71 posts
Getting Single European Sky off the ground (VIDEO)
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Europe’s air traffic control systems should be urgently modernised and merged into a single European airspace in order to reduce congestion and flight delays as well as cut CO2 emissions, say MEPs in a resolution adopted on Tuesday 23 October.
Denial is not the right way to avoid troubles...
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... at least not for airlines. On October 4, the CJEU issued two decisions which help clarify the scope of Regulation 261/04 on Denied Boarding, also in relation to its predecessor Regulation 295/91 (repealed).While Regulation 295/91 was explicitl...
Off to the UK in November
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Well, your author has to visit the UK in November. As much as I would like to avoid it, there is no avoiding it. The upside is that after 10 days in England I will be reminded of just why I emigrated in the first place. The downside is now lookin...
VIDEO: Heathrow 3rd runway, airport debate hots up in UK
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Business leaders and politicians agree the UK needs extra airport capacity but disagree on how quickly, and where it should be. A new runway at Heathrow? An entirely new airpot? Either way, it's dividing the coalition government and setting the Prime...
Emirates is NOT a SOE
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Apparently Emirates boss Tim Clark can say this with a straight face.From a filing to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.Investment Corporation of Dubai’s...
Ryanair’s O’Leary has the measure of the Irish people.
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Ryanair’s foulmouthed CEO Michael O’Leary gets savaged at least once a year when Ryanair treats a customer “unfairly”. This is where someone usely misses one of Ryanair’s many conditions and it ends up with the customer...
Arabic Music on a Spanish Airbus
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HERE WE GO AGAIN! Sounds of Arabic music from the crew of a Spanish airliner cause Dutch (Islamophobic) security to go insane. This latest incident of keeping Islamophobic fear in the Dutch people and gives Geert Wilders more political life. We can e...
Information About Leaving From Dublin Airport
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In spite of the proven fact that Eire is a small country it has one of the most important airports in Europe. Dublin Airfield is the largest in the country and provides internal flights and global flights to several destinations around the globe. A l...
According to the latest statistics Mars has more traffic than Beja Airport?
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Found this amusing post on Facebook, it may be amusing, but it is also factually accurate! Mars as more traffic than Beja airport! Filed under: Beja Airport, Home Tagged: air travel, airlines, Airports, Alentejo, Beja, Flights, Passengers, Portgual...
According to the latest statistics Mars has more traffic than Beja Airport?
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Found this amusing post on Facebook, it may be amusing, but it is also factually accurate! Mars as more traffic than Beja airport in Alentejo,Portugal! Filed under: Beja Airport, Home Tagged: air travel, airlines, Airports, Alentejo, Beja, Flights,...
Beja Airport – The Analysis Paralysis Infection?
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So the sad saga of Beja airport analysis paralysis continues, only one passenger flight fly’s to Beja airport from Heathrow per week? One security guard guards an empty airport, believe me I have been there and seen it. The good news is ANA...
Leaving on a jet plane
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Tomorrow, 4th of July, European Consumer Centres (ECC-net) will be offering advice to passengers at 28 airports across Europe. The purpose of the event is to inform European citizens of their air passenger rights, a topic that is among the ones most...
Southwest Airlines File: Still Flying
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The Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (which of course means “the latest news”) is a unique beast: tabloidy in the range of news items it chooses to cover, to be sure, but at the same time lacking that sleazy tinge common to most of th...
Conflicting Business Models at Singapore’s Airport
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Singapore’s Changi may be “the world’s most fabulous airport,” according to Scott McCartney of the Wall Street Journal. To be sure, the airport’s amenities are amazing. How they are operated, however, detracts in certain respects with the g...
Ryanair Again
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It’s that time of year again. But it’s nice to know that the reach of Ryanair’s infamous calendar has spread far and wide. You may like this piece on the NY Daily News. BY Lindsay Goldwert NEW YORK DAILY NEWS … Continue reading →...
Denied boarding? Don't let them deny you compensation as well!
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Recently many students approached me to ask to write their master thesis about rights that consumers have while they book a flight, which then gets delayed or cancelled. They claim that they and their friends (aka: consumers) are not familiar with th...
Rubbish airlines league table – Viking, you win
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There’s nothing quite like sitting for 5 hours in an uncomfortable seat with a fat, tattooed lump of a man reclining the seat in front of you, forcing a sharp ridge of protruding aluminium into your shin. The distance between my face and seat i...
Addressing C02 emissions from air traffic
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On October 9th 2010, the 192 member governments of the ICAO have agreed on a resolution to address C02 emissions from air traffic, which has rightly been dubbed “historic”. It calls upon • a 2 percent annual improvement of fuel efficiency up to...
The airplane of the future
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A simple white paper napkin depicts the future: at an informal dinner with aviation professionals the lead technical design engineer of Boeing sketches his personal vision of the airplane of the future, which is so futuristic that it even outranges t...
EU rules to increase costs of travels to Ireland
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Oh that single market - why does it always round costs up?THE cost of taking a flight both within Ireland and to a range of UK cities is set to increase by €8 per ticket.The Sunday Independent has learned that the EU Commission issued a formal noti...
Know Before You Go!
