easyJet's ground handing company's staff members are threatening to go on strike over a pay issue. The members of the staff having responsibility to pass the aircrafts of the company fit to fly from Luton Airport, are polling for the strike decision which could result in destruction of the plans of a large number of people jetting off in the countdown to Christmas.

Bearers at Big Orange Handling, the firm owned by easyJet and Menzies Aviation, which is providing ground services for the carrier, said that they are undervalued and they are not getting enough salary, and they demand balance with other fellows.

Dispatchers have equal responsibilities as the pilots in checking if a aircraft is worthy enough to be flown in the sky. All the 25 dispatchers get £18,100 per annum as their basic salary but they are demanding an additional £1,000 so that they could be in line with their group leaders.

Titchwell Manor Hotel, which is only a 10 minutes walk from RSPB Titchwell Marsh on the unspoiled coast of North Norfolk, near Brancaster is presenting special offer for two-night holidays until Christmas at a price of just £175 per room for a night dinner, bed and breakfast for twin sharing basis.

The special offer prices includes packed meals, area maps and RSPB instructions for the best places for bird-watching so that visitors can enjoy spending a day out in the lap of nature.

During the month of November, thousands of Brent geese come at Titchwell Marsh together with wading feathered creatures getting away from the Siberian and Arctic winters. Their large groups are a great scene as they swirl just like bulky clouds do across the coast and out to blue.

A promotional offer has been launched by Durham Tees Valley Airport for its long stay car parking services for those who make an online spot booking. Durham Tees Valley Airport is providing travellers making journeys up to 31st March, 2008 with an opportunity to save up to 50 per cent on the prices charged at present at the front passage. This is good news for passengers who find it very costly to park the car at airports when they have come to take a flight or to drop their friends or family members to take the flight.

Durham Tees Valley Airport managing director, Hugh Lang, said, "We are sure that this online promotion will be of great value to passengers using the airport over the winter season as it provides huge savings for those parking for two days or more".

The airport's promotional offer is available to those people who made a pre-booking for car parking for one week (8 days). For this they will have to pay £30, while the passengers who park their vehicles for 10 days or more will get a discount of 50 per cent. For people who are parking their vehicles for fifteen days, the price will be £44.50 which is half of the gate price charged at present.

Canadian Affair, the holiday operator, will make its return to Newcastle Airport in 2008 to operate flights from the North East of England to Toronto Pearson International Airport. From 21st May, 2008, the operator will operate weekly flights on every Wednesday. The tickets for this service will start at £99 one-way. Meals are also included in the price of the tickets.

Travellers who are flying with the little ones below 12 years of age can also take advantage of child discounts. Passengers who are looking to visit Toronto would love this news and would also like to take advantage of many offers presented by the holiday operator, Canadian Affair.

Canadian Affair which is the UK's biggest tour operator to Canada, will use the services operated by an Air Transat A310. The A310 is being reconfigured in time for the launch of the route by taking out a number of seats in the economy class to provide additional space for every seat, so passengers will enjoy a seat pitch of 32 inches--easiness in travelling.

Travel website TripAdvisor conducted the annual trends poll of over 2,500 visitors from around the globe, and found Jerba in Tunisia to be the top location and British Airways the favoured carrier among passengers outside the US.

Eight out of 10 questioned said when they travel, they are very much concerned about viruses, bacteria and germs. Around 28 per cent consider aircrafts to be germy.

Cleanliness in airports, hotels and restaurants is also a major concern for people, and 55 per cent of respondents said that they wash their hands more frequently while travelling.

Young individuals between 16 and 17 year of age will now be able to put forward an application for a passport without the consent of their parents, announced the Identity and Passport Service (IPS).

The Identity and Passport Service said that the change in the rule will be in force from 10th December.

The IPS says that it will make sure that its service is appropriate with the present legal practice.

