ARCHIVE: TRAVEL NEWS JAN-MAR 2005

The Hilton Family of Hotels (which includes the Hilton, Conrad, and Doubletree brands) conducted a survey this month among 1,000 American travellers about hotel alarm clocks and found widespread unease about setting wake-up alarms and their reliability.

More than half of business travellers (57%) have worried about sleeping past their alarm, and only one in five respondents (18%) actually trust a hotel alarm clock to wake them up in the morning. In fact, millions of Americans consider setting a hotel alarm clock to be the most complicated task versus filing their taxes or programming their VCR.

The survey also revealed that 41 percent of respondents would rather wake up to music instead of a buzzer (39%) or nature sounds (11%). More women (45%) than men (37%) prefer to wake up to music.

By great co-incidence Hilton have designed a new easy-to-set alarm clock which will be making its debut in some of Hilton's USA brands. Over the next four months nearly 250,000 new clocks will be phased in to all existing and newly opened Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hampton Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Grand Vacations Club, and Homewood Suites by Hilton guest rooms in the USA.

The new clock requires just three steps (also printed on the front of the clock) to set the alarm: 1. Press Alarm Set; 2. Indicate Alarm Time preferred by using increase or decrease buttons; 3. Press Enter. Additional features include:

• Four pre-set buttons for local radio stations designated by a graphic of the music type
• Connection cable for use with guest's personal MP3 player, portable CD player, laptop and other entertainment devices
• Automatic daily alarm time reset, preventing an alarm set by a previous guest from repeating

Operationally, the hotel staff sets the time zone information only once (the clock arrives with time and calendar pre-set by the manufacturer) and the clocks automatically adjust one hour ahead for Daylight Savings Time and back to Standard Time, and adjust for Leap Year.

Flybe will launch the first of nine new routes from Birmingham International Airport this weekend when the airline summer schedules start.

The new routes to France, Spain and Portugal mean that flybe will now be operating 18 routes from the midlands region, eight more than last year. The airline expects a 45% increase in passenger traffic, network wide, over the Easter weekend and has added a total of 31 new routes nationwide for summer 2005.

The new services from Birmingham are:

• Alicante starting 27th March, with fares from £29 one way
• Almeria starting 29th March from £39 one way
• Bergerac starting 28th March from £44 one way
• Brest starting 24th March from £34 one way
• Faro starting 28th March from £49 one way
• La Rochelle starting 28th March from £29 one way
• Malaga starting 27th March from £39 one way
• Murcia starting 27th March from £39 one way
• Palma starting 27th March from £39 one way

P&O Cruises, took delivery of their latest ship, Arcadia, yesterday.

Now that ownership of the 83,000-tonne cruise ship has been transferred from Fincantieri shipyard to P&O Cruises the ship will be prepared to sail from Venice for her home port of Southampton on 30 March. She will arrive in Southampton on 6 April and be named by Dame Kelly Holmes at a ceremony on 12 April before embarking on her maiden voyage two days later.

Arcadia will be a child-free ship. She features an extensive spa with a thermal suite and hydrotherapy pool, three-tier theatre, multi-million pound art collection, 12 bars and six dining options including Arcadian Rhodes, a restaurant developed for P&O Cruises by chef Gary Rhodes. Carrying 1952 passengers and a complement of 880 crew, she will sail to the destinations in the Mediterranean, Atlantic Isles, Baltic, Norwegian Fjords, USA, Caribbean and Central America.

A report from the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) published today is critical of the way airlines are adding extra charges to advertised fares.

The report says that taxes, fees and charges (TFCs) quoted by airlines at the end of the booking process include items such as Air Passenger Duty, local airport taxes, passenger service charges, and fuel, security, insurance and even wheelchair surcharges.

These charges, the report says, are quoted separately to the base fare and are usually added at the end of the process, after the flight has been selected. Not only does the passenger end up paying more than they expected - on some routes TFCs account for over 50% of the overall cost - but with different airlines including or excluding different TFCs in their advertised fares and often failing to itemise them, there is no benchmark for fares to be compared to each other.

In the most extreme cases the report cites a bmi fare of £55.90 for Heathrow to Paris CDG of which 39.90 (71%) was made up of TFCs, and a Flybe fare from Edinburgh to Birmingham of £34, of which £33.10 (97%) was TFCs.

