A recent report published by TTG observes that the Birmingham Airport is all set to receive the benefit ensuing from the opening of a new route offered to Istanbul during this winter.

With effect from 15th December, Turkish Airlines will offer these five times weekly service. Most notably, this service will be first connection that is offered directly to the Turkish City from a Midland Airport. The airline has decided to deploy a Boeing 737-800 carrier on this route. Most notably, the aircraft features a dual cabin configuration offering 135 seats in economy class and 20 seats in the club.

The schedule for this service will be as follows. The outbound Monday and Thursday flights will depart the airport at 11.30am. In addition, the Tuesday, Friday and Sunday services will depart from the airport at 1.15pm. The airline is also offering attractive prices on this route with the prices of tickets starting from £180 return with the price including all taxes and additional charges.

A report published in the Post notes that the extension plans for Birmingham Airport's runway are at risk due to the government's planned changes to air tax. As per the recently announced aviation duty changes, the existing per passenger tax is to be replaced with a plane tax with effect from next November. According to the claims made by the manager, this has clearly put the future prosperity of the region at risk by casting serious doubts on plans for a 400-metre extension of the runway.

According to the present plans, Birmingham International is contemplating on a highly ambitious 400-metre extension to the southern end of the runway, which is expected to cater for the needs of long-haul flights including direct flights departing to India, Africa and the West Coast of America. Most notably, this extension shall certainly help placing the West Midlands on a level playing field with several other regions of the UK, as claimed by the airport.

In a statement made to the newspaper, John Morris, Birmingham International Airport's Head of Corporate Affairs noted, "Adding around 400-metres to our runway will dramatically increase the capability of Birmingham Airport and the economic fortunes of the region - by providing the opportunity for direct flights to a host of long-haul destinations. The Government should be aware of the impacts of the so-called Aviation Duty. The Airport Company's financial case will become even more challenging, and regional jobs could be jeopardised. The message to Government is, let's have some clarity."

Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has begun work on a £45 million development for Terminal one (T1).

When completed, the modern and bright facility, called the International Pier, will be a three storeys and 240 metre long structure. This would turn the air travel experience of passengers using Birmingham International Airport into a great one as they would be able to enjoy finest qualities of features that would be available to them at the airport.

The new facility will offer air-bridged plane parking for seven wide-bodied flying machines as well as space for thirteen smaller planes, and will also feature a number of new lounges for passengers. So, the development will mean that the airport would bear a new outlook on technical grounds and also for the facilities provided to the passengers.

Birmingham Airport is spending about £2 million to improve its car parking facility in an attempt to avoid congestion as drivers drop off travellers.

The car parking improvements, which centre on a drop and go space close to the airport's Terminals 1 and 2 for dropping off passengers, have been tailored to keep traffic moving.

The airport had to make alterations to what was the outdoor short-stay car parking space after it was ordered to stop drivers making use of the traditional laid-down tracks outside its terminals 1 and 2, following the unsuccessful attack at Glasgow Airport in the month of June last year.

In the month of May, Birmingham Airport served a total of 877,232 travellers, including 625,770 scheduled travellers and 251,462 charter travellers.

The figures for the month of May this year passed the airport's previous highest number for the month of May and were a 5.7 per cent increase on the same month a year ago.

May was the fourth month in a row of record-breaking numbers at the airport, with the months of February, March and April also witnessing the airport serving monthly bests.

Eastern Airways has shifted all of its services from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 at Birmingham International Airport, promising travellers a fast service through check-in and security channel.

The carrier will provide all its customers with a new dedicated fast track security system, in addition to allow them to check-in at desks 50 to 54 for its flights to the Isle of Man and Newcastle. So, passengers would need to take care about this change while travelling to Birmingham Airport using the services of Eastern Airways.

In addition to this, the carrier also has a new sales and customer service counter situated opposite to the check-in desks. So, passengers can avail the facility of this feature also.

Birmingham Airport is to receive a new air link into one of the leading industrial cities in China. This is great news for passengers of Emirates, as China is fast emerging as a major travelling site both for tourism and business.

Guangzhou, an ancient city and now the economic powerhouse of China, will be joining the fast-growing network of Emirates on the 1st of July. Guangzhou is the carrier's fourth gateway in China, after Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. No wonder that with the success of its earlier routes, the airlines is encouraged to start more flights to China to cater to the needs of its passengers.

Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, flies a two times a day flight from Birmingham to its main hub in Dubai, from where travellers-both business and leisure-will be able to make a journey directly to Guangzhou. So, you will be able to visit Dubai also in the same flight to China-double bonanza.

Eastern Airways has uncovered its plans to change the terminal from which it operates its services at Birmingham International Airport.