Air Southwest has come out with the plans to increase the number of routes it serves from Plymouth City Airport to double. The airline has also announced plans to launch 3 fresh routes from Newquay Airport.

From Plymouth City Airport, the carrier will operate new daily services to Newcastle and Gatwick, four times a week services to Cork and a three times a week flight to Dublin. All these services will be started on 28th April, 2008 and will fly year-round.

From Newquay Airport, the ailine will operate daily services to Newcastle and Glasgow, six times a week services to Cork, and a once in a week service to Chambery, the Alpine ski gateway location. Except the Chambery route, all services will be started on 28th April 2008, and serve the routes year-round, while the services on the Chambery route, which will start on 20th December, 2008 and will operate until 28th March, 2009.

From April next year, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) will begin operating its flights between Bristol and Oslo. This is one of the eagerly anticipated route for passengers looking to travel to Oslo, and now as SAS is offering the flights, they have a great option to travel from Bristol.

After offering services successfully of its fresh Bristol to Stockholm route which it launched earlier this year, the airline will now start offering its services from the West Country airport to the Norwegian capital on 1st April, 2008.

The airline will offer a three times a week flight on this route: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. For the new service, the price of tickets will start from £29 one-way, including all the taxes. You can check the official site of the airlines to book your tickets according to the schedule.

Eastern Airways today started operating its services from Manchester to Stansted, with Dominic Cork, Lancashire and England cricketer, pitching up to make sure that the flight took off to a seamless beginning.

The carrier took the services of Manchester-Stansted route from Air Berlin. It will fly up to 15 flights in a week. This is a welcome news for passengers looking to fly from Manchester to Stansted, as they have now more options available on their hands.

The carrier has updated the timetable of Manchester-Stansted route to add an early morning flight which will take-off from Manchester at 7.15 a.m. The new addition will appeal to business passengers the most.

Hard rules limiting travellers to a single item of hand baggage could be eased off before Christmas, reports the Mirror newspaper.

The restriction has been attacked for causing long checks and luggage issues at Heathrow as well as other key airports in the UK.

Restrictions were imposed by the Ministers when a terrorist plan to blow up airliners was uncovered last year. After some time, the restrictions were relaxed allowing travellers to carry only a small hand baggage with them while they travel. Other nations did not administer similar rules, and Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is holding talks with airport authorities to end the limits within the following weeks, to a senior Whitehall source says.

Closing the chapter of connections between Britain and Zimbabwe, the last flight of British Airways from Harare reached at Heathrow last night. BA152 was the last flight on the route which the carrier said it was suspending because it had been a loss making for a long time. The British Airways has finally called off its services to Zimbabwe.

The economy of Zimbabwe is in freefall and country's tourism has also been experiencing a continuous downfall. But in Zimbabwe the move is being taken as part of the efforts of London to cut off the regime of Robert Mugabe, despite the fact that British Airways is a business firm.

Today, no reference of the milestone is made by the official media of Zimbabwe but the independent Zimonline website published that safety issues over an IATA audit could see the state owned airline barred from operating to the Europe.

Readers of The Guardian, The Observer and The Guardian Unlimited website have awarded the low-cost airline, Jet2.com with the title of Best Short Haul Airline. It is for the second running year that the airline has been awarded with this recognition. The announcement of the awards was made at an awards function in Seville.

The carrier fought off hard competition from a number of other carriers offering services on the European routes. The second position was won by the Dutch carrier KLM and bmi was got the third position.

Jet2.com managing director, Ian Doubtfire, said, "This really is a fantastic achievement for our airline, all the more special because it is voted for by the British public on key factors such as customer service and inflight experience".

A gorgeous member of The Dorchester Collection, The Dorchester, is the perfect place for the guests for Christmas celebrations with the Winter Wonderland turning up in Hyde Park which is just a few minutes from their accommodation.

Features of the Winter Wonderland will London's biggest open air ice rink, a stunning 50m big observation wheel, a traditional German Christmas market, a stirring toboggan slide, a carousel & other entertaining rides, carol concerts, cafés and Santa Claus' visits.