Worringly, the AUC's research shows that the amount of TFCs quoted by airlines on their websites has risen considerably over recent years. However they applaud easyJet who against the trend have been steady reducing the amount of TFCs in their fares.

The company that runs the former Cunard liner Queen Mary, now a permanently landlocked hotel/attraction in Long Beach, California, has gone bust.

The ship, which is actually owned by the city of Long Beach, has been moored there since 1967. On Tuesday the operating company, Queen's Seaport Development Inc., filed for 'Chapter 11' bankruptcy status, which fends off creditors allowing a company to work its way back to a secure financial position.

All British Airways passengers can now check-in for their flights online 24 hours before departure, enabling them to choose their seat and, on selected routes, print their own boarding cards. Previously only members of the British Airways Executive Club were able to use this facility 24 hours prior to departure.

Online check-in is now available on over 95% of the airline's routes. Customers can choose their seat from an interactive map of the cabin. They can also change their seat number, if they wish to sit next to a friend or colleague, who has booked at a different time. Once at the airport, customers can save time by collecting their boarding card from a self-service kiosk. Passengers with bags to check-in, can use the fast baggage drop facility.

On selected routes, customers can print their own boarding cards at home or in the office. The boarding pass can be printed on plain paper and has a unique barcode containing all the passenger's relevant flight details. It enables passengers with hand baggage only to go straight to security, by-passing the need to go to a check-in desk or self-service kiosk.

Online boarding cards are now accepted at 39 airports across Europe and Canada, including all domestic flights from Heathrow.

Simon Parks-Smith, British Airways head of product management, said: "Online boarding cards have proved very popular with our customers and we aim to roll them out across all of Europe and many other long haul destinations."

Double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes is to name Arcadia, the latest addition to the P&O Cruises fleet. She will become Arcadia’s official Godmother at a naming ceremony to be held in Southampton on 12 April 2005.

P&O say that Dame Kelly will perform the customary champagne naming, but the company will certainly be hoping to avoid the technical glitch that saw Princess Anne's bottle of champagne tumble into the water instead of breaking on the hull at Aurora's naming ceremony in April 2000 - for traditionalists, a sign of bad luck which appears to have been born out as Aurora curently languishes in a German shipyard with the engine problems that prevented her from sailing on her world cruise earlier this year. P&O are keen to re-design the naming ceremony this time around, with less emphasis on bottle-smashing and more on a celebration which "will encompass grand scale theatre and dramatic surprise, as well as stunning pyrotechnic displays".

A child-free ship, Arcadia will feature an expansive spa with a thermal suite and hydrotherapy pool, three-tier theatre, 3,000 piece multi-million pound modern British art collection, 14 bars and six fine dining options including Arcadian Rhodes, a restaurant developed exclusively for P&O Cruises by renowned chef Gary Rhodes. Carrying 1952 passengers and a complement of 880 crew, she will sail to destinations in the Mediterranean, Atlantic Isles, Baltic, Norwegian Fjords, USA, Caribbean and Central America.

Somebody in P&O's marketing dept has been put to work with a calculator. They point out that Arcadia's 540 metres of promenade deck, which will be popular with joggers, could be covered by Dame Kelly in just one minute 18 seconds based upon her 800m gold winning time in Athens.

bmi have announced the launch of their first long-haul service to Mumbai in India. The four times weekly service from Heathrow to Mumbai will begin on 14th May.

The airline is frustrated at being allocated less than a third of the slots they applied for and hopes to expand the frequency at a later date. Meanwhile they are keen to expand their long-haul route network and will also launch a new three times weekly service from Heathrow to Riyahd this summer - a route that British Airways have just dropped.

Services to Mumbai will operate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with return services to London Heathrow on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Riyadh will be served on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday with return flights departing on the same days. bmi will be the only British carrier serving the Saudi Arabian capital from the UK.

(bmi have long-haul services from Manchester to Washington DC and the Caribbean. In order to operate the new Heathrow routes they will need to supplement their fleet with another aircraft. The airline industry uses the term "wet lease" to describe a aircraft that is leased complete with crew to operate it. bmi's new addition will be "damp leased" from Icelandair - a term we've not heard before, but rather like! It means the aircraft comes with flight crew only, and bmi will use its own cabin crew.)

