British Airways and Iberia shareholders have voted in favour of a £5 billion merger of the two airlines.

BA, which operates out of Gatwick, Heathrow and various other UK airports, and the Spanish carrier will fall under their new parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), which has been created by the merger.

The deal, which is expected to be completed by January 21, will signal the end of BA shares being listed on the London Stock Market, with IAG taking its place.

However, both airlines will keep their individual identities, with IAG’s head office situated in London and the company’s annual meetings being held in Madrid.

The merged airline will have 408 aircraft carrying approximately 57 million passengers a year, while the two carriers have more than 57,000 staff and fly to more than 250 destinations.

The merger will allow BA better access to the South American market. At present, BA flies to only three South American destinations – Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Iberia also flies to these three cities, but also operates flights to eight other South American destinations. Similarly, Iberia will benefit from BA’s extensive North American operations, with the two carriers able to share information on fares, schedules and routes.

 Shortly before Iberia’s shareholders met in Madrid, BA chairman Martin Broughton told his company’s shareholders at a meeting in Westminster that the merger had a “compelling, strategic and financial logic” and would benefit staff, passengers and shareholders.

 Copyright Press Association 2010

Heavy snowfall in Scotland has closed a number of airports and created difficult travel conditions.

Large parts of the country have been crippled by snow and further flurries have been predicted.

Severe weather warnings for snow and icy roads in Grampian, Central, Fife, Strathclyde, Tayside, Lothian and Borders and South West Scotland have been issued by the Met Office. 

Edinburgh airport was shut for a time due to heavy snow and Aberdeen airport also suffered delays while snow clearing and de-icing took place.

Aisling Creevey, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, has also warned Londoners to prepare for the possibility of snow. 

As a result, people might want to use airport transfer services to get to Luton, Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted airports in a bid to avoid using their cars on treacherous roads.

Forecasters warned the rest of the country is likely to be blanketed this week as the weather front moves west.

The severe conditions could also last well into next week, with rain, sleet and snow.

Victoria Kettley, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said: “There will not be as much snow as on Sunday but there will be 2-5cm widely and over uplands easily up to 10cm through the day and overnight.”

“It will remain cold as there’s still the easterly wind so it’ll be a maximum of 2-4 degrees centigrade in coastal areas and inland it would be lucky to get above freezing.”

“We’re still expecting it to remain cold through the rest of the week, bitterly cold.”

Copyright Press Association 2010

London Gatwick has appointed consulting group TSE Consulting to help it become the airport of choice for the London 2012 Olympics. 

London Gatwick plans to be Olympic airport

Airport bosses are keen for Olympic teams and National Olympic Committees to use the airport before and during the Games.

Gatwick already has good airport transfers to and from London, but bosses at Britain’s second largest airport have  said they will invest around £1bn improving services.

Upon arrival, National Olympic Committees and teams will be met and greeted at the air bridge. Staff at the airport will then assist the competitors and delegates through a fast immigration processing procedure, support with baggage and organise transfers to their final destination

The airport has already facilitated leaders from the G20 Summit, and looks after a number of sports teams when they are on their travels. These include current Premier League champions Chelsea, as well as the New Orleans Saints, and Miami Dolphins.

The GB Team returning from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens flew back to Gatwick.

Jasper Perry, director of TSE Consulting United Kingdom, said: “We are honoured to have been appointed by London Gatwick Airport.

This project combines our expertise in helping NOCs prepare for the Games and helping regional partners such as LGA (London Gatwick Airport) to optimise their own involvement when such a major event is being hosted.”

Around 70 airlines currently fly to Gatwick Airport from 90 countries around the world. The airport, which is just 28 miles from London, handles around 34 million passengers every year.

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Gatwick is no longer viewed as one of Britain’s worst run airports a year after it was sold by BAA. 

Passengers who frequently use the West Sussex airport say they have been amazed by its transformation in the past 12 months and insist it is no longer synonymous with long queues and surly staff.

The once commonly-used term “Gatwick hell” is now an unpleasant memory.