The Dorchester, one of the most legendary hotels in the world and offering the softest bed linens, the deepest baths in London, and London's best afternoon tea, is certainly the right place to start getting into the festive mood.

Glasgow's biennial International Festival of Light, Radiance comes back to the city from November 23 to November 25. The festival is part of Winterfest Glasgow 2007, funded by the Cities Growth Fund. 

Lighting artworks will witness courtyards, structures, and even gable ends from High Street to Buchanan Street changed by internationally renowned designers.

The highlights of this year's event include the project of Xavier de Richemont at Glasgow Cathedral, where the whole of the Cathedral will emerge as a present-day scene. His work was never seen in the UK before this.

An exclusive member of Unusual Hotels of the World on the Isle of Wight, the Enchanted Manor, has been recognised as the best B&B in the whole of South East in the famous 2007 Tourism ExSEllence Awards.

Located at St Catherine's Point, Sandrock road, Niton, the Enchanted Manor, is a 5-star Gold Award-rated B&B. The property was originally constructed in the year 1838 and changed into a different, boutique tourism business by its proprietors Maggie and Ric Hilton in the year 2006.

Seven luxury suites of the Enchanted Manor are complemented by a swimming pool, lounge area, separate room for smoking and much more. In addition, the quality and innovation of facilities attracted attention in a highly aggressive awards class

Edinburgh Airport has revealed that the number of locations served from the airport has reached to 100. It is for the first time that the airport has touched the century mark. Over a period of last ten months, a rise in international routes-29 fresh routes, in total-has held the total number of locations served from the hub up. This is of course good news for passengers who have easier access to Edinburgh Airport in Scotland, as they have vast choice of destinations that they can travel taking flights from Edinburgh.

Edinburgh airport overtook Glasgow to emerge as the busiest in Scotland this summer season, and is among the rapidly growing UK airports, with a total of 8.9 million travellers passed through the hub over the last one year-ten years ago, the number of passengers who used hub was just 4.3m.

David Johnston, managing director at Edinburgh Airport, said, "These links are hugely important for our leisure passengers, who tell us they want to be able to fly direct from their local airport, as well as for incoming visitors and business travelers".

Northern Ireland's biggest low-cost carrier, easyJet, is going to increase the number of routes on which it is offering its services from Belfast International Airport to 23 this week with the introduction of 4 fresh routes.

Gdansk in Poland is the first to be launched by the airline. The services to Gdansk will be started tomorrow. Next comes the turn of services to Prague and Venice, which will be launched on Thursday and the services to Barcelona will be started on Saturday.

The airline expects to serve over 140,000 travellers on these new routes in the first year.

Ending 62 years of service, British Airways yesterday said goodbye to Harare international airport. With 200 travellers onboard, the London-bound BA152 left without any recognition of the step.

British Airways, the last overseas long-haul carrier operating in Zimbabwe, announced last month that it was dropping out its Harare operation since it had been making a huge loss to the company.

BA's customer numbers started to fall in the year 2000 after President Mugabe started his strong removal of white farmers.

Following the booking of ten of the world's largest aircrafts by domestic airline Kingfisher Airlines to fly on the domestic as well as international routes, British Airways is planning to operate the superjumbo A380 to India to beat this expanding market.

Talking to the ET, Robert Baird, BA's general manager Asia-Pacific said, "We have confirmed orders of the A380. We have had a phenomenal growth in traffic from India and a big aircraft like A380 will help us meet the increasing demand and deliver better service in this volume market".

Over the past two years, the services of the airline to India have increased by 50% and BA has taken the number of its daily flights to 43 which was 19 previously.

Low-cost airline, Thomsonfly, has discontinued its flights from Coventry to Barcelona as a result of increasing competition from other regional airports like East Midlands Airport and Birmingham International Airport.

