NEWS: THIS WEEK IN TRAVEL

Tour operator Barwell Travel ceased trading yesterday.

Barwell was the definitive 'specialist' operator, running tours to only the La Manga golf, sport & beach resort in Murcia, Spain.

Their website advises customers with booking to apply to their insurers.

Manchester Airport welcomed the arrival of its first Airbus A380 today. The 517-passenger airliner belongs to Emirates who will be using it to operate a new daily service between Manchester and Dubai.

Emirates have been flying from Manchester to Dubai for almost 20 years and already had a double daily service to Dubai.

With more and more airlines, including soon BA & Virgin, taking delivery of the A380, Manchester Airport's investment of over £10 million to upgrade the airfield, buy new fire vehicles (that can reach higher) and build a new aircraft stand with an advance docking system so that it can meet A380 operating standards, looks like money well spent.

Emirates' A380 was only at Manchester for a brief turnaround (airliners are only making money when they are in the air). It landed at 12.30pm and was off again, back to Dubai, at 3.45pm.

The proposed merger between the world's 4th largest airline, United, and the 5th largest, Continental, has been approved by the US Dept of Justice (DoJ).

The DoJ gave the go-ahead on Friday after the two airlines agreed to hand over some takeoff and landing slots at Newark Airport to low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines. They had been concerned that the merger "would combine the airlines' largely complementary networks, which would result in overlap on a limited number of routes where United and Continental offer competing nonstop service. The largest such routes are between United’s hub airports and Continental’s hub at Newark Airport, where Continental has a high share of service and where there is limited availability of slots, making entry by other airlines particularly difficult.

If shareholders give their consent later next month (17 Sept) as expected, the world's largest airline, called 'United Airlines' and sporting Continental's logo & colours, could be born in October.

LD Lines has confirmed that it will close its passenger service (passengers & cars) on the Dover – Boulogne route from 5 September 2010.

They are considering maintaining a freight only service using just one of the two ships currently on the route, thus freeing up the second ship to be switched to their new Biscay route from Saint Nazaire in France to Gijon in Northern Spain, scheduled to start on 7 September.

Both ships, Norman Bridge and Norman Trader, will remain operating a combined passenger and freight Dover - Boulogne service until 5 September inclusive and all passengers booked up to this date will be unaffected. Passengers booked to travel after this date will be provided with alternatives, including the company’s other routes, and compensated with travel offers for future channel crossings.

LD Lines’ three other cross channel ferry routes ; Portsmouth – Le Havre, Newhaven – Dieppe and Ramsgate - Ostend, are all operating normal sailing schedules as advertised.

Yesterday's talks between the Unite union and BAA over airport workers' pay demands, ended in agreement.

The terms of the deal have not yet been revealed. The union says it will first tell its members and recommend they vote to accept the offer.

Originally Unite had demanded a 7% pay rise for its members. BAA offered 1% with a ½% performance based bonus. It is thought the new deal will not be significantly larger.

Either way it means holiday-makers, business travellers and airlines can all breathe a sigh of relief after what has been a difficult year so far in air travel.

The transport union, Unite, confirmed today that its members working as ground staff at BAA airports have voted in favour of taking industrial action to support their current pay demands.

Over 6,000 ground staff, including security staff and firefighters, at BAA airports were balloted, though only 3,054 voted. Of them 74.1% voted for strike action. BAA has offered a 1½% pay increase, which the union has rejected. Both parties say strikes can be avoided through talks, but the travel plans for holidaymakers passing through BAA's airports (Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) later this month, must now be in jeopardy if minimum fire & security staff levels can't be maintained and the airports are forced to shut completely.

ABTA confirms that Sun4U Direct ceased trading late last night.

The company also traded as...