Austrian Airlines passengers will find more space and comfort in the Business Class cabin on all flights over 60 minutes duration, now that the middle seats in the cabin remain vacant.

From 1 March 2005 these seats have been removed from the Austrian Airlines Group reservation system, enhancing the sense of space and allowing passengers more room to relax or work.

Work is also planned on the long-haul Boeing fleet where nine aircraft will be retrofitted with lie-flat, sleeper seats in Business class as well as the seat pitch being increased to 60 inches. Installation will commence in Spring 2006 and will take approximately one year to complete. At the same time Austrian are introducing Internet facilities across the entire long-haul fleet, allowing all passengers, Business and Economy, to get on-line, on board.

For the time being at least, Austrian passengers don't have to buy a business class ticket to sample these new facilities. Austrian’s Silverticket fares offer all short and medium-haul passengers who book full fare Economy a free and confirmed upgrade to Business Class.

The China Daily english-language newspaper reports that the Chinese government has given the go-ahead for a huge multibillion-dollar bridge project linking the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

Minister of National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai, said that a feasibility report on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) begun in 2002, had now been completed and that the go-ahead for project planning had been given. There is not yet a start date for construction.

The new road will run from Hong Kong on the east headland of the entrance to the Pearl River across the river mouth to the port of Zhuhai on the west bank of the river, and then back out to Macau on the west headland. It will shorten the distance from Hong Kong to Macao (by cutting out the provincial capital, Guangzhou) from 60 to 29 kilometres, and reduce the journey time to less than 30 minutes.

The schedule for southern Africa's best-known luxury train, the Blue Train, has been restored to full capacity with the re-introduction of the second train set which had been badly damaged by a fire in March 2003.

The re-introduction of the second set will also enable one Blue Train to be used exclusively for chartering for certain periods in the year.

The Blue Train has been voted for four consecutive years (1998/99/2000/01) the "World’s leading luxury train" by 250 000 travel agents in 181 countries at the World Travel Awards. The Blue Train has also been awarded Diners Club International Merit Award for its finest wine for four consecutive years (1999/2000/01/02). In 1998 The Blue Train was also awarded an award for being one of the "20 Best Experiences in the World".

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) today launches a new 'gap travel' safety campaign aimed at the thousands of young Britons planning gap years or career breaks to go travelling.

Research carried out on behalf of the FCO in January 2005 shows that approximately one third of 16-30 year olds have been on a gap year or intend to do so, but almost three-quarters of them don’t view insurance as being essential for travelling abroad despite 45% admitting to being far more adventurous and experimental on holiday - taking part, for example, in dangerous sports and activities.

As part of the campaign, the FCO is launching a website, www.GoGapYear.com, specifically targeting gap travellers with advice and tips on issues such as alcohol and drugs.

The FCO research also highlighted the technology savvy nature of today’s youth with almost a quarter of those having been on a gap year or intending to do so, saying that their ‘must have’ item on holiday would be a mobile phone, whereas only 5% chose their partner!

Intended to be the world's only 'year-round' ice hotel, the Aurora Ice Hotel in Chena Hot Spring, Fairbanks, Alaska, came to a sticky end last summer (04) when hot weather overpowered the refrigeration units and styrofoam panels that were supposed to keep it intact.

Its owner, Bernie Karl, has spent the winter with world ice sculpting champion Steve Brice, re-building and it finally re-opened on Sat (26 Feb), this time as a 'museum'.

When it first opened in Dec 03 with six bedrooms, a bar, and a wedding gazebo, a ruling by the local fire authority that it didn't meet hotel fire regs caused much hilarity in the local press. The deadlock-breaking compromise was a fire extinguisher and smoke detector in each room. That's why this time, after a battle with the State Fire Marshall over the requirements of a hotel to have egress windows or exits from the bedrooms, it is being called a 'museum' not a hotel - with lots of attention focused on the ice artworks.

The building itself is a solid structure built with steel beams and already coated with insulation in hopes of keeping last year's meltdown from occurring. Several engineers, architects and refrigeration specialists have been designing a cooling system to help keep the structure up on a year-round basis. If they are successful, it will be the only ice structure of its type in the world.

