“Don’t panic” about Omicron variant, Heathrow boss says December 2, 2021 Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye told both the aviation industry and passengers not to panic about the latest Covid variant, Omicron. Speaking at London’s World Aviation Festival, he said: “We’re going to have a lot of these variants over the years. I suspect that with most of them, vaccines will be fine. We got through [...]
No free New Year’s Eve tube journey for Londoners as TfL faces funding crisis December 2, 2021 Londoners will miss out on a free tube journey home on New Year’s Eve after the pandemic has taken a toll on Transport for London’s finances. While party goers have come to expect free travel on the network between 11.45pm and 4.30am, this year revellers will have to pay standard charges. The tradition of free [...]
City Hall Tories call for £12m TfL bonuses to be scrapped in wake of cash concerns December 2, 2021 Sadiq Khan should suspend £12m of planned bonuses to Transport for London (TfL) chiefs in the wake of concerns over the body’s financial position, according to the City Hall caucus of Conservatives. Susan Hall, the leader of the Tories in the London Assembly, said the mayor needs to “get a grip of [TfL’s] wasteful spending” [...]
London Luton Airport plans for 1m more passengers given green light December 2, 2021 Luton councillors have approved proposals to expand the airport’s capacity for an additional one million passengers, according to reports. The decision means the fifth busiest airport in the UK will see 19m people a year using the airport for their travel, according to the BBC, which first reported the news. The airport will see an [...]
Coronavirus U-turn: Japan partly reverses Covid travel ban as Omicron variant increasingly appears to be ‘mild‘ mutation December 2, 2021 A ban on new incoming flight bookings in Japan has been dropped, the country’s government said this morning. The policy, aimed at halting the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, only came into force yesterday. The transport ministry on Wednesday issued a request to international airlines to stop taking new reservations for flights coming into [...]
Wizz Air passenger traffic rockets amid Omicron concerns December 2, 2021 Passenger traffic on low-cost carrier Wizz Air has continued to grow in November, amid concerns for the new Covid variant, Omicron. The airline announced this morning that last month it carried more than 2 million passengers, a 375.7 per cent increase compared with the same time last year. The company’s load factor also increased by [...]
Dogger Bank C: World’s largest offshore wind farm passes last milestone before £9bn construction December 2, 2021 Joint venture partners SSE Renewables and Equinor said this morning that they have reached financial close on Dogger Bank Wind Farm C, the third phase of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when complete in March 2026. SSE Renewables and Equinor have started constructing the first two phases of the 3.6GW Dogger [...]
Halfords inks £62m deal for automotive servicing business National December 1, 2021 Cycling and motoring services giant Halfords has acquired National, the tyre and automotive servicing business in a £62m deal. National operates under the brands National Tyres and Autocare, Viking Wholesale Tyres and Tyre Shopper. The deal will mean Halfords is the largest vehicle service, maintenance and repair business in the UK and help the company [...]
Business travel equilibrium unclear to everyone, Virgin Atlantic boss says December 1, 2021 Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive Shai Weiss believes business travel forecasts are still very unclear to all airlines, because of the pandemic’s unpredictable nature and the consequent measures taken by governments to curb the spread of the virus. Speaking on a panel at London’s World Aviation Festival today, Weiss stated that despite seeing a recovery of [...]
Heathrow reopens Covid terminal to respond to Omicron challenge December 1, 2021 Heathrow reopened today its Covid terminal to process travellers arriving from red list countries. From 3pm today, Terminal 4 will see only those arriving from countries where there is a higher rate of Omicron cases, keeping them away from the rest of passengers. Mandatory face coverings as well as intensive cleaning regimes, enhanced ventilation and [...]