Competition Commission has just announced, subject to a final consultation, that it is about to order British Airways Airlines to sell off Stansted, Gatwick and Edinburgh airports and cease certain flights from these places in order to control its monopoly across much of the UK airport network.

Recently, it has also come to light that the Competition Commission has also proposed more measures for ensuring that their investment into the service levels at Heathrow Airport are sufficient and effective enough to meet the growing needs of the airport’s airlines, staff and passengers.

Chairman of CC’s BAA enquiry, Christopher Clarke, claimed that the competition problems had already been identified within each of British Airway’s seven airports. Therefore, they have taken what they consider the proposed measures that should be in order that they may address the issues ‘directly and comprehensively’.

He also added:
“The most effective way to introduce competition in the south-east and in lowland Scotland is to require the three London airports and the two principal Scottish airports to be separately owned.”

As British Airways chief executive Colin Matthews commented on that he did not believe there was enough compelling evidence that either the sales of Stansted or Gatwick Airports would do anything to improve the competition.

He continued to claim that the CC had not provided enough evidence to prove that Glasgow and Edinburgh airports would compete better under separate ownership.

The CC is taking into consideration any responses to these announcements before it publishes its final report on British Airways Airlines in February / March 2009.

It is soon time for The Six Nations rugby tournament. This will present many more travel opportunities with flights and other travel laid on for those sports fans eager to attend the tournament.

The 2009 annual contest will see England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and France compete in a head-to-head Rugby tournament which will span a full six weeks.

Those fans who are able to take a trip to Rome will be able to see Ireland v Italy’s match at the Stadio Flaminio which is to take place on 15th February 2009. This is prior to Italy taking on Wales on 14th March 2009 before they finally face a match with France on 21st March.

Paris will prove to be a particularly popular place to head for a city break in February 2009, always popular as one of the most romantic destinations to take your partner for a Valentine’s break. Next year the 14th February is also the date for when France face Scotland which will increase flights to Paris even further. Following this game, France are due to face Wales a couple of weeks later on 27th February.

Facing a few interesting fixtures next year, The British Home Nations will also see an ‘interesting’ match between Wales and Scotland taking place in Edinburgh on 8th February.

The England team are due to travel to Cardiff to face the reigning Six Nations champions’ team on 14th February 2009 prior to a game at Twickenham against Scotland on 21st March.

There is talk of additional flights to be available next year for Rugby fans, particularly on routes to Paris during February 2009.

British Airways has prepared itself for carrying 1.6 million passengers on its flights, which are scheduled across the peak festive season, classed by British Airways as being between 17th December and 4th January.

A good number of British Airway’s longer haul destinations have started to prove much more popular for family holidays and Christmas trips. Top of the bill is the Christmas shopping and highly festive hotspot of New York City, next in line of popularity is Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Dubai and then Washington.

British Airway’s most popular short haul flight routes are Paris Charles de Gaulle second is Geneva and third is Nice. Domestic destinations such as Glasgow and Edinburgh are also set for greeting many family holidays and festive revellers taking flights to Scotland this year.

7,500 flights stand to operate via London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 over Christmas and New Year 2008 / 2009. This will bring the total number of passengers through the new building to well over 15 million whilst over 1,500 of their services will be based at London, Gatwick.

British Airway’s festive in-flight menu is set to serve a minimum of 38,000 Christmas dinners and over 60,000 helpings of Christmas pudding and Christmas cake with an estimated 8,500 pieces of chocolate log being devoured on their festive flights.

Airline giants, British Airways have just made an announcement that it intends to drop its surcharges on fuel imminently for the airlines long haul flights as of 18th December 2008.

Due to the airline’s clever fuel hedging policies for 2009/10 coupled with lowering global oil prices, has meant that they are able to make the price reductions which will equate to up to a third of its previous average flight prices.

