Luton Airport is offering more flights to popular skiing destination Turin this winter

Keen skiers and those looking for a cheap winter break will be able to take advantage of more flights from London Luton Airport to Turin this winter.

Low-cost airline easyJet is adding more flights to its schedule from London Luton Airport to the Northern Italian city between November and March 2011.

The city, which played host to the Winter Olympics in 2006, is home to some of the best ski slopes in Europe. Winter sports fans will find a variety of opportunities to indulge in their passion.

The area is also popular with second-home owners who may want to take advantage of the additional flights from London Luton to take a well earned break away from the UK, do some Christmas shopping, or just to take in the sights, architecture and culture of the continental city.

However, those with a passion for winter sports can also take advantage of flights from London Luton Airport to other destinations such as France and Spain.

With so much choice, travellers may find it hard to choose from the spectacular destinations on offer from Luton.

Simon Harley, business development manager at London Luton Airport, said: “There are a number of ski destinations available between November and March from London Luton Airport, providing passengers with an extensive choice of winter sports holiday options at convenient flight times.”

Copyright Press Association 2010

Photography enthusiasts can get a £200 discount on a trip to the Tatra Mountains

A Cheshire photography company is offering financial discounts on an October trip to Slovakia’s jaw-dropping Tatra Mountains. 

Tatra Photography has reduced the price of its Peaks and Valleys photography holiday by £200 to £995 per person, departing from the UK on October 10.

The break offers people a photography master class from Lee Pengelly, including tuition on composition, shutter speeds, apertures and histograms.

Return flights from London Luton airport are included in the price, with the chance to alternatively fly from Liverpool, Bristol and Edinburgh. Also included in the £995 per person offer is transport to each photography location, six days of tuition and seven nights full board accommodation based on single/twin or double rooms. 

The accommodation is spread between guest house Penzion 2004, small mountain cottages and apartments at Lomnicky Peak, which is 2634 metres above sea level.

Tatra offers workshops in landscape and wildlife photography of scenic areas of Europe. Sights on offer include the Tatra mountains, the rural landscapes of the Czech republic and the great predators of the Bavarian wilderness.

Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains is the only range of the spectacular alpine system in the Eastern European country and it has a wide range of stunning scenery such as: blue mountain tarns, rugged snowy peaks, lakes, valleys and giant waterfalls. 

A variety of wildlife can also be seen on the mountains, including wolves, lynx, deer and brown bears.

Copyright Press Association 2010

Airline Services Limited is expanding its portfolio of services with the opening of a new interiors workshop at London Stansted

A new interiors workshop is opening at London Stansted Airport by established aircraft interiors company Airline Services Limited.

Services provided for airline customers will include repair and refurbishment of laminated items such as sidewall panels, cargo bay panels, bulkheads, dado rails, monuments, galleys, overhead bins. 

The workshop will also soon be capable of handling sheet metal and composite work.

It will help the UK’s third busiest airport supply routes to cities throughout the globe, with some of the most popular destinations being Dublin, Alicante, Rome and Milan.

Speaking in advance of the MRO Europe Show in London this week, Airline Services director of engineering Simon Sixsmith says: “This new facility brings an added dimension to Airline Services already extensive capabilities whilst offering what our customers have come to expect from ASL – namely industry leading quality, fast turnaround times and a flexible approach to each customer’s individual needs, all at a highly competitive price.”

Airline Services Limited was founded in 1984 and has facilities at 10 major UK airports. The company’s portfolio of services range from manufacture and installation of interiors to providing aircraft engineering support.

Copyright Press Association 2010

The owners of Gatwick Airport could be selling off a stake in the business

A minority stake in London’s Gatwick Airport could be sold to investors in Asia or the Middle East, the Sunday Telegraph understands.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a consortium involving Credit Suisse and General Electric, who own the airport, wants to sell a stake of approximately 12%, with a sovereign wealth fund from Asia or the Middle East being touted as possible buyers.

GIP aims to keep a 51% majority after any sale goes through, which could raise approximately £75 million.