The 134 foot long by 42 foot wide building has four ice galleries with ice beds and a small table and stools covered with reindeer hides, plus, of course, the obligatory Ice Bar.

Air Scotland - the low-cost brand of Greece Airways flying from Glasgow & Edinburgh to Malaga, Alicante, Palma & Athens - is to launch two new routes from Glasgow to Paris (Charles De Gaulle) and Amsterdam this spring.

Paris will operate twice weekly, Fridays and Mondays, from 01 April. Amsterdam will operate twice weekly, Saturdays and Wednesdays, from 21 May. Both routes will operate year round. Tickets are already on sale, with fares starting from £1 plus taxes each way for both routes.

From today EU legislation will force airlines to pay greater amounts of compensation to passengers in the event of cancellations, delays or overbookings.

The standard rate of compensation for passengers delayed, 'bumped' or facing a cancellation on a short-haul flight (less than 1,500Km) has risen to approx £172 (€250). For a long-haul flight (over 3,500km) the rate is now approx £412 (€600). In the event of cancellation, airlines will be obliged to provide passengers with meals and accommodation, and find them alternative transport to their final destination.

The rules apply to all scheduled and charter flights beginning or ending in the EU, flown by an EU airline, including low-cost airlines who are up in arms about what they see as un-balanced penalties.

easyJet says that it has no problem with the concept of compensation for bad service, but argues that compensation should be proportional to the fare paid. At present easyJet’s average fare is £42 one way, while under the new legislation the compensation will start at £172 for a one-way flight.

The airline also points out that the new legislation only applies to airlines, which is seemingly in breach of EU rules to treat all forms of transport identically.

easyJet Chief Executive Ray Webster said: "What started as a good piece of legislation to prevent traditional airlines bumping off passengers through overbooking has become a bad piece of legislation and will cause unnecessary confusion and conflict between airlines and their customers".

PrivatAir, operators of the BBJ (Boeing Business Jet - a converted long-range Boeing 737 airliner carrying just 56 passengers), are operating a business-class-only scheduled service between Zurich and New York on behalf of Swiss airline, six days a week (not Saturday).

PrivatAir already operate Lufthansa business-class-only flights from Munich and Dusseldorf to New York and Chicago.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou's new low-cost cruise line, easyCruise.com, which is aimed at "independently-minded passengers in their 20's, 30's and 40's", has started taking bookings on its website.

The cruise line's first ship, easyCruiseOne, will begin a fixed weekly schedule on 3rd June cruising the Italian and French Riviera's. If refurbishment work on the ship is completed in time the start date for the season might be brought forward to 29 April 05. The season will end on 15 October 2005.

The current itinerary covers Monaco (Monday), Genoa (Tuesday), Portofino (Wednesday), Imperia for San Remo (Thursday) Nice (Friday), Cannes (Saturday) and St Tropez (Sunday). Passengers can join the ship, easyCruiseOne, at whichever port they wish and stay on board for as little as two nights or up to a maximum of two weeks (which represents two full itineraries).

Unusually, the itinerary has easyCruiseOne arriving in a new port by lunch time and staying until the early hours of the following day before sailing to the next port, once again arriving by lunch time. Passengers will be free to come and go while the ship is in port, allowing them to enjoy daytime, evening and night time activities - so not just sightseeing, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs too!

The 170-passenger ship itself will have facilities for passengers while they are on board. There is a Caffe Ritazza, a Sports Bar and a Tapas Bar where there will be a live DJ on some evenings. There is also an outdoor 6-person jacuzzi on the deck.

Cabins are in three types: 72 twins, 6 quads and 4 suites, available from £59, £119 and £159 respectively, with prices rising according to demand.

Twins measure about 10 square metres and have two single beds which can be put together to form a double bed. Quads measure about 15 square metres and have two sets of bunk-beds (ie. 4 berths) and the 24 square metre suites have 2 single beds which can be put together to form a double bed. The suites, which are on the top deck, also have balconies. Every cabin has en-suite facilities which include a toilet, shower and basin. The only cabins which have windows are the suites but all cabins have air-conditioning.