Spanish-owned BAA sold Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) on December 4 last year, following a report by the Competition Commission into BAA’s market dominance in London and the South East.

Complaints about security queues have fallen by 70% since the £1.5 billion takeover, and positive feedback from passengers has doubled. The airport has also achieved its targets for the time it takes to clear security — a wait of five minutes or less for 95% of passengers — every month for a year.

Furthermore, Gatwick, which handles about 32 million passengers a year, is now earning bonuses under a government scheme that was set up to fine airports for delays.

Aviation consultant Chris Tarry, who flies from Gatwick at least once a month, said: “There has been a material improvement not just in terms of waiting time but also it’s just a much more pleasant experience. Now there are staff who will engage with you and chat with you. It’s not the ordeal it once was.”

GIP has pledged to invest £1 billion to update Gatwick’s two old terminals and to improve the treatment of passengers. So far, all of Gatwick’s 1,600 frontline staff have undergone intensive “politeness training”, and a new dedicated service for families with young children and fast-track security lanes have been set up.

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Extra bank holiday for Royal Wedding, to be held in Westminster Abbey

The announcement that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s spring wedding will be a public holiday has ensured that millions of Britons will enjoy two long weekends off next year. 

The April 29 Royal wedding falls on the Friday before the May Day Holiday on the following Monday, May 2, giving workers four full days off. The previous weekend is Easter, when schools close and much of industry shuts down for the traditional four-day break.

While millions of Britons will be glued to their television screens as the pair tie the knot, some may be tempted to take advantage of two long weekends in a row by heading to the airport and jetting off abroad.

Unsurprisingly, the revelation that Britons will receive an extra day off next year has been greeted with some cheer from industry officials.

A TUC spokesman said: “Working people will look forward to the extra bank holiday next year to celebrate the royal wedding.”

“The UK would benefit from having more days of national celebration. With a further bank holiday to come in 2012 for the Queen’s diamond jubilee, people will get used to the extra day off so we should make it a permanent fixture with a new community day bank holiday from 2013 onwards.”

A CBI spokesman added: “The Royal wedding is a day for national celebration, and under these unique circumstances a one-off additional bank holiday is appropriate.”

London could also see an uplift in tourists for the event. The city has good transport links feeding Luton, Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

Copyright Press Association 2010

While the unstable economic situation has caused millions of Britons to tighten their belts, business tycoon Lord Sugar is happy to continue splashing out.

The 63-year-old star of BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ has announced on Twitter that he has bought a new private jet worth £18.5 million.

Lord Sugar’s 13-seat Embraer Legacy 650, comes with leather chairs, a state-of-the-art entertainment system and access to high speed broadband while in the air.

He proudly showed off his new purchase by posting pictures of the plane on Twitter, as well as dedicating an entire album on Facebook to it. Lord Sugar also has a pilot’s license.

He said: “It is fast, it has a very generous hold, accessible from the cabin and is ideal for the 300 hours or so of business flying I do every year.”

The jet is emblazoned with G-SUGA on the side, has three cabin areas and a large bathroom, and will be stored in a hangar in London Stansted Airport.

Alan Sugar is currently starring in the fifth series of the hit BBC TV show ‘The Apprentice’. This week’s edition will see the remaining contestants jet off to Hamburg in Germany, from their luxury central London penthouse.

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Stansted has been named amongst the UK’s top five busiest airports, it has been revealed.   

Stansted makes top 5 airport list

The BAA-owned airport takes its place alongside Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh on the list of the top five UK airports. 

It is Edinburgh’s first appearance on the list, which is based on passenger numbers in the year ending October 2010.

Airport chiefs said Edinburgh’s impressive recovery from the effects of the volcanic ash cloud had contributed to the airport’s year-on-year growth, despite being particularly badly affected at the time.

Edinburgh Airport said consistent growth since its best month yet in July had seen the airport move into the “upper league” of UK airports.

The airport’s managing director, Kevin Brown, announced earlier in the month his vision to help travellers bypass London by establishing more direct links to the Middle East and the United States.