The stake being offered by GIP is approximately the same percentage as the one bought by South Korea’s National Pension Service for £100 million in February.

Gatwick Airport, which has airport transfer links to Luton and Stanstead, was bought by GIP for £1.5 billion last year after Ferrovial BAA was forced to cut its portfolio of British airports.

Ferrovial BAA has since sold some of its remaining shares as BAA continues to repay part of its debt, which stood at £9.6 billion as of June 2009.

Ferrovial is still a shareholder, as is an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. The rise in Middle Eastern and Asian investment in British companies continues while the country seeks to claw itself out of the recession and stem budget deficits.

Copyright Press Association 2010

Luton Airport is offering flights to some of the top skiing destinations this season

Skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts will be able to jet off from Luton Airport to some of the top winter destinations this year.

Luton Airport is providing flights to hundreds of destinations and thousands of kilometres of piste through its work with its airline partners.

People heading for the slopes will also be able to access the airport more easily by using the airport transfers service available.

Travellers will be able to fly to top skiing locations including Grenoble in France, Turin in Italy and Geneva in Switzerland, with one of the airport’s leading carriers easyJet.

Skiing enthusiasts can fly to idyllic winter resorts including Val d’Isere and Chamonix during the season.

Simon Harley, business development director at Luton, said: “There are a number of ski destinations available between November and March from London Luton airport, providing passengers with an extensive choice of winter sports holiday options at convenient flight times.

“Our commitment is to offer more choice to our passengers and with a varied selection of ski packages, we aim to cater to the snow sports enthusiast.”

Copyright Press Association 2010

JetBlue Airways will provide high-speed connectivity to passengers

Travellers will now be able to access the “best in-flight broadband” while they jet off on holiday.

People travelling with JetBlue Airways will be provided with high-speed Ka-band satellite-based in-flight connectivity.

The move comes after the airline struck a deal with communications product producer ViaSat to bring broadband to its 160-strong fleet.

The internet facilities will allow passengers travelling to the UK through the company’s partner Aer Lingus to plan ahead if they are travelling from London to Luton or Stansted, or if they need information on any airport transfers.

ViaSat will provide JetBlue’s Airbus A320 and Embraer 190 models with Ka-band antenna components and ‘SurfBeam2′ modems.

It will also provide the airline with two-way transmission bandwidth services using the WildBlue-1 and high-capacity ViaSat-1 satellites.

The installation and integration of the new services on board the aircraft will be managed by the airline’s live television provider LiveTV.

JetBlue added that on-board TV will also bring Wi-Fi enabled services to the airline experience and help the company plan for the future.

JetBlue CEO Dave Barger said: “This system will be designed for the 21st century, not just for today’s personal connectivity needs, but with the bandwidth to expand to meet tomorrow’s needs as well.”

Copyright Press Association 2010

BA flights will go to Tokyo's Haneda Airport from February, making it easy for UK passengers to access the Japanese domestic market

UK travellers will have greater access to the domestic Japanese flight market after the launch of British Airways flights to Haneda.

From February 19, passengers will be able to catch flights from Heathrow to the Tokyo airport five days a week.

Ticket prices will start from £721 and the flights will be on a Boeing 777.

The airport serves the important business centre and also offers excellent links to Japan’s domestic network.

The new flights will also make it considerably easier for passengers landing at Luton and Stansted to access Tokyo, due to the availability of services providing airport transfers between the south-east England airports.

The flights to Tokyo’s Narita airport will continue every day, the airline has said.

New direct flights to Buenos Aires will be added to the company’s service, replacing current flights which go via Sao Paulo. Services from Gatwick to the Caribbean will be increased.

Two extra flights to Barbados will take to the air each week, increasing the total to 12, while the number of flights to Antigua will rise from five to six a week and there will be daily flights to St Lucia – Port of Spain, a rise from the current five a week.

Flights to Mexico’s easternmost state, Cancun, which launch in November 2010, will then increase from two flights a week to three next summer.

There will be an increase from five to seven flights to Tampa from Gatwick, but there will be a reduction of nine to seven flights a week to Orlando.