The last service for the famous Spanish city will be operated from Coventry Airport on the following Thursday (1st November).

"Thomsonfly will, regrettably, be discontinuing its service from Coventry Airport to Barcelona", said a spokeswoman.

World's largest carrier, American Airlines, is starting operations of its new nonstop flight between JFK International Airport New York and Stansted Airport London from October 28.

The new service will be the only transatlantic service between the two destinations which offers Business as well as Economy class.

From April next year, the airline will add another daily flight to give travellers freedom to choose an early or late evening departure from JFK to Stansted and from Stansted to JFK, they can choose a morning or late afternoon departure.

From today, 29th October, British Airways is going to start operating double-daily service between Heathrow and Cape Town offering an additional 14040 seats on Heathrow-Cape Town route this winter. This is welcome news for people visiting Cape Town. Cape Town is fast emerging as one of the most preferred destinations for people in UK-so passengers of BA would love this announcement.

It is for the second succeeding winter that the carrier has increased its schedule to Cape Town to double. The airline is anticipating a little difficulty in filling the extra capacity.

Lin Glass, British Airway's General Manager South Africa, said, "Last year the flights filled up fast, both with incoming tourists and South Africans taking a year-end overseas holiday. This year the forward bookings are already robust and we expect a bumper festive season and New Year".

Following a number of folded deals with the Maltese government, finally easyJet is able to find a way to fly to Malta via the back door after buying GB Airways, the carrier which operates daily flight between Malta and Gatwick. Now passengers could visit Malta using flights of easyJet.

The low cost carriers had long been looking to operate flights to and from Malta, but talks with government had failed in favour of Ryanair, Europe's largest low cost airline. Ryanair received green light for the Luton route.

Ryanair is carefully watching the situation as it could lead to a fresh, tougher, battle in Malta if easyJet manage to gain further routes towards London.

Representatives of British Airways at LAX said that the carrier will go on accommodating surfboards beyond a suggested limit date set for the month November. This would be welcome news for some surfers who were looking to enjoy holidays surfing.

The statement emerges out of the pressure from annoyed surf communities. Last week, the International as well as British Surfing Associations issued statements backing a appeal to lobby the carrier. Since then, more than 2,700 signatures have been collected.

Conditions broke out in September after the website of the airline started considering surfboards along with canoes, pole vaults, javelins as sporting supplies it would no longer accommodate, with effect from 6th November, 2007.

Virgin Atlantic has finalized the decision to shift its Barbados flights to Heathrow from Gatwick, in the spaces doubtfully bought from Air Jamaica, reports Jamaican Observer newspaper.

According to the newspaper, it clearly means that the remarkably rewarded slots have moved to a competing Caribbean location.

In May, Virgin said yes to acquire flights of Air Jamaica between London and Kingston. For the Caribbean carrier, this route was a loss making one.

Following the decision of the Government previously this month to increase air passenger duty to double than at present, for business-class only carriers from next November, Silverjet, Luton Airport based airline yesterday said that it is to present passengers the option to participate in its carbon offsetting programme at the time of their seat booking.

According to a spokesman for the carrier, Silverjet remains very glad of and bound to its CarbonNeutral scheme, which has to date witnessed the carrier offset hundred percent of its passengers travel emissions, making a contribution of more than £550,000 towards a number of environmental programmes.

The Chief Executive Officer of Silverjet, Lawrence Hunt, said,
"Offering customers the ability to opt-out of paying to offset their carbon emissions via our programme has been a difficult decision and not one we have taken lightly. However, we feel that it is right for us to offer an opt-out option for our carbon offsetting scheme and let customers decide whether they wish to pay the extra amount".

British Airways, the carrier will cut its additional bag fee-the charges for travellers who want to take an extra bag along with them onboard-on 6th November, after accepting the existing fee was very high, according to a spokesman.

The airline will cut the cost of checking bags from £120 each way  or £240 for a return travel to £75 each way. The carrier will also give relaxation in its weight allowances.