Sun 4 U, Algarve Breakaways, AlgarveBreakawyas.com, Barcelona Breakaways, BarcelonaBreakaways.com, Bargains from Beachsun, Bargains from Sun 4 U, Beach Sun Holidays, Blubirdtransfers.com, Blue Bird Transfers, Bonus Breakaways, Bonusbreakaways.com, Caribbean Breakaways, Coach Air, CoachAir.com, Costa Brava Breakaways, CostaBravaBreakaways.com, FlyBeachSun.co.uk, Flywithusdirect.com, GoldenSun4U, GodenSun4u.com On the Case Holidays, Onthecaseholidays.co.uk, Onthecaseholidays.com, On the Case Travel, Onthecasetravel.co.uk, Onthecasetravel.com, Single Parent Holiday Savers, Ski4udirect.com, Sun4Uflight.co.uk, Sun4Uflights.com, Sun 4 U Travel, The Travel-Market.com.

There's no information yet on how many holiday-makers are overseas, but the number is thought to be low. Customers waiting to travel should check the ABTA pages for details on how to claim.

Though not yet resolved, the ongoing BA cabin crew dispute has recently gone quiet as the union prepares its case arguing that cheap flights to the Caribbean are not staff perks - they are human rights. However, transport union, Unite, has other workers who see the peak holiday season as an opportunity for leverage.

Over 6,000 ground staff, including security staff and firefighters, at BAA airports have been balloted on possible strike action if pay talks with the airports group fail. The result is expected later this week. BAA says it has offered a 1½% pay deal. If it is rejected BAA's airports (Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) could be forced to shut completely if minimum fire & security staff levels can't be maintained. The union must give 7 days notice of industrial action.

Even if your holiday plans are permitted to take off, you may yet be brought back to earth with a bump by the dreaded Spanish air traffic controllers. Their union has just held a ballot in which 92% of them voted to support strike action. They have to give 10-day's notice, so the last fortnight in Aug could be vulnerable.

Deutsche Bahn's long anticipated move into St Pancras - ending Eurostar's monopoly on international passenger rail travel from the UK - could take a step forward this autumn when the company plans to test one of their high-speed ICE3 trains in the Channel Tunnel.

Railway Gazette reports that DB Chairman & CEO, Dr Rüdiger Grube, mentioned the trial during his presentation of DB's half-year performance to investors yesterday. Until recently DB's trains did not meet Channel Tunnel technical specs, but new trains developed by Seimens and a change in the tunnel safety requirements have opened the way for Deutche Bahn's trial.

Industry observers have been speculating that Eurostar - which is jointly owned by the French SNCF, the Belgian SNCB and a British group, London & Continental Railways - could find itself sharing the tracks with competitors such as DB before the Olympics start in 2012.

The tiny (47 sq miles) island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, best known as the remote location to which Napoleon was exiled and where he died in 1821, may finally get its long-awaited airport.

As intrepid travellers know, the only way to get there, unless passing by on a cruise ship or sailing yourself, has been on the Royal Mail Ship, RMS St Helena, a cargo & passenger ship built in 1990.

Plans by the last government to build an airport were shelved, but last week the International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, told the House of Commons that the cost of a new ship to replace RMS St Helena would be approximately £64m and that, although it would be considerably more expensive to build an airport, it would allow the island to develop and become more economically self-sustainable (the 'overseas territory' receives £20m from the UK annually), thus proving a more cost effective option in the longer term.

Goldtrail, a tour operator that specialised in 'value' package holidays to Turkey, called in the adminstrators to its New Malden HQ late yesterday afternoon, leaving 16,000 holiday-makers abroad and possibly as many as 50-100,000 customers with bookings let to be fulfilled.

Goldtrail Travel Ltd, traded as Goldtrail Holidays, Goldtrail Travel and Sunmar. It operated flights and holiday packages mostly to Turkey (Dalaran in particular) and some to Greece. It was was bonded under the Civil Aviation Authority's ATOL scheme and customers already on holiday will be able to complete their holiday and will be flown home afterwards. Flight arrangements for those currently in Turkey should remain unchanged. Goldtrail holidaymakers in Greece may find their flight times and UK destination airports changed.

Customers with booking who have not yet travelled should be able to claim back their money, though this process can be slow. Most Goldtrail holidays were sold through travel agents and customers should sheck with their agent first.