Passengers will arrive in fully made-up (sheets, towels, soap) and clean cabins and will not, contrary to previous reports, be required to do any house-keeping prior to disembarkation. However, if passengers want their cabin cleaned or bedding and towels changed during the course of their cruise, there will be an optional housekeeping charge of 15 euros payable on board.

Virgin Atlantic is to offer passengers a traditional roast every Sunday on all flights departing the UK.

Passengers travelling from the UK in Premium Economy and Economy will be offered roast chicken as one of the three choices for their main meal followed by a traditional crumble for dessert.

Liselle Simmonds, Catering Development Executive for Virgin Atlantic commented:

"We try to offer our economy passengers a wide variety of different cuisines from around the world to enjoy during their flight, including Italian, Thai and Indian as well as traditional English dishes such as bangers and mash. Our passengers also love it when the cabin crew offer ice creams during the inflight movies."

The roast meal will include roast chicken, sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots, broccoli and gravy. The roast dinner will be followed by a traditional pear and plum crumble and custard.

The LEGOLAND theme park in Carlsbad, California is making an attempt on the Guinness World Record for 'Tallest LEGO Tower' later this month.

On 17th Feb thousands of children along with their families will start to click together more than half-a-million LEGO bricks. Park officials estimate the tower will take four days, 40 hours, nearly 50,000 guests and more than 500,000 LEGO bricks to complete. When complete, the tower will be measured and certified by an official from Guinness World Records.

The current Guinness World Record is held by AS Rekato Ltd., the company who organised the building of a LEGO tower built in Tallinn, Estonia in August 1998. The tower took four days to build reaching a height of 25 metres (82 feet) and was made of 391, 478 LEGO bricks. LEGOLAND California will have to create a tower at least 83 feet in height to break the current record.

Beating the record is unlikely to be difficult. They reached 90ft last year but were not validated by Guinness. Their goal is to beat the last Guinness World Record, as well as their own 90ft internal record.

SRS-Worldhotels, or more fully "Steigenberger Reservations Service Worldhotels", has been a familiar name to business travellers for many years... but not any longer. The hotel reservations company, which has a portfolio of 500 hotels worldwide. just renamed itself, simply Worldhotels.

The Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts chain keeps the Steigenberger name alive - Albert Steigenberger was a Bavarian businessman who started the company in 1930 from a single hotel in Baden Baden.

Holiday giant Thomson is reorganising its holiday rep service to bring it into line with modern expectations.

A brand new roving 'super rep' role is being introduced this summer and Thomson will be recruiting around 100 people into the new position for the start of the summer holiday season in May.

The traditional hotel rep visits will disappear altogether in many well-known beach resorts. Instead, customers will be given a 24-hour telephone number which can be used to book excursions, to ask questions about the hotel or resort and for emergency assistance. In fact, Thomson has operated 24 hour holiday lines in all holiday resorts for the last five years, but now the service will be expanded with additional staff. The 'super reps' role will be to travel to different hotels and resorts to sort out problems or assist with emergencies.

Lee Ormesher, Thomson operations director, said: "Many resorts, particularly in Spain, are well-known by our customers. People are confident travelling there and lots of guests have visited these resorts numerous times. For many people the need to have a rep visiting the hotel on a daily basis is simply not necessary. We are living in a culture today where people are comfortable booking things over the phone and don’t always need to have face-to-face contact."

The entire Thomson programme will be divided into either 'standard service' or 'enhanced service' hotels or resorts. Standard service will mean guests are welcomed at the airport and seen onto their transfer coach by a rep and will get access to a rep over the phone at any time of day or night. They’ll also be able to call on a 'super rep' if they need help with a serious problem.

Thomson’s 'lifestyle' holidays will automatically get an enhance service included as part of their holiday. For example, Thomson Superfamily will continue to have reps visiting the hotel and the kid’s club will be staffed by specially qualified children’s reps and nannies.

Likewise, Thomson Gold, designed for couples travelling without children, will also have a full service including entertainers.

Destinations such as Egypt, Croatia, Costa de la Luz, Morocco and Mexico will be classed as 'enhanced service' resorts and guests will automatically get full rep service as part of their holiday.

Marriott International, Inc. has announced that 628,000 beds at over 2,400 hotels worldwide, will have a new, more luxurious look and feel by the end of the year. The new fresh, white look will use softer sheets, plusher mattresses, stylish duvets, and more pillows.