The reduction in short-haul check-ins will be from £60 to £30, while it is from £30 to £20 for the UK domestic flights.

Now, Lufthansa customers can select their seat at the time of online check in through www.lufthansa.com. With a graphic seat plan, the selection is made simple, as it shows all the available seats when checking-in online. Passengers can choose their seat while sitting at their home or at the office. After selecting their seat, they print their boarding pass.

What's more, the facility of checking-in online is now available 23 hours before the flight takes-off, which will allow travellers to ensure in good time of getting their chosen seat in the plane cabin.

Simultaneously, after around 10 months since their launch, passengers can now obtain online boarding passes for flights on more than 350 routes served by Lufthansa including all German domestic routes and on most flights to European destinations.

Europe's biggest carrier, Air France-KLM Group SA, today called off about 30 per cent of its services from French airports due of a strike by the flight attendants.

Marina Tymen, a spokeswoman for Air France , said, "We are able to maintain about 70 percent of our flights".

She further said that disruptions are more affecting at airports in Paris , which are used for similar services as hubs.

Europe's largest low cost carrier, Ryanair, is offering 100,000 seats for just £5, including all the charges and taxes to celebrate the launch of its Belfast base.

These seats are released for travel in the months of November, December and January across all of its fresh routes from Belfast City to London, Liverpool, Glasgow and East Midlands.

From October 30th, the airline will base a new Boeing 737-800 aircraft at BCA and will promise the lowest prices from any Belfast airport.

From next week, low fares carrier Jet2.com will begin operating its air services from Newcastle to Las Palmas, on Gran Canaria, and Arrecife, on Lanzarote.

The carrier will start operating new services to the Canaries from 29th October. The company will operate the route to Las Palmas two times per week: on Mondays until mid of the month of January and Saturdays. The route to Arrecife will be served weekly on Thursdays.

These flights will join the airline's existing winter services to Tenerife, and offers travellers from the North East an opportunity to draw benefit from the scheduled flight-only services to both locations. It will give passengers a freedom to encase their personal holiday packages with individual bookings for flights and accommodation.

At the 2007 Northern Ireland Travel and Tourism Awards, Belfast International Airport has received the Special Achievement Award. The event was hosted by TV personality Angela Rippon, and was held in the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa, Newcastle.

The airport was recognised for its fast growth that includes more than forty direct flights to North America and Europe from the airlines such as Jet2.com, Continental Airlines, Flyglobespan and bmibaby.

Besides this, Aer Lingus recently has come out with its plans to make Belfast International Airport its European hub, with 9 fresh routes starting during the coming few months.

Aer Lingus has revealed that from 1st November, it will increase its long-haul fuel surcharge due to the rising oil price. This of course would not be welcome news, but in wake of rising oil prices, it is also possible that more airlines would do the same.

With these changes, the surcharge on flight services from Ireland to New York, Washington and Boston will rise to €50/£35 per segment or per leg).

The surcharge on flights to Orlando, Dubai and Chicago will increase to €55/£40, while on flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles the surcharge will rise to €65/£45.

This weekend, fans of My Little Pony are running to Bristol for celebrating the 25th anniversary of the toy. My Little Pony Convention or popularly known as Ponyco which allures hundreds of individuals from all age groups from all over the world and arrives in Bristol for the first time.

Freya Pointer, the organiser, said, "This is the fourth convention, and we have chosen Bristol in recognition of the large number of horse-mad people--young and not so young--in this part of the world".

At one moment, the showily coloured characters, named as Blue Belle, Butterscotch, Cotton Candy, and were out to sell Barbie and several toys' fans have maintained loyalily.

Through the Singapore Motor Sports Council, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has given green light for the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix to conduct the night-race – the first of its kind in the history of the sport.

"The in-principle approval by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for Singapore to host a night race is yet another positive step in our preparations to present to the world a truly unique Formula One race", said Mr. Lim Neo Chian, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board.

