In a significant and highly welcomes move, Tram-trains has announced that it would operate from the main Edinburgh to Fife railway line to Edinburgh Airport. This move has been conceived as part of the plans being championed by transport chiefs. This has been reported by the Scotsman. Most notably, a spur from the busy commuter line shall enable the hybrid vehicles to connect to the airport before linking with the tram line 1A, that is still under construction.

The move is part of plans to make an attempt to build a wider tram network in addition to relieving congestion at Edinburgh's two main railway stations including Waverley and Haymarket. The officials of the Council are already into a study pertaining to the operation of the hybrid trams between Newcraighall and Haymarket, where they would be transferred to the tramline heading out to Edinburgh Park.

Most interestingly, tram-trains are to be trialled in the UK for the first time in the year 2010. It is said that tramlines shall replace the standard trains on the Penistone Line running between Huddersfield, Barnsley and Sheffield over a two-year trial. In fact, tramlines are better equipped than the standard trains to transport more passengers. However, there have been some safety concerns with respect to these two modes sharing the same tracks. In this regard, the new move to trail run the tramlines by suspending the conventional trains for a period of two years has been necessitated to decide on the best option suitable from several angles.

Quoting the moves taken by the administration, the Evening News reports that BAA, the airport authority has planned to install a series of banners to advertise and promote a wide range of events. Most notably, BAA has plans to promote two major global events namely the international rugby matches. The banners also will be used to promote the awareness of certain vital issues at the airport. For instance, BAA shall put up some banners that shall illustrate the benefits associated with its car parks in detail.

To meet the above said ends, BAA has forwarded an application to get permission to install 11 hanging banners. Each of them will be three metres tall. The banners will be attached to the lamp-posts located around the main terminal building. Contemplating to use these banners for a range of commercial marketing and promotional purpose, BAA has given two examples of the international rugby matches at Murrayfield and the Edinburgh International Festival given as two examples, as per the report published in the newspaper.

In fact, BAA has told that the banners can also be help the airport authority in reaching out the passengers with the benefits associated with the multi-storey car park constructed within the airport for the benefit of those who would like to park their car. The wonderful utility value of installing the banners have persuaded most people to the belief that once installed, these banners shall set a trend to influence other airports to follow suite.

Green supporters have demanded schemes to expand Edinburgh Airport to be withdrawn in the face of record high levels of the prices of oil, according to the Scotsman.

As per its published master plan, the airport could nearly treble by the year 2030, with land being set aside for a possible second airstrip and the Highland Showground being pushed to move to permit the airport operator BAA to construct yet another airport parking.

According to estimates, around 22.5 million travellers a year will be passing through Edinburgh Airport by the year 2030, assuming that the prices of oil today are just $60 per barrel.

Under the prevailing scenario, passengers setting out to travel with night flights into Edinburgh this summer can expect diversions on most occasions. This is reported in a recent report published by the Scotsman on 1st May. The reasons are not far to seek.

The airport is carrying out a large scale work during night time to resurface the entire stretch of the main runway presupposes that the aircrafts need to make use of the secondary runway for time being till the works are accomplished. But unfortunately, the alternative second runway lacks the provision of instrument landing system that is employed at the airports to guide the aircrafts to the ground during the times of poor visibility. Due to this limitation, the incoming flights may have to be diverted to other airports located nearby, especially under the conditions of fog or heavy rains.

Notably, in this connection, the first diversion was necessitated last Monday when a Flyglobespan aircraft had to be rerouted to Glasgow Airport very early in the morning.

Especially in August, tickets for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo sell out in record time. For those looking to make the best out of this wonderful event, Perthshire's The Gleneagles Hotel, the world-renowned AA Five Red Star resort has introduced an exclusive residential package that also includes 'the hottest ticket in town'.

Before departing from Gleneagles, Guests will be treated with drinks and canapés. Coach travels will be arranged to and from Edinburgh Castle accompanied by a tour guide and a management host representing the hotel to ensure a wonderful evening for all.

Returning to Gleneagles, guests can relax enjoying a luxurious overnight stay in one of the stylish and comfortable guest bedrooms of the hotel followed by a delicious full Scottish breakfast on the next morning. The package includes with it the use of all leisure facilities in the club. The prices for the whole package start from £530 per person for a room for a night's stay based on double occupancy. Accommodation in these classic rooms is subject to availability. Tickets are presently available for 6th, 13th or 20th August. To avoid disappointment, book early.

A new fast-track vehicle rental service is set to serve travellers from both Edinburgh and Gatwick airports. Passengers will now be able to make a booking for a vehicle from Europcar's Airside at the airport from where they are boarding their flight, and accordingly the rental location will be contacted for the confirmation about the requirements of the client and advance booking. This is a great facility provided for the passengers of both Gatwick and Edinburgh, and they would certainly love it.

The service providers are claiming to offer their clients a seamless service, with which they will be able to show their rental deal at the company's depot at their destination and they can get the vehicle for which they have asked.

