Posts

1,500 children take-off with British Airways

More than 1,500 children were given a unique insight into a career in aviation when they attended a careers event hosted by British Airways and KidZania. The two-day event saw them take the controls of an aircraft and try out the airline’s safety demonstration with cabin crew.

The children were provided with replica uniforms and taught on board the British Airways A319 aircraft, learning some of the important skills needed to become real life flight and cabin crew.  Many received a lesson on the flight deck simulator where they were given the opportunity to fly around London and land into Heathrow Terminal 5.

  • British Airways teamed up with KidZania in Westfield to inspire children to pursue a career in aviation
  • More than 1,500 children from 19 schools visited the Aviation Academy at the two-day careers fair
  • British Airways customers receive 15% discount to the KidZania activity centre

The British Airways Aviation Academy is the most popular activity with children visiting KidZania, and the behind-the-scenes, hands-on training aims to both inspire and enthuse children about future careers they might previously not have considered.

Currently more than 6% of British Airways pilots are women, which is double the national average, but the airline is actively seeking to encourage more women into the profession.

Mel Kose, British Airways’ Community Education Manager said that events like this aim to inspire and excite young girls to see a career as a pilot to be an achievable goal and to pursue STEM subjects at school:

We’re delighted that so many students attended the event, which is just one of many initiatives we offer to inspire children and young girls to enter a STEM career. Last year 600 students took part in our work experience programme across 30 departments at British Airways, and this year we will host more young people than ever before. We’ve also introduced ‘Teacher Take-Off Days’, with teachers taking part in one-day work experience sessions and taking their learnings back to the classroom. Plus, we’ve launched a scheme we call Your Flying Future, where we regularly run events for children to meet our pilots, to encourage them to feel that this is a career available to them.

Goodyers End Primary School in Bedworth, Warwickshire was one of almost 20 schools that attended the event at KidZania. Year 6 Teacher Adele Johnson said:

Lots of our children will have never even been a passenger on a plane before, let alone thought about a career in aviation, so this event provides an invaluable opportunity to inspire the children and raise their aspirations for the future – coming to KidZania is one of the most important things we do all year.

Rachel Woods, Head of Brands Development at KidZania London, said:

The British Airways A319 aeroplane is a big hit in the city, and it was fantastic to have ambassadors offering insights into their careers through a STEM-based interactive activity. The workshop offered hands-on opportunities to support and inspire key-stage 1-3 children through real life experiences.

Drone chaos overcome for GTM’s clients

Drone chaos overcome for GTM’s clients

At Global Travel Management, we make sure our clients’ travel plans go as smoothly as possible.  Occasionally, there are events outside our control which result in delays and cancellations for travellers.  It’s at times like this that our team steps up to do everything we can to fix travel problems as they occur.  A good example of this was in December when Gatwick was forced to close due to sightings of drones near the runway.  That was an international news story.  But we prevented further drama for our clients.

Our Operations Director Kelly Packington explained how we dealt with the situation.  “The team immediately ran a report to see who was travelling to or from Gatwick on the day of the drone sightings. Once we had that information, we could start working out how to manage each passenger’s situation”.

Jane Marrison, Team Leader and Senior Travel Consultant, saw that one of her clients was caught up.  “One of my clients was due to return back to Gatwick that day. But any delay would cause him problems as he had another flight out the following day.”

“I checked his flight status with the airline, and his flight was shown as delayed but not cancelled. As a precaution I checked availability to Heathrow for my client, held a seat and then notified him what was happening and what I had done.”

“Throughout the day his flight status changed a couple of times. At one point his status changed to ‘departing on time’ and the airline asked me to cancel the seat I was holding back to Heathrow, which I did. However, his flight was eventually cancelled.”

“When the airline cancelled the flight, they ‘reprotected’ him on a flight returning the next day. But, as I knew he wouldn’t be able to return the next day I quickly went on to our reservations system and got the last seat back to Heathrow on the last flight of the day.”

This is just one example of how we manage clients’ travel, even when there are unforeseen problems impacting travel, worldwide.

What did this particular client think of the quiet, efficient way in which we made sure his travel was as smooth as possible?  Jane summed it up neatly: “My client was very happy!”

Virgin plane

Virgin & Delta to co-locate at Heathrow T3.

From 14th September 2016 all Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines flights from London Heathrow will arrive and depart from Terminal 3 (T3).

