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The Rail Maritime and Transport Union is threatening disruption for passengers on Northern Rail trains over the Royal Wedding bank holiday. The union said rail bosses will have to start coming to terms with the fact that employees are dissatisfied with not being awarded double pay on extra bank holidays.
A walk out by conductors on Sunday and Monday caused disruption on services across Yorkshire and was heavily criticised. The current agreement between Northern Rail and the RMT was made a number of years ago and saw conductors deciding they would give up double pay on bank holidays in return for [...]

A number of US airlines including Continental, Delta and United have said that, effective immediately, they will be raising the price of tickets for domestic services. The announcement is likely to come as a blow for passengers who have already faced a week of disruption because of blizzards ravaging much of the east coast of the country.
Although no reason has yet been given for a $10 dollar hike on one way fares and a $20 increase of return ticket prices, one of the reasons is probably the rising price of aviation fuel. The price of a barrel of oil is [...]

Britain’s motorists, already frustrated by the country’s severe wintry weather, face more misery as the price of fuel is driven up at the pumps. Just before Christmas, the cost of petrol hit a record high of 123 pence per litre. This was 14 per cent higher than the same time last year.
Motoring organisation, the AA, [...]

It seems that the once innocent and well-meant start-up that is now known as Google is once again chomping its way through the internet as they megalithic search engine acquires ITA Software which could give it a leading edge in the market for online travel search results.
Google acquired the company at a $700m price tag which has caused a ripple of concern through the industry as online travel agents (OTAs) fight back in the ever intensifying war of Google versus the internet.
The OTAs are afraid that internet heavy-weight champion of the world will stifle competition with its obvious financial advantage [...]

Companies that were forced to cut down the cost of business-class air travel during the economic downturn are now planning to maintain the lower cost flights in a bid to save money and employees looking for flights are required to look for the lowest cost fares, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) revealed on Tuesday.
The UK’s air regulator commented on the decrease in business-class travel among hard-hit companies saying that the recession had played a major role in changing the way companies used business travel and added that even an economic recovery would be likely to reverse the trend at this [...]

Singapore Airlines has made it clear that it would not be averse to selling its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic if the right opportunity reared its head. The second largest airline in the world made the comment after Sir Richard Branson, who owns a controlling 51 per cent stake in Virgin, said a number of major carriers had approached him to talk about possible mergers.
Rumours had been floating around the airline industry that budget-carrier AirAsia might be interested in making a bid for Virgin. However, the speculation has been scotched by the carrier which denied it had any [...]

Airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, has said it is unlikely that corporate travellers will be returning to the seats at the front of the aircraft as much as they did before the global recession hit.
According to its research, the authority found that many companies forced to take more austere measures with their employees by making them sit in economy or board budget airlines will be loath to once again start paying for premium seats.
Economic regulation director for the CAA, Harry Bush, said the economic downturn was responsible for significant reductions in the number of people flying in business seats. [...]

According to a new report by the Civil Aviation Authority the recent economic downturn resulted in demand for business class air travel being cut by around a quarter. The analysis shows that in 2008 demand for seats in business in and out of the UK fell overall by 4.6 per cent. In 2009, there was [...]

Police and media in Egypt are reporting that eight tourists from the US have been killed after the bus they were travelling in ploughed into a lorry in the southern part of the country. A further 21 passengers are said to have been injured in the accident.
According to Mena, the Egyptian news agency, the bus was on its way from Aswan to Abu Simbel, an ancient temple popular with tourists. The incident happened on Sunday morning, according to the reports. A tour guide on board and the bus driver are said to be among those injured when the bus hit [...]

The tourism industry’s calls for VAT cuts in an attempt to create thousands of jobs and stimulate the economic recovery have been rejected by ministers.
Numerous MPs have suggested that tourism-related industries such as hotels and popular attractions should benefit from tax cuts to encourage workers to look for jobs in tourism. Similar cuts were introduced by France and Germany to stimulate growth while the economic recession was underway.
But John Penrose, Tourism Minister, said that there is no obligation to give these businesses special treatment.
In an attempt stimulate its economy; France dropped the rate of VAT from 19.6 per cent to [...]

According to the Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), tourist information offices could be on the brink of extinction as online guides become the most popular way to research a destination.
The latest council to hold talks on the future of its tourism offices is Monmouthshire which currently uses half of its £368,000 tourism budget or running and maintaining the offices.
The number of visitors to tourism offices has dropped in Chepstow, Monmouth and Abergavenny while visitors to the county’s website have increased by an astonishing amount.
Powys council, which formerly had 14 offices, now only has one as the demand for tourism offices declines [...]

Russian airline passengers faced travel chaos as freezing rain caused Moscow’s Domodedovo airport to shut down. Flights in and out of other Moscow airports were also cancelled as the freezing rain turned everything immediately to ice. The rain caused power failures meaning that as well as closing the airport some 400,000 Russians were left without power in their homes.
Although the power was eventually restored, officials at Domodedovo claim the airport had to be closed for 10 hours yesterday. It is thought that disruptions to power supplies were caused by ice forming on the branches of trees which made them heavy [...]