The global bedding makeover will use over 30 million metres of fabric – enough to stretch more than two-thirds of the way around the world.

The more luxurious bedding will be introduced at eight of Marriott’s hotel brands including JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts. Full-service and self-service brands will replace the traditional bedspread with down duvets.

National Rail Enquiries has launched a new automated telephone service for rail travellers to complement the existing 08457 484950 service.

The new service, called TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50 will provide simple, real-time train arrival and departure information for direct train services.

TrainTracker uses state-of-the-art speech recognition and touch-tone technology. The caller states the stations they are travelling from and to as well as time of day and TrainTracker looks up estimated train times and then relays these back to the caller.

Rail travellers are expected to call TrainTracker mainly during times of unforeseen or severe train service disruption, as Chris Scoggins, Chief Executive of National Rail Enquiries explained:

"It will help us to assist more callers when the rail network is experiencing disruption, for example during unusual weather conditions, when very high levels of enquiries are generated."

Calls to the 0871 200 49 50 number will cost 10 pence a minute from a BT land line. An average call takes just 90 seconds.

Iberojet Cruceros, the cruising branch of the major Spanish tour-operator Viajes Iberojet, has just acquired the cruise-ship Mistral, which was purchased by the engineering & shipbuilding company, Alstom, in early 2004 following the default of the cruise operator Festival.

While in itself this not of particular interest to British cruise passengers, Iberojet's fleet upgrade has resulted in the sale of their 32-year-old ship Grand Latino to the Fred Olsen Line.

Originally named Royal Viking Sky, the 28,000-ton, 840-passenger Grand Latino is a sister ship to Fred Olsen's Black Watch. She will enter service with Fred Olsen in 2006 after an extensive refurbishment.

UPDATE: 1530 gmt.P&O Cruises have finally thrown in the towel on Aurora's ill-fated world cruise. They have confirmed that tests conducted at sea have shown that the repairs to the propulsion motor have not been successful enough to allow her to achieve the required speed to complete the Grand Voyage and the ship is now returning to Southampton.

She is expected to berth at the Mayflower Terminal in Southampton at midnight with passengers being invited to disembark from 8.30 am tomorrow (Friday 21 January). Aurora’s Grand Voyage has now been cancelled.

Passengers will be refunded their full fare together with compensation of 25% of the amount paid for their holiday to be used as a future cruise credit on a cruise holiday booked before the end of January 2007.

UPDATE: 0830 gmt. Sea trials appear to have been successful and, rather than returning to Southampton, Aurora has turned south west and is heading for her first port of call on a world cruise itinerary reduced by 10 days and from 40 ports to 24. As a result, some 380 of the original 1750 passengers have elected not to go.

UPDATE: 2200 gmt. Aurora has left her berth once again for sea trials. P&O say that more work needed to be undertaken on the propulsion motor. Having dealt with the original cause of the problem through making changes inside the motor, it was necessary to balance the motor to ensure smooth running. Aurora is now putting to sea to test at higher power.

P&O Cruises flagship Aurora remains firmly attached to the quay in Southampton, despite the company's confidence that she would be able to depart yesterday evening.

P&O were so sure that the problems with Aurora's electrical propulsion motors would be completed yesterday, according to one report a band turned up on the dockside at 5.00pm to play at the ship's 'sail away' ceremony. Nevertheless, as Aurora's own webcam reveals, some 24-hours after that predicted departure, and a whole fortnight since her scheduled departure, the ship and passengers remain forlornly stuck.

Had this been a shorter cruise, the company would no doubt have cancelled it long ago and focused on getting the ship ready for the next sailing date. A massive technical breakdown like this could not have occured at a worst point in the cruise schedule; the start of 100+ days of interconnected port visits around the world, with passengers scheduled to leave and join the ship for different legs.

As it is, with the news that a significant number of port visits are being dropped from the itinerary in the hope that the ship can catch up with some of its schedule, it is thought that around 350 of the 1700 passengers who boarded in Southampton the weekend before last have now given up and disembarked. P&O has been offering refunds and discounts on future cruises to disembarking passengers.

