Giant holograms of customer service workers will be used to inform passengers at Manchester Airport about liquid restrictions on flights.

People going through the security search area at Terminal 1 will be greeted by virtual versions of actual employees John Walsh and Julie Capper, who will also remind travellers to have their boarding cards at the ready.

It is hoped that the holograms, created by the same company that brought the chart-topping animated band Gorillaz to life on stage, will help to cut the length of security check queues.

Julie Armstrong, customer services director at Manchester Airport, said: “We are always looking for new ways to improve the experience of our airport for customers but four years after the restrictions were introduced, passengers understandably forget about liquids.

“We don’t want anyone to have to throw their drink or make-up away so we’ve tried lots of different ways to reinforce the liquid rules, from posters to people dressed up as giant deodorant cans!”

“Maybe holograms are the answer. You certainly can’t miss them and with the real John and Julie already being popular with our customers, I’m hopeful that their virtual selves will be a big hit too.”

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Cumulative winter bookings up to January 16 at tour operator TUI Travel rose 3%, a trading update has revealed.

The company, which owns Thomson Holidays, said it is on target to meet its expectations for the winter season.

The company’s “differentiated product range” – holiday package deals available only through TUI Travel brands – has helped summer bookings soar 11% since the last trading update.

TUI Travel, which runs flights from UK airports including Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted and Luton, has had a tough time since its previous trading statement in early December, as booking volumes for near-term departures were down 1% as snow shut off British airports.

Would-be holidaymakers also suffered disruption due to the political unrest in Tunisia.

The company cancelled all flights to Tunisia on January 15 following a continuing series of violent demonstrations and riots in the north African country, which led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

TUI had a difficult year in the UK in 2010, with bookings hampered by airspace closures caused by the volcanic ash cloud, uncertainty around Government spending cuts and the better-than-average UK weather at the start of the summer.

But business picked up toward the end of the year, with winter bookings in line with expectations and profit margins for summer 2011 bookings ahead of last year.

Peter Long, chief executive, said there was a clear trend for TUI customers to book holidays on the internet and the company would be expanding its online presence.

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Monarch has announced plans to increase its flights from Gatwick Airport this spring in response to a huge increase in customer demand. 

The airline has revealed that its Easter bookings are already up by around 49% nationwide, compared with this time last year.

As a result, the London-based carrier will be offering more flights to some of its most popular holiday destinations in Spain, Portugal and Cyprus. 

An additional 31,000 places will be available on flights heading to resorts such as Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Malaga, Majorca and Tenerife.

The move could see a big rise in the number of holidaymakers looking for airport transfers from London to Gatwick.

Monarch has also announced that it will increase its number of flights taking off from Manchester Airport this Easter. 

The surge in popularity of Easter bookings for 2011 may be due to the fact that it is very close to several bank holidays this year, including the extra bank holiday that has been granted in celebration of the royal wedding on April 29.

This will give UK holidaymakers a chance to make the most of their time off over Easter, and the travel industry is anticipating that many will take to the skies for an early summer break.

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Travellers could slash their holiday bill in half if they make wiser choices with regards to the timing of their bookings, according to a travel firm.

A holiday to Spain for a typical family of four could end up costing 58% less – a saving of £1,430 – if they made savvy, cost-effective decisions, The Co-operative Travel company said.

The area where holidaymakers can save the most money is on flights, the company said, with those who are prepared to be flexible with their travel times are much more likely to be rewarded with cheaper deals. 

For instance, a flight that leaves from Luton Airport in the evening might be a lot cheaper than one that departs from Stansted during the day.

Cash can also be saved if travellers plan ahead. Ordering car hire well in advance would be a good example of this.

Simple choices such as booking flights on the cheapest day of the month can make huge savings. Researchers found that, on average, the amount of money saved by buying tickets on the cheapest day of the month compared to the most expensive is £148.

This saving was even higher in months where prices increased due to school holidays, rising to savings of around £217 around the Easter half-term.