Copyright Press Association 2010

Dr David Lewis, the psychologist credited with coining the phrase “road rage”, warned stresses such as congestion and delays can raise blood pressure among car drivers and lead to more serious issues further down the line.

However, travelling by bus could reduce mental stress by up to a third and produce long-term health benefits, he said.

After a series of experiments, Dr Lewis, of the University of Sussex, found that on average stress levels were 33% lower on bus journeys as opposed to driving. Good news for anyone wanting to get from Luton or Stansted airports to London, with easyBus services running daily to take away the strain of driving.

“This study shows that driving in congested traffic now outweighs any previous benefits that driving in a private car once gave,” Dr Lewis said.

“EDR can be a hidden stress – it’s not as visible as ‘white knuckle driving’ or audible as road rage.

“This type of stress can have long-term physiological and emotional implications. Boarding a bus can produce significant long-term health benefits,” he added.

The research is published as part of the Greener Journeys campaign, which is designed to shift a billion car journeys to the bus by 2014.

Copyright Press Association 2010

Holidays in Spanish resorts, such as Chipiona, continue to be popular among British holidaymakers

British holidaymakers still rank Spain as their number one tourism destination, research into flight searches has revealed – news underlined by the fact that Stansted Airport is launching more flights to the country.

New easyJet flights to three key Spanish destinations, including Bilbao and Alicante, will soon be taking off from the Essex airport.

A recent travel survey has revealed that Britons looking for some time in the sun searched for Spain more than any other destination.

Spanish resorts Malaga and Alicante proved to be the two most popular destinations in the Flight Travel Trends poll, which was carried out in August. The findings revealed that Spain continues to be first on the list for British holidaymakers, despite destinations like Turkey and Sharm el Sheikh becoming increasingly popular.

Spain was the most searched for country for flights by British holidaymakers last month, according to a recent travel survey. 

The Flight Travel Trends poll, which was conducted in August, revealed that the Spanish resorts Malaga and Alicante were the two most popular individual destinations, and revealed that while destinations like Turkey and Sharm el Sheikh are becoming more popular with British tourists, Spain is still the UK’s favourite holiday destination.

“Spain is so popular with British tourists because it’s relatively inexpensive compared to other popular countries,” said Alex Saint of online holiday experts Dealchecker.co.uk. 

“It’s the original package holiday destination, and if you’ve got internet access it’s now so much simpler for consumers to find the best deal to suit their budget, so if someone is looking for something specific like cheap flights to Alicante, they’re more likely to find what they’re looking for online than anywhere else.”

Other destinations to make it into the top 10 of flights searched for included New York, London and Amsterdam.

Copyright Press Association 2010

El Al fighting back from recession

Israeli flag carrying airline El Al is fighting back from its troubling time during the downturn by launching a business bonus scheme, as the company revealed one third of its traffic in the UK flies into and out of Luton airport.

So far, more than 100 companies have taken advantage of the Business Plus, which offers bonuses to companies in the UK and Ireland.

With London an important business and commerce centre, companies with a base in the capital wanting to take advantage of the promotion will be able to travel quickly and conveniently from London to Luton airport by easyBus.

The firm has had a challenging few years, with the recession combining with increased competition in the market and further social troubles in the Middle East. Over 2008 and 2009, the national carrier suffered a 10% decline in the number of people from the UK who flew to Israel.

The company is forecasting revenues of $2 billion (£1.3bn) for 2010, compared to $1.65 billion (£1.1bn) last year.

The airline is responsible for about two-fifths of all flights into Ben Gurion, Israel’s largest and busiest airport.

Uri Danoor, chief executive of its operations in the UK, northern Europe and South Africa, said: “When we saw the competition, we had two choices. One was to shrink. The other was to expand and fight for the loyalty of our customers. We analysed things and found that we needed an earlier departure time from the UK, and a better airport location.”

New routes, including a direct flight from Manchester, are being considered by El Al, Mr Danoor said.

Copyright Press Association 2010