Chian further said, "Subject to final safety approval, Formula One fans worldwide will be able to enjoy a race experience like no other in Singapore from next year-a dramatic night street race set against our beautiful city skyline".

After the news that the British Airways-Loganair franchise deal will not be in force from next year, Loganair clients are being given assurance that there will be no changes in the Air Discount Scheme.

The main aim of the Air Discount Scheme is to provide low cost air services for people living in Scotland's far-off Highlands and Islands communities. Airlines that are participating in the scheme are Eastern Airways, Highland Airways and British Airways (via Loganair).

Now, Highlands and Islands Airports has given assurance to the travellers that the scheme remains unchanged and there is not effect of the news about the the ending franchise agreement.

Europe's largest low-cost airline Ryanair has come out with a number of fresh flight services from Ireland which will be starting from the coming spring. This would be a great chance for passengers to enjoy the routes offered by Ryanair.

In the month of March, the carrier will start operating flights from Dublin to Palma, Santander and Zadar (Croatia) and from Shannon to Alicante.

With the start of these fresh flights, the number of routes from Dublin on which Ryanair offers its services will rise to 83, while from Shannon, the number will rise to 31, consolidating its place as Ireland's largest carrier.

To change the St Fagans National History Museum into the centerpiece of Welsh tourism, a ten-year paln will be revealed.

For tourists, the venue is already the most popular attraction in Wales. But the pushing strategy is aim at transforming it into a world class museum of learning.

The museum features more than 40 structures belonging to different periods of the history, including a Celtic village.

By way of helping the holidaymakers get away to the sun, First Choice, the reputed tour operator is to base an aircraft at Exeter International Airport all through 2008 summer. This would be a great chance to avail the services of First Choice, who has announced some great holiday offers to the passengers.

With effect from mid-July next year, First Choice is to launch a new service flying to Rhodes besides increasing the number of flights on its Corfu, Larnaca and Palma routes. So, if you are looking for any of these destinations to spend your time, you can plan it now.

The addition of the new jet is expected to offer 50 more jobs to the region. Interestingly, the company has already based an aircraft at Exeter for the winter season.

GetThere, the global leader of online business travel technology has launched a unique portfolio of enhancements titled GetThere Green in an effort to enable various corporations to integrate their environmental centred travel policies. Made available to agency resellers and corporations, GetThere Green will help companies integrate their supplier green status and carbon emission data. Besides, they can also adequately educate their travellers at the point of selling regarding the carbon footprint of their journey and the impact choices that they can opt while booking.

Quite encouragingly, since 2006, corporate travellers using GetThere have booked over 10 million business trips. So, you can expect a better understanding of carbon footprints when you now buy your travel plan from sellers.

Provided by all the GDS users, there are three key components to GetThere Green. Integration of Carbon Data helps in tracking the emission of the travellers through an embedded calculator. Supplier Designation enables the travellers to choose their air, hotel, rail or auto service provider by tracking "Green Partner" label. Dynamic Messaging helps sharing anticipated emissions in between cities or identify the sustainable partners and properties in a given destination.

With a brand new onward travel centre to be established at the hub, the holidaymakers flying to Malaga and Palma de Mallorca through Gatwick airport will find their journeys made easier. The new centre is to be opened on 29th October in the south terminal of the airport where the smoking area was located earlier. When you will move there after 29th, you will have this centre ready to receive you.

The basic idea of this new travel hub is to pool together the transport services from several service providers including National Express Coaches and Southern Trains, enabling the travellers comfortably link their journeys between home and holiday destinations via Gatwick. So, the travellers will have a sort of feature that would save their time and also reduce the hassles that are often involved in such kinds of journeys.

The new onward travel centre comes as a part of Gatwick's initiative to get over 40 per cent of its non-transfer passengers to make use of mass transit systems for surface journeys within the next ten years.