The survey also showed that the price of a hire car in August was £150 less if booked in March than if it was left until May.

Last year, savvy shoppers taking advantage of fluctuating rates by playing the currency market could have saved themselves an average of almost £50 for every 500 Euro purchased.

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Thousands of Britons are thinking about jetting off on holiday during the last week of April when Prince William and Kate Middleton get married, according to research.

Many will be heading to the airport on April 29 as they look to take advantage of the public holiday. The extra day off means Britons will enjoy four bank holidays in 11 days – two four-day weekends in a row.

However, while many people could be leaving Britain around the time of the royal wedding, the couple’s impending nuptials at Westminster Abbey are generating a lot of interest from foreign tourists, particularly those from the US.

Alison Couper, from website Hotels, which carried out the research, said: “With global media coverage of the nuptials, watching the historic occasion from the comfort of a sun lounger may be the perfect solution for sun-starved Brits.”

“Then again, there might also be some people who are already so tired of the saturation coverage that they just want to get away from it all.”

The site found that the number of Britons logging on to search for holiday deals during the royal wedding week had seen a significant rise.

Searches made between January 1 and 17 for the Spanish island of Tenerife were up 154% compared with the same period in 2010, while Marrakech in Morocco had a 235% year-on-year increase.

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Britons are finding trips to traditional holiday destinations such as Portugal and Spain increasingly affordable, according to a Post Office Travel Money survey.

There has been a 49% fall in the prices of trips to Portugal in the last year, pushing the country into first place in a list of the cheapest destinations for typical holiday spending items.

The items – including a three-course meal, suncream and drinks – cost just £32.84 in Portugal, with Spain the next-cheapest nation at £36.68.

Of the 10 countries surveyed – accessible from airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick – the most expensive was Malaysia at £47.68.

The survey also revealed that foreign currencies against which the pound had fallen the most in the last 12 months were those of Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and South Africa.

On the other hand, British holidaymakers are now enjoying much better exchange rates for Croatia,Hungary, Bulgaria and others in the eurozone.

Post Office Travel Money head Sarah Munro said: “Over the past two years popular resorts in the (Portuguese) Algarve and the (Spanish) Costas suffered badly from a drop in UK visitors, put off by the prospect of higher costs because of the weak pound.

“Restaurants and bars responded by slashing prices in a battle for business and competition between the two, together with an improving exchange rate, has resulted in a price crash in Portugal and Spain.”

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Despite Britons planning to spend a fifth less while on holiday this year, they are still intending to go away, a survey has revealed.

Tough economic times mean the amount people plan to spend has dropped from £1,014 in 2010 to £829 this year, according to 2,153 adults questioned by travelsupermarket.com.

Cost has become an increasingly important factor in booking a holiday in recent months, with 78% currently citing it as a consideration, compared with just 43% six months ago.

The poll revealed that cost is now more important when deciding where to go on holiday than weather or facilities, which scored 37% each.

Excluding flights and accommodation, the average amount spent while away on holiday has fallen from £307 per week last July to the current level of £298.

People living in Northern Ireland are likely to spend the most while on holiday – parting with £373 per week. However, it represents a significant decline from last July’s figure of £420 a week.

The most frugal of holidaymakers, meanwhile, are those living in East Midlands. They intend to spend just £256 a week.

The poll also indicated that men plan to spend more per week than women while they are away, parting with £334 a week compared with £348 and £313 six months and a year ago respectively. Women, on the other hand, now plan to spend £258, compared with £265 six months and £278 and a year ago.

Men also plan to fork out more for their holiday than women, paying £922 per person on average for their main summer holiday compared with an average of £740 for women.

Holidaymakers in south-east England are planning to spend the most on their main trip this year, with an average figure of £960.

Those keeping a close eye on the finances might want to consider taking bus transfers to the airport to avoid steep parking fees. They are fast, economical and easy to use, and service most major airports in the UK, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton.