The world's largest passenger aircraft, the long-awaited Airbus A380, was publically unveiled this morning in a long ceremony held at the Airbus assembly plant in Toulouse, at which the leaders of the four partner countries - France Germany, Spain & Great Britain - gave lengthy speeches.

The double-deck aircraft, capable of carrying up to 800 passengers, is due to go into service around June 2006 with the launch customer, Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines have not said which of the two routes, Singapore-Australia or Singapore-UK, they will fly first using the new aircraft but they have said that they intend to configure their A380s with 480 seats, eighty seats less than the standard configuration. This will give passengers in all classes more room and making long-haul services more attractive.

Virgin Atlantic's chairman, Sir Richard Branson, talked about the gym, bar, beauty salon, and casino planned for his six A380 aircraft on order. He said the extra space would also allow make room for Virgin's double lie-flat beds in Upper Class. With the casino, that was two chances for Virgin passengers to "get lucky" he joked!

P&O Cruises say that their flagship, Aurora, whose world cruise passengers have been stuck on board for over a week in Southampton while engineers attempt to repairs to one of the ship’s electrical propulsion motors, should finally set sail today.

The sea tests off the Isle of Wight have proved successful although further testing is being undertaken today whilst the ship is alongside in Southampton. Unless something un-expected is revealed by those tests, the anticipated departure for the Grand Voyage, now reduced from 103 days to 94, is this evening.

Virgin Atlantic has launched DIY Check In for passengers with the introduction of self service kiosks at Heathrow Terminal 3, and online check in through the Virgin Atlantic website.

The new facilities allow all passengers including groups, families and those travelling with infants to check themselves in for flights, and Virgin predicts that half of its passengers will be using DIY Check In by the end of the year.

Online check in enables all passengers to check in for flights within 24 hours of departure. All passengers and ticket types will be able to log on, check in, select a seat and then make their way to the airport to arrive a minimum of one hour before departure. At the airport passengers pick up their boarding pass from a dedicated desk and then present any hold baggage at the allocated bag drop, which has been specially tailored for this fast track service. Each passenger will be security profiled at the bag drop.

Kiosk check in is being introducing in two phases. Eight Virgin Atlantic kiosks have been installed at Heathrow Terminal 3. The second phase will be completed during 2005 when further Virgin Atlantic kiosks will be installed at Gatwick Airport, Los Angeles and JFK.

Passengers check in at the Kiosk on the day of departure using a machine-readable passport, credit card, frequent flyer card or Virgin Atlantic booking reference for identification. Boarding cards are printed at the Kiosk, and passengers are then directed to take their hold luggage to the allocated bag drop, where they will be security profiled. The kiosk can read all notes in the booking such as upgrades and can print lounge invitations for Upper Class passengers.

To encourage visitors to their new website, Virgin have have launched ‘Fly Free For Life’ – an online competition where passengers can win a pair of flights every year for the rest of their lives.

The long-awaited Airbus A380 - the next generation, giant airliner that airports and airlines around the world are busily gearing themselves up for - is to be publicly unveiled for the first time at 10.00am on Tues (18th Jan) at a ceremony in Toulouse.

The double-deck aircraft, capable of carrying up to 800 passengers, is due to go into service in 2006. Singapore Airlines will be the first airline to fly the A380.

P & O Cruises' flagship Aurora is stuck in Southhampton with engine problems and a nearly full complement of passengers who should have been approaching the Cape Verde Islands by now on the second leg of her 2005 Round-the-world cruise.

The ship, which was scheduled to depart last Sunday (9 Jan), put to sea briefly on Wednesday for engine trials, but since then the passengers on board have had to get used to the daily sight of Southampton docks as engineers work below to repair the overheating coils of a giant electric motor.

P&O have offered refunds, which have been accepted by some passengers who have now left the ship. The majority are waiting patiently on board, enjoying free drinks and extra entertainment, and fervently hoping that their 103-day cruise schedule, already down to 97-days, won't be reduced any further. The company is hoping to complete repairs in time now for a departure on Tuesday 18 Jan.

Update 17/01/05: Aurora put to sea today to test the repairs made to the faulty motor. If the tests are successful it is hoped she will be able to depart on her world cruise tomorrow.