David Alexander, the company's operations director, said, "Now customers can check in for their car rental before they board the plane, safe in the knowledge that the rental agreement will be pre-printed and the vehicle will be allocated before they even take off. When they arrive at their destination, they just sign the paperwork and drive away".

Now, a new fixed-cost return taxi service is there to benefit travellers using Edinburgh Airport, offering a link for those in both city centre and other outer areas with the airport.

On January 17, Onward Travel launched the new taxi service which will offer a return journey between the airport and the Edinburgh city centre for a price of just £12 for accommodating between one and five individuals, while the price is £18 for carrying between six and eight individuals.

Those who want to avail the new service for reaching the airport from Edinburgh's less central areas, will have to bear a cost of £15 return-for up to 5 individuals. And, if the number of people is more, then a larger vehicle will serve the purpose of taking up to 8 passengers, which will be available for a price of just £21 (return travel).

Those customers of Delta Air Lines desiring to set out to Scotland for a summer fortnight can now fly the largest trans-Atlantic carrier of the world to travel between its largest gateway in Atlanta and the Scottish capital of Edinburgh.

The non-stop delta flights connecting Atlanta and Edinburgh will fly seasonally between the 2nd June and 1st October 2008 by way of complimenting the New Year round services connecting Edinburgh and New York-JFK, beginning from 1st May. 

Once the Atlanta-Edinburgh route returns, the passengers of Delta will have non-stop access to over 31 trans-Atlantic destinations through its Atlanta hub that includes new services to Lagos, Nigeria that was inaugurated on 3rd December 2007, besides London-Heathrow with effect from 29th march 2008 and Stockholm, Sweden with effect from 3rd June 2008.

As per the announcement made by the government, more UK airports including Edinburgh and Glasgow have secured permission to allow travellers carry more than one piece of hand baggage with them while travelling with effect from Monday, the 7th of January. Passengers of these airports will be able to carry more than one bag.

Earlier in August 2006, an exposed plot to bombard transatlantic planes using liquid explosives led to the limiting of one carry-on bag for a passenger. However, this measure was met with a lot of complaints from passengers, airports and airlines with the surging of checked items causing broken conveyors and longer waiting times.

Notably, the government will withdraw the rule on the 7th of January for those airports, which have convinced Department for Transport (DfT) with their arrangements to deal with the additional luggage without increasing the queues at the baggage screening. The list announced by DFT last week contained 17 airports that have met these requirements. Now, three more are added to this list including Edinburgh and Glasgow. Surprisingly, Gatwick, the second biggest airport of the UK is yet to enter the list.

Two new Scandinavian destinations from Edinburgh Airport have been announced by Sterling Airlines for summer 2008. The airline has started the sale of tickets for the new flights to the Danish destination Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Stockholm.

Sterling airlines has offered some great routes to British passengers in the recent past and no wonder that such a good offer is coming along. Edinburgh Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, and to have more options of travelling ot Copenhagen and Stockholm, passengers would surely love this offer.

Carole Arnaud-Battandier, International Marketing Manager for the carrier, said, "Sterling Airlines expands in Europe to satisfy its growing number of customers. The magical realms of Scandinavia are just waiting for you".

Edinburgh at Hogmanay, a place to be seen in the New Year, presents a glowing night of entertainment, spirit, passion and celebration with eight tones of fireworks, around 100,000 people, 4 days of gala comprising of the Torchlight Procession, Candlelit Concert, The Hoog, The Hoog Royale, and Edinburgh's Hogmanay Street Party, a 40-foot long wooden longboat, 25 bands, one gun shot, 500 mad swimmers, and 40 huge devils with a height of over 100 metres tall.

EventScotland Chief Executive, Paul Bush, says: "Edinburgh's four-day festival is already one of the biggest and most vibrant Hogmanay celebrations. This year's additional celebrations of Highland culture and the Monster Ceilidh on the Night A'fore will only help to cement the fact that the city's New Year festivities are among the best, not only in Europe, but the world".

"With over 100,000 people predicted to attend the celebrations, Edinburgh's Hogmanay provides a great platform to show the city at its best and proves that it is the place to be this Hogmanay".

With the overwhelming success of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, EDINBURGH'S ROYAL Museum is to be refurbished under a multi-million pound project.

To commence in the next May, the £46.4 million project will require the closure of two thirds of the Museum for not less than three years including the iconic Victorian entrance hall. The refurbishment will create a large space to exhibit show thousands of hidden treasures that are stored in the vaults of the Museum. On its completion, the museum will be the largest of its nature outside London.

Opening its doors for the public in the year 1886, initially the museum was called the Edinburgh Industrial Museum. With the National Museum of Scotland opening its doors in 1998, the Royal Museum wore a tired look. The refurbishment is expected to add new life to this magnificent accomplishment.

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.

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."

The 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships scheduled on March 30th 2008 at the Holyrood Park, Edinburgh is to welcome the greatest cross country runners of the globe in addition to thousands of their supporters at the inspiring capital of Scotland.

