Dave

UK Storm Doris

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High winds and stormy conditions are forecast for the UK over the next few days, particularly Scotland and the north of England. The storm that is flowing in from the Atlantic has been named as Storm Doris.

 

For tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd February, strong winds are forecast for London Heathrow which has resulted in a reduced flow rate for aircraft landing at the airport. Please apologise to our customers for the inconvenience to their travel plans, unfortunately the reduction in flow rate will affect all airlines operating at the airport

 

British Airways has just cancelled 5 x roundtrips from tomorrow’s operation, customers will be re-accommodated on the next available flight where possible.

 

The cancelled flights are as follows:-

BA1346 LHR 07:40, LBA 08:40 BA1347 LBA 09:20, LHR 10:35

BA1476 LHR 08:55, GLA 10:25 BA1483 GLA 11:10, LHR 12:40

BA1326 LHR 09:45, NCL 11:00 BA1327 NCL 11:45, LHR 13:05

BA836 LHR 13:15, DUB 14:35 BA837 DUB 15:20, LHR 16:50

BA1448 LHR 14:10, EDI 15:35 BA1455 EDI 16:15, LHR 17:40 

 

There is potential for further disruption as the storm passes over northern UK and across the North Sea

Regards, British Airways

Natalie

Virgin Atlantic launching a new direct flight between London Heathrow and Barbados

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New direct service launches on the 12 December 2017

 

We’re excited to announce that we are launching a direct flight between London Heathrow and Barbados. The new, twice weekly service will launch on 12 December 2017 to help make Christmas in the Caribbean a reality for even more holidaymakers. Flights will go on sale from Monday 27 February.

 

The new flights will operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays as part of the winter 2017 schedule and will be operated on an Airbus A330. This new service means that we will now offer up to 11 Barbados flights per week from three UK Airports (Gatwick, Manchester and Heathrow).

 

In addition Virgin Atlantic’s recently extended codeshare agreement with FlyBe will mean that customers from Scotland can now easily connect from Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports to Barbados via London Heathrow.

 

“The Caribbean has always been a core market for Virgin Atlantic and so we’re excited to announce we’re offering more choice to our customers with the option of flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester direct to Barbados.” – Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic

 

We have seen a strong demand for Upper Class and Premium Economy cabins on Barbados flights which is why we took the opportunity to utilise an A330. This aircraft will be fully configured with 33 Upper Class, 48 Premium Economy and 1185 Economy seats, allowing more customers to experience our award winning service.
 

Dave

Lufthansa strikes pay deal with pilots

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Lufthansa has struck a deal with pilots to solve a bitter long-running dispute over pay that has cost the airline millions of euros from continued strike action.

The German airline has agreed a new wage agreement that will see around 5,400 pilots receive a four-stage 8.7 per cent pay rise and a one-off payment of around €5,000 – €6,000 per employee.

The dispute has been going on for five years, with around 14 strikes in that period. Originally Lufthansa offered pilots a 2.5 per cent pay increase, which they described as “inadequate” after seeing the basic salary for executive board members rise 30 per cent.

Lufthansa said the deal will cost around €85 million a year. In order to fund this, it said 40 aircraft will operate outside the agreement.

The new agreement will be in place until the end of 2019.

Dave

Ground staff strike at Berlin airports prompts hundreds of flight cancellations

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Around 200 flights were cancelled ahead of a strike over pay by ground staff at Berlin’s two airports expected to start later on Thursday.

 

There were 146 cancellations at Tegel and 54 at Schoenefeld airports and 12 flights were redirected to other German airports, a spokesman for Berlin’s airports said.

 

Trade union Verdi has called for walk-outs at the two airports from 1500 GMT to 2100 GMT. A strike on Wednesday last week led to more than 130 flights being cancelled.

 

Verdi wants an increase in pay for ground staff to 12 euros an hour from about 11 euros as part of a one-year collective agreement. Ground staff jobs include checking in passengers, loading and unloading planes and directing them on the tarmac. The union described as “insufficient” management’s offer of a four-year deal, which foresees a rise of 1 per cent each year, or about 10 cents an hour.

 

The employers, a group of airport ground services providers, said in a statement the renewed strike was “incomprehensible” as talks were still ongoing. The next round of pay talks is due to take place on Friday.  Berlin’s airports are served by carriers including Air Berlin, Lufthansa, easyJet and Ryanair among others.

Kelly

Woking Works Business of the Month – Global Travel Management

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Global Travel Managment toast_of_surrey_awards

Woking is the home to one of the UK’s leading business travel management companies, Global Travel Management (GTM). GTM were set up in 1997 by husband and wife team Scott and Natalie Pawley, along with Scott’s father Frank Pawley MBE.