Surcharges for those British Airway’s passengers who are on their World Traveller flights are going to see cuts of £30 to £66 off flights of over nine hours. British Airway’s flights that are under duration of nine hours will hold surcharges of £53 per flight which is a reduction of £15 per person.

British Airway’s ‘On World Traveller Plus services’ provide longer flights holding a fuel surcharge of £85 per person whilst on short flights this charge will be £63 per person.

The First and Club World connections will cost £98 per person on B.A. flights with a duration of nine hours and over, and £78 for shorter flight durations.

Those passengers who take flights on their domestic and European services will enjoy cuts in flights surcharges from between £4 to £12 per flight; Club Europe passengers who would normally pay £20 will now pay £15.

As we move through the festive season the changes have been rushed through so British Airways can cater for the higher demand for flights during a key family holiday period. The prediction of passengers it expects to carry from between 18th December to 4th January is 1.6 million passengers.

The biggest top ten travel and tourism events of 2008 were recently voted on within the Daily Telegraph. Making the list was Terminal 5’s disastrous launch and then its eventual success.

The airline opened its brand new hub at Heathrow in London in March 2008; however, the launch was unfortunately plagued by all sorts of technology problems. The problems impacted on flights hugely and led to many cancellations of flights with thousands of luggage items being lost.

Now, happily, Terminal 5 has eventually overcome its initial teething problems and the recent flights into and out of the facility has qualified as British Airway’s most punctual services for ten years.

In a 13 million British Airways passenger poll, hosted by The Daily Telegraph more recently it showed that out of all the respondents 80% of them reported a positive experience.

Making another entry into the newspaper’s top ten travel and tourism developments in 2008 was the continual successes of the Middle Eastern destinations of Egypt, Dubai and Oman. All of which have seen the opening of dozens of new resorts, hotels and tourist attractions to cater for the increasing number of visitors. The Daily Telegraph referred to the Middle Eastern tourism boom as the ‘rise and rise of the Middle East.’

Eurostar’s new success story is its high speed connection linking London and the continent made the list of top ten events along with the introduction of the Airbus A380 into the UK offering flights through Singapore Airlines.

From 23rd December 2009 tickets will be available for family holiday and traveller bookings with the high speed rail operator Eurostar on its service leaving from central London to Avignon in Southern France.

Eurostar will be running a direct service weekly from London’s St Pancras International and Ashford International stations to Avignon in Southern between the 11th July 2009 and the 5th September 2009.

The journey duration is set at five and a half hours from Ashford International Station to the historic centre and province walls of Avignon in France. The city is located over the banks of the Rhone River, so it is a great resort to stay at to see the mountain landscape, vineyards and cattle; it is stunningly picturesque area.

Director of communications at Eurostar, Simon Montague claims: “This service is becoming more popular year on year as our travellers greatly appreciate the seamless, comfortable and environmentally friendly journey to Provence. Our fares are unchanged since summer 2008 and there are no hidden costs such as surcharges and taxes.’

As Avignon is now one of the 60 destinations available to regular passengers, tourists and people on family holidays you are able to travel to and from Avignon to Paris and connect quickly to France’s TGV rail network in France’s capital city.

The airline British Airways, recently announced that the punctuality figures published in November of their global flights were the highest that the airline had seen in 7 years.

The airline attributes some of its recent success on the continued refurbishments to Terminal 5 as 87% of BA’s short haul flights across their entire flight network departed on time in November 2008.

It was also November 2008 that was British Airways’ first month of full passenger capacity and operations at the new Terminal 5 which 13 million travellers have already travelled through so far.

An incredible 94% of British Airways’ flights departed from Gatwick airport at the right time during November, and the airline says that this is the best punctuality rate that British Airways’ has on record and indeed for any ’significantly sized carrier’ at all.

Luggage services were also improved as the number of bags per 1000 of their customers that were delayed was only recorded as 12 last month. BA’s peak figures for baggage delays are 38 per 1,000 customers (figures were recorded in summer 2007).

