Competition watchdog warns travel firms over summer holiday refunds May 13, 2021 The UK’s competition watchdog has today warned package holiday firms that they will be in breach of the law if they do not give passengers refunds if holidays are cancelled this summer due to the pandemic. Last summer the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) received thousands of complaints from frustrated holidaymakers who were unable to [...]
Cheap PCR tests: Where to get them and what you need to fly May 10, 2021 Borders open for international travel on 17 May, with Brits preparing to brave the Kafkaesque nightmare of the traffic light system to visit their favourite summer sun destination. But to travel to many countries, passengers will require a PCR – polymerase chain reaction – Covid test, which must meet performance standards of at least 97 [...]
Tui offers £20 Covid tests for British holidaymakers May 6, 2021 Tui will offer British holidaymakers cut-price Covid tests following the government’s announcement earlier this week that vaccine passports would not be ready in time for the resumption of international travel. The British airline said it would slash the cost of mandatory PCR tests for travellers returning to the UK to £20 under new plans to [...]
Airline passenger numbers creep higher as holidaymakers await green light May 5, 2021 Covid-19 passenger restrictions continued to squeeze airlines’ passenger numbers in April, a year on from the start of the pandemic, although there were some chinks of light for the sector. Ryanair said it flew 1m people last month, twice as many as it did in March, but still millions short of its normal capacity. Compared [...]
Ryanair to power 12.5 per cent of flights with sustainable fuels by 2030 April 29, 2021 Ryanair plans to power 12.5 per cent of its flights with sustainable aviation fuels by 2030, the airline said this morning. The announcement comes days after its rival British Airways committed to using the fuels to power 10 per cent of its flights. Group Chief Executive Michael O’Leary had said earlier this month that the [...]
Airline shares jump on hopes of Europe-US travel by the summer April 26, 2021 Airline shares jumped today on the back of hopes that travel between the EU and US would open up again this summer. Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that all US citizens who had been vaccinated should be able to travel to Europe by the summer. Her comments sent shares [...]
Wizz Air redundancies ‘dangerously influenced’ flight safety culture claims whistleblower April 22, 2021 Covid-19-related redundancies at Wizz Air “dangerously influenced” flight safety culture, a whistleblower has claimed, after the way in which staff were selected for redundancy left them worried to call in sick. Last April London-listed Wizz Air laid off around 1,000 staff – around 20 per cent of its workforce – after a travel shutdown caused [...]
Virgin Atlantic boss expects to fly full fleet by October April 21, 2021 Virgin Atlantic is eyeing October or November this year to be back flying its full fleet, its chief executive said today. The comment forecasts the end of the pandemic crisis for airlines, as the majority of flights have been grounded for over a year. “We are by no means out of this situation, we will [...]
We need tougher consumer protection to end the hours of hold music when things go wrong April 19, 2021 It might have been for your cancelled two-week summer holiday. Or it could have been that parcel you ordered that never arrived. First comes the disappointment and frustration, then the dread. You are now staring down the barrel of what could be a lengthy, painful battle with a customer service team to get your money [...]
Wizz Air dives to €590m loss as wait for recovery goes on April 15, 2021 Wizz Air came back down to earth with a bump this morning as the firm braced itself for a net loss of up to €590m for the full financial year. The Hungarian flier warned that it did not expect traffic to pick up until late in the summer due to continued restrictions across its core [...]