WH Smith: Revenues surge 28 per cent as travel hub retailer boosted by summer splurge September 6, 2023 WH Smith said its revenues surged 28 per cent compared to a year ago, as the group was bolstered by a busy period for summer travel. The highstreet stalwart, which has stores in airports and train stations, said revenues across its travel hubs jumped 42 per cent as passengers return to their pre-Covid holiday habits. [...]
Air traffic control chaos: Over a quarter of UK flights nixed as Heathrow crippled August 29, 2023 Over a quarter of flights to and from UK airports were cancelled yesterday, revealing the huge and ongoing impact of the network-wide air traffic control failure currently disrupting the sector. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 790 departures and 785 arrivals were cancelled, equating to 27 per cent of all flights from the UK. Heathrow [...]
Extreme heat isn’t stopping Brits going on holiday yet – but it might do by 2028 July 21, 2023 Deadly heatwaves across Europe, the US and China are not causing Brits to cancel their holidays just yet, but travel insurance firms are preparing for that trend in the future. The UK foreign office issued new travel warnings on Tuesday about the “extreme temperatures” especially in Spain, Italy and Greece – known as the Cerberus. [...]
Bequia in the Grenadines: Tall tales and windswept shores July 10, 2023 Lawson Sargeant is bent over a scrubbed bench, fixing a tiny sail on a carved, wooden boat. It’s a fiddly and intricate business. In his workshop in Port Elizabeth, on the Caribbean island of Bequia, wooden replicas of yachts and sailing boats are lined up on turquoise-painted shelves all around the room. You might first [...]
Andaz Mayakoba is a near-perfect beach resort on the Mexican coast July 3, 2023 Playa del Carmen lies halfway between Cancun and Tulum, both geographically and spiritually. It’s not quite the tourist hellscape of the former, a haven for spring breakers and the kind of traveller who wears sports socks with sandals, but neither does it have the bohemian charm of the latter, which has positioned itself as the [...]
New transatlantic airline Global buys first plane May 29, 2023 A new UK-US airline, Global, which is intending to launch flights across the Atlantic by spring 2024, has officially announced the acquisition of its first plane. The company said this morning that it had acquired an Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, according to the PA news agency. It confirms last week’s revelation’s in [...]
Ryanair aims to ‘wipe the floor’ with European airlines in push to double passenger numbers May 21, 2023 Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary says the company will steal market share from European rivals to propel growth, aiming to double passenger numbers to 300m per year within a decade. Speaking to the Financial Times, O’Leary said: “I think the thesis that there’s no more growth in Europe, [and that] Europe is completely tapped out, [...]
Stansted: London airport reports busiest day of the year as Coronation boosts traffic to 2.4m May 12, 2023 London Stansted saw its busiest month since September as 2.4m passengers passed through over April, up 16 per cent on the previous year, with Coronation guests boosting traffic. The airport also registered its busiest day of the year, seeing 87,000 guests pass through the terminal on Easter Monday. April saw the royal ceremony bolster a [...]
Jet2 having a ‘Goldilocks’ moment as travel group hikes its profit expectations April 20, 2023 Leisure travel company Jet2 has raised its profit expectations to between £387m and £392m this morning, for the year ending 31 March 2023. The company has reported sale seat capacity for Summer 2023 as 7.2 per cent higher than the previous year, at 15.26 million. Forward bookings remain encouraging, with package holiday customers representing just [...]
Royal fever? Not quite, as Brits opt for Lanzarote over London to celebrate coronation weekend April 13, 2023 It would appear Brits are keen to escape the coronation weekend with holiday bookings surging over the bank holiday weekend, according to travel groups. Barrhead Travel reported that bookings are over 55 per cent higher for the King’s coronation bank holiday than in the same period in 2019, with Tenerife, Costa Blanca, Florida, and Canada [...]