In a statement issued on the 27th of May, the carrier said that by next month, it would be flying from the airport's Terminal 1 and not from Terminal 2. So, passengers would need to take care while taking flights of Eastern Airways at Birmingham International Airport.

The airline's shifting will take place on the 4th of June and will be a permanent alteration of the terminals and all the flights would be taken from the new terminal.

Members of the Birmingham Airport staff will be doing a tour of the region in the month of June as part of a community engagement programme.

They will be making visits to a number of places across the region in an attempt to raise awareness about the airport's working and improve relations with neighbouring communities.

With these meetings, local people will also have the chance to raise concerns over issues like noise pollution and other environment related concerns. This is a very good development and step undertaken by Birmingham Airport Staff, as lots of people have many issues related to airports and if they are provided a platform where they can express their concerns, they will feel very happy about it, and this would certainly help to improve the relationship between them and the airport authorities.

Recently, Birmingham Airport made a significant announcement that that it has served over 730,307 passengers in the month of March alone as to break all the earlier traffic records for this month during previous years. Spread across the two terminals of the airport, the total number of passengers was due to 595,306 scheduled travellers in addition to around 135,001 charter passengers.

Notably, the traffic flow in the Birmingham Airport during the month of March demonstrates an increase of 8.4 per cent over the figures noted last year. Over and above, this success followed the remarkable traffic flow in the month of February that worked out to a record number of 635,000 travellers.

Routes to the EU show the greatest growth of about 10.8 percent. This is followed by services to non-EU showing a 9.7 percent increase, with the domestic services showing an increase of 0.9 percent. Also, several scheduled services operated from Birmingham under the mainstream show a definite increase year by year. The notable ones include services to Barcelona, Lyon and Glasgow showing 89 percent, 43 percent and 18 percent increase respectively.

Announcing the winter schedule 2008-09 for Birmingham and Luton airports, Monarch has directed the passengers to book their flights at the earliest. Interestingly, the airline has made several enhancements to its winter schedule to meet the customer needs of the season.

Notably, the winter schedule is to see increased frequencies to Tenerife and Lanzarote, the famous destinations of Canary Island from both UK airports. Over and above, Birmingham will see more number of flights departing to Alicante and Malaga.

Managing Director of Monarch, Liz Savage announced the winter schedule and new services and remarked, "We're once again ahead of our rivals by putting our entire winter programme on sale before the summer months begin, and with more flights to the destinations our passengers want, we're giving them exactly what they want too. Demand for travel to the Canary Islands in particular has been huge for winter and we're pleased to be able to offer 15 per cent more seats compared to last winter from Birmingham and 10 per cent from Luton."

According to the new figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Eastern Airways has been deemed as the most punctual scheduled airline among those departing from Birmingham and Newcastle airports. Collected by Flightontime.info, the reputed on-line aviation analysts, the data reveals that the airline is holding the punctuality status for the second consecutive year. In yet another earlier move, Eastern Airways was also rated number one on-time airline at the Birmingham Airport.

Notably, over 90% of the airline's services departing from Newcastle were observed to take off within 15 minutes. The same was true in the case of those that departed from Birmingham from January to December 2007. In addition, during the same period, any unforeseen delays experienced by the airline's departures at Newcastle and Birmingham were not longer than just six minutes.

Eastern Airways' chief operating officer, Chris Holliday remarked, "Punctuality is key to meeting our customers' high expectations and to be recognised again for our efforts at Newcastle and Birmingham airports is a true reflection of the tremendous endeavours of our pilots, cabin attendants and ground staff."

The foot of Constitution Hill in Birmingham is to see a Hilton budget hotel coming up very soon. The arrival of this new property is hailed by civic leaders as yet another vital cog in the regeneration process of the city.  Notably, developer Harry Kenth made a surprising announcement during the Team Birmingham's launch event at MIPIM that Great Hampton Hotels has signed a letter of proposal to construct an 84-bedroom hotel costing £10 million.

Interestingly, Great Hampton Hotels is a brand new division of the Great Hampton Group and according to Mr Kenth, the hotel might be called as Hampton by Hilton, with the property becoming the first of its kind that would invest on the inner city regeneration opportunities. The innovative decision to commit to the Hilton Group received a hearty welcome from Coun Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, who remarked that such schemes are indeed vital for the transformation process presently under progress in the city.

He observed, "While we are delighted that Ballymore are building a fantastic new building for Westin Five-Star Hotels at the adjacent Snow Hill development, the city needs balance and a good supply of budget accommodation as well. Harry Kenth and his team are to be congratulated in their persistence over two years to bring this scheme to fruition in bringing formerly derelict areas of the West Midlands back to life."

If you are looking forward to celebrate this mother's Day with the ultimate treat, the best option is to take your mum away to one of the premium luxury country house hotels. Moorside Grange is located in the Peak District with wonderful facilities including a relaxation suite, steam room, Russian room and beauty salon to pamper your mum.

