impose fines for failures such as cleanliness and passenger queues at security checkpoints. The maximum penalty they can impose for these failures is 7% on airport charges, which could end up being as much as £63 million.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said ” the government is committed to reforming the regulation of airports, and passengers are being put at the very heart of how they are run. This will mean primary legislation is required”