The airport said passenger numbers had been steady from June onwards, picking up from August with modest growth being predicted month-on-month well into 2011.

Meanwhile, a controversial £1 drop-off charge is said to be working successfully after the fee was introduced by BAA at the end of October.

Luton Airport also introduced a £1 fee to drop off passengers at the terminal in April last year. Drivers have 10 minutes to unload passengers and their baggage and pay the £1 charge at barriers as they leave the area.

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Britons jet off for spot of skiing

The ski season has arrived and Britons are flocking to major airports such as Stansted and Luton in a bid to become the first on the slopes as the winter season kicks off on the continent.

Some of the most desirable high-altitude ski resorts for Britons are in Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy.

Obergurgl-Hochgurgl in Austria opened 10 of its lifts for the weekend on November 14 thanks to excellent snow conditions. It closed again until Thursday, when it officially kicked off the season.

This weekend will see Austrian resorts Sölden, Val Thorens, and the Swiss Crans Montana throw open their doors and fire up the ski lifts. Sölden is open from Friday, Val Thorens season begins on Saturday, while Crans Montana gets going on Sunday.

Verbier in Switzerland also opened last weekend. It was expecting to open the weekend before, but was lacking snow and had to delay. The resort is now throwing open the doors for the season on Saturday.

The Espace Killy ski area (Tignes and Val d’Isere) in the French Alps has announced it will open on November 27. Other resorts that start the season next week are Alta Badia, Ischgl, Samnaun, and Zell am See-Kaprun.

Tignes, Zermatt, Gstaad, Cervinia, Hintertux, Neustift, Saas-Fee, Val Senales, Passo Tonale, and Kitzbuehel are all also partially open.

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Mcfly play a gig at Heathrow

Pop group Mcfly has become the first band to play a gig at Heathrow Airport.

The chart-topping quartet performed in front of hundreds of fans and travellers at a show staged in conjunction with the airport’s Christmas lights switch-on.

The band belted out a string of hits at the arrival hall of Heathrow’s Terminal Five, which was opened for business by Queen Elizabeth II in March 2008.

The band’s bass player Dougie Poynter popped on a stewardess’s uniform for what was billed as a secret show, while his band-mates wore captains’ outfits.

Poynter said: “We’ve performed in some weird and wonderful locations before, but Heathrow was really special.

“We were able to meet fans from all over the world and we are honoured that they stopped to share that magical moment with us.”

The band delighted their army of fans with a playlist that included Five Colours In Her Hair, All About You and Star Girl, as well as songs Party Girl and Shine a Light from their new album,  Above the Noise, which represents their fifth studio album.

McFly have had eighteen consecutive UK top 20 singles, seven of which reached number one.

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British Airways will increase the number of flights between London and Paris, it has been revealed.    

BA increases flights from London to Paris

BA has drawn up the new flights to compliment its existing services from Heathrow to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.

On the new route BA will operate Airbus A319s, A320s and A321s.

BA network planning general manager Colm Lacy said: “This is an excellent addition to our short-haul network, allowing business travellers easy access to the Paris financial district which is close to Orly Airport.”

Meanwhile, commuters heading from Heathrow to Paris in November could be frustrated by work to remove an unpopular bus lane on the M4 near the London airport. 

These disruptions can highlight the importance of leaving in good time along with using airport transfer services to alleviate the stress caused by delays.

The 3.5-mile lane on the M4 west of London was introduced 11 years ago, but transport secretary Philip Hammond announced earlier this autumn that the rarely used lane will be suspended until the London 2012 Games. 

The Highways Agency is due to begin work imminently, with traffic expected to allowed to use it within a week. 

Mr Hammond said: “Scrapping the M4 bus lane is symbolic of this Government’s decision to end the war on the motorist.

“It ends the injustice suffered by thousands of drivers who sit in traffic next to an empty lane day in day out.

“We will monitor the suspension over the next 18 months, but my intention is to scrap the lane permanently after the London 2012 Olympics are over.”

 Copyright Press Association 2010