Over and above, you can as well take a good advantage of the four-poster tower suites featuring double Jacuzzi and the award-winning restaurant.

Best Western Premier Moor Hall Hotel & Spa located in Birmingham is a fabulous country house facility offering a luxurious first class setting to heighten the enjoyment of your family during this Mother's Day. The exquisite indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room are sure to thrill you with a touch of luxury. Coming as an extra surprise, you can avail a therapeutic beauty treatment to get the maximum out of this special time away with your mum.

In a recent move, Eastern Airways has announced its decision to roll back its service connecting Inverness and Birmingham. This move follows the decision of Flybe airline to launch a competing service on the route on a daily basis.

The current service that is flied two times on all weekdays will cease to operate on the 30th of March. The airline has also announced that those passengers who had booked onto flights after this date would receive a total refund.

A spokesperson for Eastern told Journal and the Press that the decision to remove this particular service was mainly because Inverness Airport has decided to permit Flybe to fly its services on the route.

Birmingham is being geared up to invite the Chinese New Year with great colors. Music, firecrackers and dragon dance are all lined up to give an exciting welcome to the Year of the Rat Celebrations in Birmingham's Chinese Quarter. Tourists will certainly enjoy this programme.

A spectacular afternoon with the complete range of entertainments is being planned with the acrobatic performances of the Bai-Ling Chinese Acrobatics Co Ltd (UK). During the occasion, traditional dance performances by the children from the Birmingham Chinese School and the Overseas Chinese Association School will add more color. The Birmingham Chinese Society Karaoke Group is to join them with their unique musical accompaniment.

With your thrill mounting up with all these wonderful events, you can satisfy your appetite with the traditional Chinese New Year dinner at Henry's, a Cantonese restaurant located in Birmingham's unique Jewellery Quarter. The excitement of the three course sumptuous banquet will be added with a lion dance, Chinese music and a live environment all around. Henry's are going to offer all this at just £35 per person on Thursday, the 7th February. 

The Park Rangers of Birmingham are motivating general public to come out of their houses and visit parks and other green places in the city and take a walk on the wildlife side as their New Year's resolution.

A New Year's Day walk is there at Sutton Park National Nature Reserve, to see the habitat of the wild Exmoor ponies in the park and also to look at other wildlife that occupy the place in winter time.

On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of January, workshops are conducted which will help individuals to accomplish New Year's resolution. These workshops will also help to do one thing for wildlife with the help of making bug houses, bird feeders and bird boxes.

The year ending 31st December, has been a successful year for Birmingham Parks and the parks gardeners of the city: 13 awards for restoration, innovative design, safety and ground maintenance, and horticultural stuff.

The Places and Genius Landscape Design Award for Excellence was the most recent recognition awarded to the Landscape Practice Group of Birmingham City Council for the restoration of Handsworth Park, and was presented at the Birmingham Design Initiative, Industry and Genius Awards ceremony.

"The project has transformed the local community and resulted in a huge increase in use. Major investment in the park has led to a safe environment and has helped reduce crime levels", commented the judges.

In Birmingham, the Christmas sale shoppers will have more than they negotiate for when they come face to face with a 33-foot high, 50-tonne ice wall in Centenary Square.

A division of Birmingham's Street Ice event, the ice wall will remain open till 15th January. 12% rise has been seen in participation in adventure sports since last four years by VisitScotland and is assumed to grow further.

Scotland's various landscape - dramatic mountains, fast flowing rivers and extensive coastline, is accurate for around 50 distinct adventure sports available the entire year.

Book by 31st December and grab the opportunity to fly at a cheaper price. Emirates is offering a number of cheaper price flights to destinations around the globe. For travel between 1st January, 2008 and 12th March, 2008, the airline is offering the following discounted flights.

From Birmingham to: Dubai from £376; Bangkok at a price starting from just £525; Beijing at a price starting from just £423 and Johannesburg at a price starting from just £493.

From London Heathrow to: Dubai at a price starting from just £379; Bangkok at a price starting from just £528 and Kuala Lumpur at a price starting from just £494.

Launched on 5th November 2007 and continuing until 29 March 2008, the Winter Schedule of Aer Arann is to operate eighteen routes between the UK and Ireland. With continuous expansion, Aer Arann is increasing its flights between London and Galway to about three times for this winter.

This would be a very good option offered by the airlines to the passengers as now they will have more choices to choose the schedule and timing of flights while vising these famous cities in UK.

The routes are operated from various regional airports of the UK namely Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow-Prestwick, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, London Luton, Newcastle, Cardiff, Birmingham and Isle of Man. On the routes of Manchester to Kerry, Edinburgh to Galway, and London to Galway, the capacity will be added up further. Almost all the major cities of UK and Scotland are covered under this plan.