Delta will transfer its Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia flights from Terminal 4 to join its services to New York-JFK, Boston and Seattle that already operate from Terminal 3. In total, Delta will operate 11 daily flights to eight US cities nonstop from Terminal 3.

Ebola Screening Starts At Heathrow.

Ebola screening will start at Heathrow Airport today, with Gatwick Airport and Eurostar terminals following next week.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said passengers from at-risk countries will have their temperature taken, complete a risk questionnaire and have contact details recorded.

The Chief Medical Officer said the risk to the UK is low, but expects a ‘handful’ of cases. However, the screening is expected to cause disruption to all passengers. Dr Ron Behrens, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the benefit of airport screening would be “very small”, while there would be disruption to “large numbers of people”.

“It appears not to be a scientific decision but a political one,” he said to the Telegraph.
Screening at Heathrow Terminal 1 will begin today before being extended to other terminals. The Department of Health estimates that 85% of all arrivals to the UK from affected countries will come through Heathrow.

Border Force officers will identify passengers to be screened. Nurses and consultants from Public Health England will carry out the testing. Passengers deemed at high-risk due to contact with Ebola patients, but with no symptoms, will be contacted daily by Public Health England.

‘Highly visible information’ will be in place at all entry points to the UK, Mr Hunt insisted.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “The welfare of our passengers and colleagues is always our main priority and we are working with Government to support the implementation of the screening measures as announced by the Health Secretary today.

“We would like to reassure passengers that the Government assesses the risk of a traveller contracting Ebola to be low. We would encourage anybody with individual questions or concerns to refer to guidance from Public Health England and the Foreign Office.”

Planned Ground Workers Strike At Heathrow Airport.

Passengers flying into, or out of, London Heathrow Airport (Terminals 1, 2 and 3) may experience delays this Friday, 12th September, because of a planned ground workers strike by members of the Unite Union.

Talks between Unite, the country’s largest union, which represents more than 500 ground handlers, and the management of ASIG broke down on Monday of this week over the delayed 2013 pay award, which should have been implemented 14 months ago. ASIG is a subsidiary of BBA, the largest ground handler at Heathrow.

The strike will run from 00.01 on Friday for 24 hours and the airlines affected will be at Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Ground handling staff cover such duties as check-in and baggage handling.

Travel Update – Monday 28th October.

Rail services across much of southern Britain have been cancelled due to the storm which hit the south coast of England over night, and which has then worked its way inland.

South West Trains has significantly reduced its service today after finding that at least 26 trees are blocking various lines across its network.

Heathrow Airport Ltd (formerly part of British Airport Authority) has asked all airlines to reduce their schedule today in the following manner:

Between 0600 and 1100 a 20 per cent reduction in the schedule has been  applied  Between 1100 and 1600 a 10 per cent reduction in the schedule has been applied  Between 1600 and 2230 a 5 per cent reduction in the schedule has been applied.

London Gatwick and London City plan to operate as normal. Please remember to check in online if you are flying today, alternatively please contact us (01483 747321) should you wish to change your ticket.

Heathrow Airport – All Flights Currently Suspended.

Runways at London’s Heathrow airport have closed after an incident involving an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet.

Heathrow Airport Ltd have confirmed that all arrivals and departures are currently suspended.

Please check, via your airline’s web site, for the latest news relating to your flight.

Heathrow Terminal 2 To Open In One Year.

Heathrow Airport will open its new Terminal 2 in less than a years time. The £2.5 billion facility will eventually serve 20 million passengers each year after opening its doors on June 4, 2014.

The first aircraft, a United Airlines flight from Chicago, is scheduled to land at 0555. Prior to the opening next June there will be six months of testing involving 14,000 people in 182 trials.

Terminal 2 will be home to 25,000 staff and 23 Star Alliance airlines, as well as Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic Little Red and Germanwings. It will open in phases, with the 26 airlines moving in over a period of six months. Just 10 per cent of flights will operate for the first three weeks of June before gradually building up to full operations.

Heathrow To Provide Free wifi.

Heathrow Airport now offers all passengers free wifi. The London hub will offer online access without charge for 45 minutes per calendar day across all five terminals.

Heathrow Rewards cardholders will receive 90 minutes of free browsing. Passengers who want to surf the web for longer can do so, but will then have to select one of a range of pay-as-you-go options for continued access.