Since then, GTM has gone from strength to strength, with Woking proving to be the ideal location for the firm, with its excellent travel links to Heathrow, Central London, the M4 corridor and the Thames Valley region.

In 2016, the company won the Toast of Surrey’s Award for Best Business with a turnover of over £5m. For the second year running, they won the title of Business Travel Agent of the Year, awarded by the UK’s largest independent travel agent group – Advantage Travel Partnership. GTM was also nominated in both the International Trade and Director of the Year categories in the Toast of Surrey 2016 – the only business to have ever achieved a nomination in all three categories. A true success story for Woking!

Dave

Virgin Atlantic flight cancellations in April/May

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Virgin Atlantic has cancelled a ‘handful’ of flights in April and May, blaming ‘operational constraints’.

 

The airline said flights to and from Atlanta, San Francisco and Orlando will be affected, TravelMole Media Group reports.

 

“We constantly review our flying programme and identified that during a peak period we may face operational constraints,” the airline said.

 

“Rather than risk any delays to customers on the day of travel, we have taken the necessary steps, now, to ensure that we can minimise disruption.

 

“It’s never our intention to disappoint our customers, and we’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change. We’ve offered everyone a choice of alternate flights, or a full refund if they no longer wish to travel.”

 

It said it was working closely with partner Delta Air Lines to accommodate as many customers as possible.

Natalie

Italy: threat of strike action at airports in Italy, 23 February

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Pilots and flight attendants at Alitalia, Citiliner, Air Italy and cabin crew at MeridianaFly plan a 24-hour nationwide strike. The strikes are due to run from 00:01am local time. Italian Ryanair and Volotea crews intend to stage a four-hour strike the same day from 2pm until 6pm local time.
At Bologna Airport, Alpina workers plan… strike action from 11am until 3pm local time.

Workers at Milano MXP Malpensa Airport workers are planning a 24-hour strike.

 

Staff at Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli will plan to strike between 11am and 3pm local time.

 

Aviapartner baggage handlers intend to strike for 24 hours at Turin Airport TRN and Venice Airport.

Paul

Ground transportation strike in Barcelona

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Taxi drivers and metro workers threaten to go on strike in Barcelona between 27 February and 2 March

 

La Razon reported taxi drivers and metro workers from TMB, the main public transport operator in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, are threatening to go on strike during the next edition of the Mobile World Congress, which will take place in Barcelona from 27 February until 2 March, 2017.

 

Last year Barcelona Metro workers staged a two-day strike coinciding with the biggest mobile industry convention in the world, disrupting thousands of visitors.

Dave

USA Weather Warning

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USA Weather Warning: Thousands of flights cancelled on 9 February as major winter storm system moves through northeastern region.

 
Airlines had already cancelled more than 2,300 flights for Thursday and nearly all were waiving change fees as a fast-moving winter storm threatened to bring heavy snow to portions of the Northeast.

 
The storm was forecast to swipe a large area of the Northeast, possibly snarling flights at airports from Pennsylvania and New Jersey north into New York state and coastal New England. The airports in the Baltimore-Washington metro area also could be affected as forecasts called for rain changing to snow, though conditions were not expected to be as bad as to the north.

Natalie

BA pledges to fly all passengers during upcoming strikes

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British Airways has pledged to fly all passengers to their destinations through two sets of forthcoming strikes by cabin crew.

The airline plans to run more than 99% of all services from Heathrow, with a “very small number” of short haul flights being merged during next week’s planned three-day walkout from February 5.

This will mean some people will travel slightly earlier or later in the day than originally booked, according to the airline.

“We are contacting those customers with the options available to them,” BA said.

The airline revealed reiterated its stance against union claims of “poverty pay” for mixed fleet cabin crew.

“More than 9,000 cabin crew, represented by a different Unite branch, today voted overwhelmingly to accept the deal,” BA revealed.

“Our pay offer for mixed fleet cabin crew is consistent with deals agreed with more than 90% of British Airways colleagues, including many Unite members.

“The offer also reflects pay awards given by other companies in the UK and will ensure that rewards for mixed fleet remain in line with those for cabin crew at our airline competitors.

Heathrow long haul flights and services to and from Gatwick and London City airport are planned to operate as normal during the industrial action being taken by Unite union members of BA’s mixed fleet crew on February 5-7.

“The details of our schedule for February 9–11, when the union has proposed further industrial action, will be confirmed on Thursday,” BA added.

“We will again ensure that all our customers travel to their destinations.”