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BA shares will trade for the last time on Thursday before the airline’s merger with Spanish carrier Iberia – nearly 24 years after it was originally floated on the stock market.

BA shares trade for final time

After the merger is completed on Friday, shares in International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) – under which BA and Iberia will exist – will be listed on the London and Madrid stockmarkets on Monday morning.

The two airlines will retain their brands as part of the initiative, which could eventually save 400 million euro a year, while the new airline group will consist of 419 aircraft, which will fly to 205 destinations across the world.

IAG, which will become Europe’s second largest airline in terms of market value after Lufthansa, has already earmarked 12 companies it is interested in buying as part of aggressive expansion plans. 

BA, which flies to and from a wide variety of airports in the UK, including Heathrow and Gatwick, will also benefit from Iberia’s strong presence in South America, where BA operates only a handful of routes.

Willie Walsh will step down as BA chief executive to take up the same role at IAG in a move that will see his basic pay rise to £825,000 a year, while he could also be awarded an annual bonus of up to £1.65 million if he exceeds performance targets.

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London mayor Boris Johnson has backed plans for a new airport in south-east England. 

He spoke as a report, which was overseen by Transport for London deputy chairman Daniel Moylan, said the failure to create a new hub airport in the region would see London suffer and lose jobs to its European competitors.

“For London to retain its position as the heartbeat of global business, we need aviation links that will allow us to compete with our rivals,” Mr Johnson said. 

With the existing airport transfers system in place in the region, a new location could complete the network and give tourists more choice when picking the location of their overseas getaways. 

High quality bus services between the airports, such as Luton to London and London to Stansted, might also remove the need for travellers to worry about leaving their car at the first airport they travel from. 

Mr Johnson is understood to support a new airport in the Thames estuary but the coalition Government has ruled out new runways in south-east England. 

The current report does not give specific information about a new site for the airport but a new report commissioned by Mr Johnson will consider the pros and cons of a number of locations for an additional airport. 

This will include options for a new airport which could be in the Thames estuary, as well as consideration of existing sites with the exception of Heathrow.

Mr Johnson’s backing for expansion not only puts him at possible loggerheads with the Government but also with those opposing airport growth, including residents’ groups and conservationists.

The report revealed that in terms of destinations served by worldwide international airports, Heathrow had fallen from second in 1990 to seventh in 2010.

The number of destinations that can be directly accessed from Heathrow is now 157, compared with 224 from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and 235 from Frankfurt.

The report said this showed that London’s only hub airport was losing out to other European airports, which if sustained could have long-term damaging effects for the economies of London and the UK.

The report also said that an additional 85 million passengers a year or 564,000 annual flights could be generated at London’s airports within the environmental targets the Government has adopted.

It added that runway utilisation at Heathrow and Gatwick airports was operating at approximately 99%. This was causing delays and reliability problems. Heathrow is handling up to 75,000 more passengers a day than it was built for.

Runway utilisation was typically 70-75% at other major European hub airports.

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Airbus has said it built more aircraft during 2010 than in any year of its history.

Last year the aircraft manufacturer produced 510 commercial aeroplanes, compared with a total of 498 in 2009.

Deliveries, including 18 A380 superjumbos, were made to around 90 customers throughout the year, the company reported.

It sold 574 commercial planes for a total of £46.6 billion, some of which are likely to use London Luton Airport or Stansted Airport.

Airbus, which has the wings of its aircraft made at plants in the UK, said it now controls 52% of the global market in aeroplanes which have at least 100 seats.

Firms ordered 32 A380 superjumbos from Airbus last year, a figure which revealed public faith in the aircraft despite an alarming incident in which one of the planes flying for Qantas Airways was forced to turn back to Singapore.

The firm’s president and chief executive Tom Enders said: “2010 was a good year, in fact better than expected 12 months ago. The market rebound and improved programme performance has been particularly encouraging.”

Mr Enders added: “However, with plenty of challenges, especially in our development programmes, we’ll have to work hard to further improve and also make 2011 a successful year for Airbus.”

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