British Airways’ Operations Director, Andy Lord, said: “Our punctuality and baggage performance continues to improve every month and our customers are really noticing the difference. Terminal 5, after eight months of use, is already delivering levels of performance well in advance of what was expected and well in advance of other major airports or terminals so early in their life.’’

Group members of KLM, who include VLM Airlines and CityJet, are set to make major upgrades to their flights by increasing operations between United Kingdom and Holland in 2009 with a view to providing for the demand they have received by its’ passengers.

From as early as 5th January 2009 the flight route that is from Amsterdam Schiphol airport to London City airport, which was previously operated by KLM, VLM and Cityhopper and will now be taken over by CityJet who are set to providing an AVRO RJ-85 aircraft which will offer passengers both economy and business class seats.

On this same date VLM are to start offering another 8 return flights leaving from Rotterdam airport and arriving at London City airport. With an additional extra aircraft that will remain stationed at Rotterdam airport reserved for the airlines charter services.

VLM is to replace CityJet on the flights running from Eindhoven airport and London city airport and will also provide another two daily flights servicing this route; this is set to begin on 12th January 2009.

The forthcoming changes are anticipated to improve services for more regular business travelers. If VLM decides to pursue plans to join Flying Blue which is the Air France KLM frequent flyer’s programme then the airline will prove extremely popular.

Air France KLM’s area manager, Bram Graber, said:

“With both airlines having won major awards in 2008, frequent business passengers will receive the excellent service they are accustomed to throughout our joint network.”

According to recent research carried out by ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents), British people who are less likely to cut back on their family holidays abroad, even during these current times of economic difficulty. The demand for overseas flights and travel in general is more resilient in the British holiday market than in all other countries.

An ABTA spokesman in response to the findings published by the association said that the demand for foreign family holidays and travel was set to increase by 1% over winter 2008/2009 amongst British people.

When the ABTA spokesman was asked to comment on why he felt that the British market was so resilient when it came to foreign travel and family holidays he explained that one major factor was the way that a holiday was considered, as it is obviously thought of as more of a necessity than a luxury in the UK.

The ABTA spokesman said:

“We’ve been going abroad in large numbers since the 1970s and for most people it’s something they don’t regard as a luxury any more.”

The ABTA representative continued to explain that British people are probably luckier than most in having access to very cheap family holiday deals as well as benefitting from many cheap flight deals.

Research company STR Global just recently compiled data from October 2008 which reveals a very mixed month for the hotel industry generally on a global scale. Some areas experienced growth in visitation and other places registered a clear decline.

Rises in tourism were recorded in Africa and the Middle Eastern regions. Areas such as Dubai and Cairo saw the largest rise in hotel occupancy figures.

Another airline that is due to boost its transatlantic flight services next year by offering new flights to Orlando, Montego Bay and Barbados are Virgin Atlantic.

It is going to be Manchester airport that will form the departure airport and base for the majority of the service expansions and there is to be an extra Saturday service which now provides a flight to Barbados between 2nd May and 7th November 2009 which should complement the existing flights which are already provided on a Sunday to the popular family holiday destination of Barbados.

Now Virgin Atlantic are also going to be providing a greater service and passenger capacity on flights that run between Manchester and Orlando through the offering of new Sunday flights with a Boeing 747-400 aircraft that will launch on 26th April and continue through to 8th November 2009 whilst the bulk of holiday makers will require the service.

Virgin’s extra flight service to Orlando is set to increase the airline’s weekly number of flights leaving from Manchester Airport and arriving in Orlando to ten.

Furthermore, between 13th November 2009 and 19th March 2010, the airline has planned another weekly flight service (which will be its third), to fly from London Gatwick directly to Montego Bay in Jamaica. This follows the extremely successful launch of a twice a week flight connection.

Virgin Airlines have said that Montego Bay is now officially one of their ‘major destinations’ for British people and for family holidays leaving from the UK.