For passengers using Birmingham Airport, a new self-serve check-in system has been unveiled by the low cost carrier Monarch. Located in the main concourse of the T 1 of the airport, the Common Use Self-Service kiosks (CUSS) will be available for use to all the travellers flying on scheduled flights of Monarch. By using the new system, amount of time to check in will be reduced.

From Birmingham, Monarch offers several destinations which include Ibiza, Almeria, Tenerife, Faro, Alicante, Lanzarote, Malaga, Mahon, Palma de Majorca and Murcia. So passengers visiting all these places can avail the new facility and check the fastness of the system.

Use of the new system is very simple, simply swipe your passport through the machine, check in, and take print out of your boarding card. What's more, choice of pre-allocated seating is also available for passengers at this point if they want to avail it.

With the Christmas season fast approaching, Birmingham is turning out to be the best place to celebrate Christmas. You will find canal boats, toy robots, and Peter pan heading to the city in a line.

Heralding the seventh year of its inception, Frankfurt Christmas Market is the authentic German Christmas market and the largest of its type staged outside Germany and Austria. Victoria Square is to host this fabulous market between 15th November and 23rd December. The market is to house over 90 stalls with delicacies, crafts and drinks, inviting over two million visitors during the six weeks period.

Between 29th November and 13th January, the Centenary Square is to house the largest ice rink of the UK, offering a thrilling outdoor skating experience combined with favourite tunes. On 15th and 16th of December, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is to bubble with seasonal music specials and Christmas craft activities.

Launching its new schedule to be operated till 29th March 2008, Air Malta offers a choice of over 40 destinations and 150 flights in a week for passengers flying from Malta base.

Some of the notable destinations in the list include Amsterdam, Bari, Athens, Benghazi, Birmingham, Berlin, Bologna, Bristol, Bremen, Budapest, Brussels, Catania, Casablanca, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Hannover, Hamburg, Istanbul, Larnaca, London - Heathrow, London - Gatwick, London - Stansted, Milan, Manchester, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Moscow Domodedovo, Munich, Newcastle, Paris, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Sofia, Rome, Tripoli, Vienna, Tunis, Washington DC and Zurich.

Air Malta's Chief Officer Commercial, Dr Brock Friesen observed, "This season will be yet another exciting one for our customers. The airline is once again offering the best connections and services at value for money prices to and from the Maltese islands, connecting the islands to major European gateways. We are focusing on our marketing campaigns and aggressively promoting value for money travel opportunities during lean months. Our recent seasonal sales includes '13 has just turned lucky' which is offering our customers the exciting opportunity to travel to 18 destinations from Malta, at the fantastic price starting from Lm 13 one-way."

City Inn is designing, constructing and running contemporary fashioned hotels in UK top city centre areas. Current sites include Bristol, Westminster, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham. 

Recently, City Inn has come out a fresh contemporary and stylish bedroom design across its hotels in the UK in consultation with Fox Linton- the leading London interior design firm.

City Inn received the Best Hotel Brand at the Business Travel World Awards 2007 and 2006. The hotel company is offering bespoke services for individuals and companies looking for an access to facilities required for their business, with a choice of state-of-the-art conference facilities, meeting rooms and private dining rooms.

To provide drivers with the latest travel and traffic information from the nearby M23 and M25 motorways, digital screens have been set up at Gatwick Airport. This would be immense importance to the drivers to plan their timing and journey routes in order to avoid traffic. The airport has certainly provided a good option to the drivers and passengers also.

The traffic and travel information will be provided directly by the Highways Agency website, and live cameras and the National Traffic Control Centre in Birmingham--a substantial amount of information would be provided.

The information will help drivers in planning their journey accordingly so as to and avoid potential delays and reach the airport and from airport in time. In total, there are 4 digital screens which are placed at the two parking pay stations, and the valet parking and car hire regions.

Birmingham welcomed over 30 million visitors last year, and is the city which can provide up to 17 million seats a year to see performances.

The cultural resurgence of Birmingham is thanks to world class settings, outstanding performers and creative artists who have practiced and work in the city.

The city is home to establishments such as Birmingham Royal Ballet and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and venues like the £35m renovated Town Hall and the nation's busiest theatre outside the West End Birmingham Hippodrome.

Though it is too early to plan for Christmas, But York tourism has involved itself in doing so. They are assuming that this year also in December just like the last year, the record will be broken by increasing number of the tourists coming to the city.

In this week Yuletide York 2007 is commenced with a sleek guide created by the York Tourism Partnership in order to attract the visitors towards the city.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, commands: "We're delighted York's Ice Factor is making a third consecutive appearance in York and old favourites like the Festival of Angels are returning too".