Up in the air ….

SPAIN’S low-cost carrier, Vueling Airlines, has launched a service between Barcelona and Birmingham Airport. Vueling will initially operate three weekly services, rising to five a week during the peak summer months.

William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s aviation development director, said: ‘The carrier will add more than 27,000 seats to Barcelona from Birmingham and give passengers a choice of more than 140 destinations on the Vueling network across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.’

#Flights are on sale now with a lead-in fare of €54.99 (£39.57) via vueling.com and ba.com or travel agents.

WESTJET has started flights to the UK from its hub in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
To mark its first service to Britain, WestJet worked with the world’s last dedicated hand-crafted tartan mill, D.C. Dalgliesh in Selkirk, Scotland, to design a commemorative tartan in the airline’s distinctive blue and teal corporate colours. In addition to producing neck ties, cufflinks, and scarves, WestJet decaled two aircraft with the same tartan.

AIR FRANCE has confirmed that it will operate an additional weekly Paris-Havana flight from October 2015, increasing its service to 11 weekly departures to Cuba during winter 2015.

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Picture Credit: www.westjet

Spain tops destination list for 2014 as UK air passenger numbers reaches 238 million; US and Germany second and third favourites

SPAIN was the top country visited by UK airline passengers last year as the total number using British airports rose by 4.4% or 10 million more than in 2013.

The overall figure of 238 million demonstrated increasing demand for air travel from across the UK, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)

The growth continues a recovery started in 2011 following three years of falling passenger numbers. The figures are now just short of the 241 million peak reached in 2007.

CAA director of regulatory policy, Iain Osborne, said: ‘Our latest figures show that while passenger demand is increasing across the UK, flight numbers are growing much faster at London airports than elsewhere. This situation highlights both the pressures on airspace in the south-east and the need for more runway capacity in London. With demand for air travel continuing to grow during 2015, these two issues must be tackled so that consumers can continue to enjoy the full benefits of the UK’s strong aviation industry. But industry also needs to play its part by addressing environmental impacts, including reducing aircraft noise and carbon emissions.’

Spain, including the Balearic and Canary Islands, accounted for more than 34 million passengers.

The US was the second most popular destination (17 million), followed by Germany (12 million), Italy (11.9 million), France (10.6 million) and Ireland (10.4 million).

The rest of the top 20 was: the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Canada, Denmark, Norway, India, Sweden, Cyprus, and Egypt.

Australia saw the largest decline in passenger numbers, down by a third from 744,000 in 2013 to 488,000 last year.

All London area airports recorded a rise in passengers while Liverpool, Leeds/Bradford, Cardiff, and Prestwick saw falls.

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Travel trade cautious on plan to devolve Scottish APD

THE travel industry has given a mixed reaction to the news that Scotland could gain control over some of its taxes, which would include Air Passenger Duty (APD).

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that Chancellor George Osborne will cut the tax for children under 12 in his autumn financial statement on December 3. Campaigners claim abolishing the tax would help families who face a hike in the cost of flying during school holidays, while costing the Treasury just £50 million.

The Smith Commission – set up by the UK government to look at devolving powers to Scotland following the referendum earlier this year – has recommended that the Scottish Parliament should have full control of income tax rates and bands, and APD.

Both the Association of British Travel Agents and the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR UK) said the move could further put England, Wales, and Ulster at a competitive disadvantage if the Scottish government decides to scrap APD.

BAR UK chief executive Dale Keller said: ‘The Scottish government has already indicated it would slash or scrap the world’s highest air passenger tax to stimulate the local economy. The right time is now for the whole of the UK to share equally in the benefits a phasing out of APD would deliver.’

Mark Tanzer, CEO of ABTA said: ‘Any inconsistencies between what a passenger pays flying from Scotland compared to elsewhere in the UK could create an uncompetitive and damaging situation for travel businesses.’

Flybe welcomed the news and said scrapping APD would allow new routes to open up for Scotland.

Go Holiday editor David Kernek comments: ‘This is a kneejerk – though not unexpected – reaction from the travel trade. It appears to assume that holidaymakers living in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will book flights from Scottish airports in order to avoid APD. But in many cases, the time, hassle, and cost of getting to Glasgow, or Edinburgh, or Aberdeen would be equal to, or possibly outweigh, the saving.’

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Up in the air …

PASSENGER traffic at Europe’s airports grew by 7.0% in August compared with the same month last year.

BMI REGIONAL has announced a 16% increase in capacity for summer 2015. The extra services will add a total of 60,000 seats on the airline’s routes for the summer period. Some services will be bumped up to three times a day, including Bristol to Frankfurt, East Midlands to Brussels, and Newcastle to Brussels.

NEWCASTLE AIRPORT is to get its first scheduled non-stop transatlantic service next year. United Airlines is to serve its hub at Newark, New Jersey, with a summer-only service operating five days a week. The flights will run between May 23 and September 7, subject to government approval.

TRANSAERO AIRLINES is to run flights between London Heathrow and St Petersburg, Russia. The Russian carrier will offer a twice weekly direct service between the two cities.

NEW SUMMER flights from Leeds Bradford to Alicante and Naples are being introduced by Monarch Airlines next year.

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Air traffic control – the warning!

DO you feel safe when flying into or out of US airports? Will you after reading this report from the Association of Collegiate Training Institutions, which represents colleges, universities, and faculty involved in training students for careers in aviation and air traffic control in the US.

  

Pope Field Air Traffic control via Wikimedia Commons

Washington DC – ON December 30, 2013, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the US terminated – without warning – its proven programme for educating potential air traffic controllers. Military veterans, students and graduates from the 36 FAA-authorized colleges and universities were wiped from the FAA's list of eligible applicants.

Airport Traffic Control Tower,
Kansas City International Airport 
by User:Charvex  via Wikimedia Commons

In the FAA's words, "the list was purged." Despite very high demand for controllers, the FAA "purged" more than 3,000 student candidates who had already passed the authority’s only validated aptitude test. 

The new hiring process requires zero experience or education. Applicants must simply have "three years of progressively responsible work experience" and pass a 62-question personality test. 

This test includes penetrating questions such as:

• What sports did you play in high school? 

• How many college credits did you take in art/music/dance/drama?

Why would you replace a truly validated system with a personality test? Additionally, the test was not secure. Anyone could take the examination without proof of identity. The FAA is aware that currently-employed air traffic controllers from the busiest facilities in the country took the personality "test" … and failed.

On July 30, 2014 the FAA released the results of this grand experiment. Michael Huerta, FAA Administrator, said he "could not be more excited about this new class of promising candidates." 

Looking at the FAA's numbers, Mr Huerta is "excited" that 55% of the new hires have zero aviation or air traffic control experience!

The flying public should be very afraid. 

The FAA is doubling down on the "new" hiring process, issuing press releases claiming all is well despite the fact that the process is far from transparent, cannot be explained, and has yet to show a single successful outcome. 

They, the FAA, will no doubt cite the intensive training at their academy to deflect concerns, but when leadership begins twisting data to prove success or starts curving test scores, how long before those same methods trickle down to the academy and your local airport?


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