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As schools in London break up for the summer, it’s worth remembering your rights before you leave for your holiday in Europe. From air travel to mobile phones, there are plenty of ways in which EU rules ensure people are treated fairly while tr...
Georgia joins Europe in aviation
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Last 5th March Georgia and the European Union initialled a comprehensive air services agreement between Georgia and the EU. The agreement is very important both for the EU and for Georgia. It will bring our aviation relations to an entire new level.
Can “Open Skies” Open Wider?
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The EU and U.S. today sealed a second phase of their 2007 Open Skies pact, but talks on hot issues will continue in the new aviation joint committee established in 2008.
Volcanic Ashes and EU Risk Regulation
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More than twenty years after the EU eliminated its internal land borders, the Union still lacks an integrated airspace. This seems to the most immediate regulatory lesson learnt from the recent volcanic ash crisis, but of course there is much more to...
Willie Walsh: an “over-reaction”?
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Strange, isn’t it, how BA boss Willie Walsh thinks that restrictions on flying through dangerous ash-clouds are an “over-reaction“, but outlawing a strike that’s been democratically endorsed in a ballot by the vast majori...
European Court of Justice Sets Absolute €1134.71 Liability Limit on Lost Baggage of Airline Passengers
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Stephanie Bodoni at BusinessWeek.com writes that EU Airline Passengers Can’t Get More Than $1,450 for Lost Bags.The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has issued press release 43/10, dated 6 May 2010, in the case C-63/09, Axel Walz v Clickair...
Volcano ash crisis highlights impact of trade disruption for ACP countries
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Over the last week, the Icelandic volcano ash cloud crisis caused major disruption in air traffic, not only for passenger transport but also for freight carriers. 19% of EU imports are carried by air. In a globalised economy that relies heavily on 'j...
Iceland volcano ashes result of marketing stunt gone wrong
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As large parts of Europe are cut off by the cloud of ashes hanging in the air and stopping all in- and outbound airline traffic, a senior executive of an unnamed PR & Marketing firm has been arrested by the Reykjavik police. At a press conference...
Europe versus the volcano
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As you're jetting around the world this week, Americans, think of us poor souls in Europe, trapped in our respective cities. We're now in the 5th day of the flight ban caused by the giant ash cloud covering Europe, and many are the stories of the "as...
Perspectives on airspace closures.
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Chris Cook has a diary with a rather scattered discussion thread asking whether or not...
Airlines pressing to fly
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The carriers are desperate to get back into the skies. Their losses are rising. Some now say they are collectively losing $250m (£163m; 185m euros) a day. What they are doing is challenging the national civil aviation authorities to ease...
The EU Reacts to the Volcano Situation
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The consequences of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano are strongly felt throughout Europe, with most of the EU airspace still closed because of the volcanic ash in the atmosphere that can damage airplane engines. The question now is what...
Iceland's volcanic eruption and 'European travel chaos'. Time for a political response?
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As millions of passengers both in Europe and across the world face continued severe disruption to the daily lives, due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, I ask why the political response has been so slow? This evening reports are emerging that...
Eyjafjallajokull and the economics of the EU
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I and a special guest that has been with me for three weeks are now stranded in Brussels.We had plans to finish his vacation in Dublin (not enough rain here in Brussels, you see). But now my week of hard-earned vacation may be spent...well, possibly...
European destructuring
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Two items struck me in tonight’s newscasts. Lufthansa pilots are striking for four days, costing the company €100 million. They are demanding a 6% pay increase and that pilots in Lufthansa’s foreign subsidiaries be paid at their rates...
European airport security conference 2009
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All the usual suspects participated in the the 8th annual ACI EUROPE Security Summit on the theme of “Aviation Security – How Well Does It Work?“, which took place in November 2009. Looking at the list of speakers it’s tempting t...
Hidden and rip-off airline charges
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I'm currently campaigning to put an end to all the hidden and rip-off charges levied by airlines on their often unsuspecting passengers..such as myself!On a flight out for my summer holiday I was stung for an extraordinarily large fee for excess bagg...
Low cost airlines lend citizens a 'European' identity
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Budget travel is a reality for modern Europeans, a part of everyday life. Accounting for its environmental impact may affect the as yet fragile common European identity it lends to flying citizens...
Airlines, EU carbon trading scheme and Biofuel
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Airlines prepare for EU carbon trading scheme source: EuroActive [edited] A directive incorporating aviation into the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) entered into force today (2 February), obliging member states to put in place appropriate legis...
Complete incompetence from Thomas Cook airlines
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This is the view at 0725 EDT at Ottawa International Airport. The plane pictured is the Thomas Cook Airlines Boeing 757 I was supposed to be flying on from Montréal Trudeau to London Gatwick at 1800 yesterday but almost 14 hours on we’re still...
New crackdown on airline's hidden costs
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Amid the Conservative's infighting and the adoption of my parliamentary rule change on groups, I haven't had time to mention the new regulations governing how air-fair prices are advertised, which was adopted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg...
Europe Goes After the Skies
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Amid all of the hand-wringing and fear that the Ireland ‘no’ vote will bring the EU to a chaotic standstill in January, judging by the news yesterday Brussels isn’t ratcheting down its ambition in the mean time.After much negotiation, the EU at...