Laskarina Holidays, who operate holidays to the Greek islands, have won the Holiday Which? Best Tour Operator award for the third time in a row with an unprecedented 100% of respondents who had travelled with them, saying they would recommend them. (The highest recommendation level for one of the 'big four' operators was 38% for Thomson.)

The company was also awarded top scores for brochure accuracy and representation, and rated highly across the sectors of value for money, travel arrangements and accommodation.

This is all impressive enough but Laskarina are building a bit of a track record on awards; they won the Best Travel Company category in The Observer's and The Guardian's travel awards for eight consecutive years from 1995-2003.

Scheduled and charter airline punctuality fell during the third quarter of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003, according to figures released today by the Civil Aviation Authority.

During July to September 2004 the on-time performance (defined as early to 15 minutes late) of scheduled airlines decreased from 76 per cent during the same months in 2003 to 70 per cent.

Of the ten monitored airports, only London City and Birmingham recorded an increase in punctuality of scheduled flights. The on-time performance at Heathrow was 74 per cent in the third quarter of 2003, falling to 61 per cent in 2004.

The average delay across the scheduled flights at the ten airports monitored increased from 14 minutes in 2003 to 17 in 2004.

There was a similar decrease in the proportion of on-time charter flights, from the third quarter level of 75 per cent in 2003 to 69 per cent in 2004. Meanwhile, the average delay rose from 20 minutes in 2003 to 26 minutes in 2004. The on-time performance fell at all the eight monitored airports where there are significant charter operations except Newcastle, where it remained constant at 77 per cent.

While punctuality dropped during the autumn months, frequency increased. The total number of flights operated during the three months was four per cent higher than in the corresponding period a year earlier.

British Airways has announced the suspension of its flights between Heathrow and Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia from 27 March 2005.

The airline said the decision was a commercial one due to reduced passenger demand for the flights. Heightened security risks faced by western nationals in Saudi Arabia are one reason why traffic to the Kingdom has fallen off recently, and no doubt will have been factored into BA's decision, even if the airline is careful to talk only about the commercial aspects of the decision.

Robert Boyle, British Airways’ director of commercial planning, said: "The decision to suspend flights between the UK and Saudi Arabia is a difficult one to make as we have enjoyed a long history of flying between the two countries. However, the routes don’t currently make a profitable contribution to our business and we are unable to sustain them while this remains the case. As part of our commitment to Saudi Arabia we will, of course, keep this important market under constant review."

British Airways currently operates four flights per week from London Heathrow to Jeddah and three flights per week from London Heathrow to Riyadh. Customers booked to travel with British Airways to Saudi Arabia after March 27, 2005 will be contacted by the airline so that alternative arrangements can be made.

From this Friday (7 Jan) tube passengers travelling on the Piccadilly line to and from Heathrow Terminal 4 will be using a dedicated bus shuttle at Hatton Cross....for the next 20 months.

The change from Tube to bus is to allow for construction of the Piccadilly line extension to the new BAA Heathrow Terminal 5. London Underground’s Heathrow Terminal 4 station will remain closed during the work.

Piccadilly line services will continue to run direct to and from central London to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3 station.

On Saturday and Sunday January 8 & 9, 2005 only, there will be no service on the Piccadilly line in either direction to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3 and Terminal 4 beyond Hatton Cross. This is to allow essential safety work on points and signalling. For those two days there will be replacement bus and coach services.

Piccadilly line General Manager, Mike Challis said:

"Around 2,500 people travel to and from Terminal 4 by Tube each day. We will have a dedicated bus shuttle service in place that means those journeys will only take about five minutes longer than now."

"Currently, around 22,000 people use the Tube to get to and from Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3 each day and they will actually be getting there a little faster over the 20 months, as the trains will be going directly to Heathrow Terminal 1,2 & 3 and not round the loop stopping at Heathrow Terminal 4."

No additional bus services will be provided by LU from Terminals 1,2 & 3 to T4, which is why passengers for T4 are being advised to get off at Hatton Cross for the dedicated bus shuttle. However passengers travelling to and from Terminal 4 who may have difficulty using the stairs at Hatton Cross are advised to travel to Terminals 1, 2 & 3 and use the Heathrow Express Service to reach Terminal 4, which is free between Heathrow terminals. Passengers using this route should allow an extra 30 minutes to complete their journey.