The opening of the new terminal is a major step forward in the growth of cruising in China, particularly for Costa Cruises, which was the first international cruise company to enter the Chinese market. With the arrival of the Costa Romantica, the Italian Company is further expanding its cruise capacity in China: the Costa Romantica is joining her sister ship Costa Classica, already deployed in the Far East.

In all, the Costa Romantica will be calling at Tianjin 10 times this year. Since its debut in China in 2006, Costa Cruises has invested around 50 million euros in the region and quintupled its cruise capacity, with a total of 93 Chinese port calls in 2010. Costa’s Far Eastern cruises sail from the ports of Shanghai (whose cruise terminal Costa Allegra inaugurated in 2008), Tianjin, Hong Kong and Singapore and include stopovers in some of the region’s most popular resorts such as Sanya (China), Halong Bay (Vietnam), Da Nang (Vietnam), Okinawa (Japan), Kagoshima (Japan), Nagasaki (Japan), Fukuoka (Japan) and Cheju (South Korea).

The new terminal is not just good news for European cruisers. Costa are particularly interested in encouraging Chinese holidaymakers to try a cruise. Costa Crociere S.p.A. President Gianni Onorato said: "The new terminal is a reward for our pioneering investments and work in this part of the world, and brought to fruition thanks to the invaluable support of the Chinese authorities. The ultimate aim is to popularise a new form of vacation in China, a type of holiday that was practically unheard of before in the People’s Republic: namely, cruise vacations."

The two Costa liners currently operating in China and the Far East - the Costa Classica and Costa Romantica - offer both short cruises, from four to six days, favoured by the local clientele, and longer holidays, from 14 to 16 days, which are more popular with international customers.

Ryanair has once again fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), this time over two national newspaper ads offering £10 one-way fares to Dusseldorf and Gothenburg.

In a ruling published today, the ASA confirmed its opinion that the ads were "likely to mislead".

The complaint was made by rivals easyJet who challenged the availability of the advertised £10 fares to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf; whether the fares included taxes, charges and check in fees; whether they were misleading, because they did not state the travel dates to which the fares applied; and whether it was misleading to describe Weeze airport as a Dusseldorf airport, when it was 70 km away from Dusseldorf.

While the ASA did not find in favour of three aspects of the complaint, they did uphold the challenge on availability. The ASA said "consumers would understand '£10 ONE WAY' to mean that all flights to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf-Weeze were available at £10, and because we had not seen evidence to support that claim, we concluded that the ads were likely to mislead".

Technically this one aspect breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1, 15.2 (Prices), 16.4 (Availability of products) and 27.4 (Sales promotions rules)... a point seized upon by easyJet's UK general manager, Paul Simmons, who said:

"We welcome the ASA’s decision that one Ryanair advert broke six elements of the advertising standards code – that’s something of a record, even for them".

Travelodge officially opened its 400th hotel at Waterloo on Wednesday, and had a party at the same time to celebrate the hotel chain's 25th anniversary.

For some reason the hotel company is offering an exclusive complementary 'Triplet London sight-seeing tour' - with tour guide to its customers. This service allows two customers and the tour guide to cycle around London visiting the Capital's famous landmarks (and explains the ludicrous press photo with Boris - Ed).

In addition to this service Travelodge is also trialling a free cycle service where customers can hire a 'Go Cycle' - the world’s lightest electric bike. The 'Go Cycle' is electrically powered via a mains power point and offers on demand power with a no-emission and low cost commute around London.

As part of the 25th birthday "celebrations" the hotel chain is offering 250,000 rooms for £25 or less at its UK hotels. The offer includes the London Waterloo Travelodge.

With the opening of its London Waterloo hotel, Travelodge now has 34 hotels in Greater London, providing over 5,200 bedrooms. By the time of the Olympics, Travelodge expects to have opened a further 18 hotels in the capital, giving it over 7,000 rooms and making it the biggest hotel brand in London.