Scotland is to host these championships that mark the 30th Anniversary of the event. Earlier, on Saturday, the 25th March 1978, the 6th IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.

It is believed on the occasion that the increasing popularity of the cross country is heralded by hosting a record number of events from several continents welcoming a crowd of over 10,000 in the show case event of the weekend to be covered live on the BBC television.

With six weeks of celebrations, the Edinburgh Winter Festival is the perfect place for you for a heightened festive spirit and an extended holiday. 

Edinburgh Winter Festival has something for everyone with exciting events like luxury markets, fireworks and parades. There is a plenty of attraction over there assuring to keep the party of your friends or your family dipped in fun and excitement all along.

Quite interestingly, travelling to Edinburgh is the easiest thing with the city rated on top in the UK for seven years continuously by Observer Readers and Guardian.

Free parking will be offered to city centre businesses and buyers on Saturday afternoons and in the evening of all weekdays throughout the festival season, if Councillors approve the plans next week.

The plans are would mean free parking for vehicles in the City Centre, West End, Grassmarket and Old Town in on-street fee and display arms after 5.30 p.m. on all weekdays between 1st December 2007 and 6th January, 2008. Free parking will also be offered on every Saturday afternoon throughout the month of  December in all these places.

Proposals will be considered by the Policy and Strategy Committee, which will also make the plan a yearly event at its next meeting scheduled to be taken plance on 6th November.

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".

In a significant move, bmi regional is adding up an extra return flight between Manchester and Edinburgh starting from 28th October. With this, the number of flights operated by the UK's most punctual airline goes up to eight in either direction per day raising the total number of flights to 88 on this route every week. By way of improving the schedule for travellers, the airline is also rescheduling one of its existing flights operated on weekdays. According to the latest CAA figures, bmi regional still retains its position as the UK's most punctual airline.

Commercial director of bmi regional, Peter Kenworthy observed, "We are delighted to be introducing this additional service between Manchester and Edinburgh, well-timed for the business traveller in particular. We are also confident that the other timetable improvements between Manchester and Edinburgh will be popular with travellers, which together with our full service offering gives us a unique advantage over our competitor on the route. bmi regional will offer the most flights each weekday between the two cities. We are also delighted to retain our number one position as the most punctual airline in the UK and it is extremely rewarding to see such impressive results being achieved and maintained."

The top attractions of bmi regional are modern Embraer jet aircraft, business and economy fares, convenient range of check-in options, complimentary in-flight refreshments and the diamond club, heralded as the UK's most attractive frequent flyer program.

Having secured the backing of vital enterprise, tourism and council, the biggest ever gathering since 200 years was given a start today. Earlier, these three organizations committed to pledge £300,000 in supporting largest gathering of its kind in Scotland. However, the total expenditure for the event is estimated at £1.5 million. The rest of the amount is expected to ensue from ticket sales. 

Commemorating the 250th birth anniversary of Robert Burns, Holyrood Park is set to house a huge congregation on 25-26 July 2009, in which over 8,000 clan members and 30,000 visitors from around the globe are expected to pour in. This event is a part of a yearlong campaign titled Homecoming Scotland drive attracting those with Scots heritage to experience a homecoming.

Another event of this theme would be a World Highland Games Heavy Events Championships, in Edinburgh. This games event will host exciting athletics, heavy events, drink fair and delicious food, besides music and bands. 

The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) will not proceed with its selected project, declared the SNP administration. The £650 million link plan that was expected to connect the airport to the city centre and 60 railway stations, have been devolved in support of recuperating other areas of transport.

The Edinburgh and East Coast would have been sidetracked to Glasgow rail lines through the airport via an underground tunnel by EARL.

It is hoped that an additional railway station will necessarily be built at Gogar in an offer to improve links to the airport. However, no final decision has been taken to get this project completed. In the recent news, it has been mentioned that around £30 million has already been spent on the link work and the project has been disapproved by the present authorities.

A survey by one of the world's most privileged travel magazines has placed Edinburgh and Glasgow among the top five tourist city destinations in the UK for the third year in a row. This is of course a good boost for the tourism industry of both these cities in UK.

In this year's Condé Nast Traveller survey, Edinburgh was placed at the second position while Glasgow was voted to be fourth. Last year, in Condé Nast Traveller survey, Glasgow was placed at the first position while Edinburgh was placed at the second place.

Both Edinburgh and Glasgow have made it into the top ten since the commencement of awards nine years ago in 1998. The capital has taken the top position in the list three times in the past nine years while Glasgow has topped the list twice in these years.

Expedia.co.uk, the UK"s largest online travel agent, has identified Edinburgh as one of the top ten rated destinations in the world.

Every week Expedia gathers feedback from travellers who"ve just returned from their holidays.  As part of this feedback, customers are asked to rate the destination they visited on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent.

Expedia customers rated Scotland"s capital as one of the best alongside the likes of New York, Sydney, Barcelona, Cape Town and Singapore, which were also listed in the top ten rated destinations. Edinburgh was the only UK destination to feature in the top ten.