Novelist Tony Parsons, who spent a week living at Heathrow Airport earlier this year, returned to Terminal 5 on Thursday to read extracts from his new book.

The Man And Boy author and Daily Mirror columnist was the airport’s writer-in-residence for a week in August, where he roamed the terminals talking to travellers and staff looking for inspiration for a collection of short stories.

In an event that was also streamed on Heathrow’s Facebook page, the ex-journalist read from his book entitled Departures: Seven Stories From Heathrow – 5,000 copies of which were handed out to passengers ahead of its publication.

Speaking about his new book and the time he spent living at the airport, he said: “There’s something both magical and majestic in the way that airports allow us to connect to the world in a way that would have been unfathomable to my parents’ generation.

“I feel very fortunate for the experiences I have had as Heathrow’s writer-in-residence and for the chance to learn more about the airport’s unique history, folklore and truly global residents.

“It has opened my eyes to how Heathrow is not just a hub for physical journeys, but also very often where passengers reach a crossroads in their lives and embark on new and life-changing experiences.

“I even got caught up myself in the intense emotion that takes place here during my stay as I waved goodbye to emigrating friends and met an uncle that I hadn’t seen in two decades.”

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Holidaymakers flying from Gatwick can relax on the bus ride to the airport safe in the knowledge that checking-in is considerably less stressful and time consuming now that iris scanners have been installed on many e-Gates in the South Terminal.

Passengers passing through both the entrance and exit to the international departures lounge will have their eye and their boarding pass scanned after AOptix Technologies’ InSight VM iris recognition system was installed as part of the airport’s recent £44 million upgrade.

The technology has been installed at 34 electronic gates in the terminal, potentially shaving five minutes off the time it takes to pass through security checks. It also ensures that the right person enters and leaves the airport.

The iris scanning system will be used alongside Human Recognition Systems’ (HRS) MFlow Track system, which employs facial recognition software to track passengers as they spend time inside the airport building.

Dean Senner, AOptix CEO, said: “Iris at-a-distance from AOptix and the HRS MFlow Track is the hassle-free, non-intrusive security experience that passengers are looking for at today’s modern airports.”
He added that the AOptix-HRS approach delivers a “highly accurate match of passenger to boarding pass on a remarkably consistent basis”.

Neil Norman, CEO of HRS, said: “Human Recognition Systems has been deploying iris recognition systems for 10 years now and with the introduction of the InSight iris recognition solution from AOptix, we are able to exploit the full power of iris biometrics.”

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Britons hoping to jet off on a sun-kissed holiday to Larnaca on Cyprus Airways will be able to do so from London Stansted from December 19.

The airline will operate a Larnaca-Stansted service on Monday and Thursday mornings and it hopes to increase flight frequency during the summer holiday season.

It is thought the news will be welcomed by many people looking forward to taking London to Stansted transfers ahead of their summer holiday in 2012.

Meanwhile, holidaymakers hoping to travel from the Cyprus city to Heathrow airport might be pleased to discover that from this Sunday, Cyprus Airways’ morning flight will depart at 10.05am (8.05am GMT), rather than 5am (3am GMT).

The airline has taken the measure because, according to a press release, many customers felt the 5am flight departure time was inconvenient. The later departure time will give holidaymakers a longer lie-in before catching their airport transfers, leaving plenty of time to spare as well.

From this Sunday, passengers can choose from twice daily Cyprus Airways flights.
The morning flight leaves Larnaca at 10.05am (local time) and arrives at Heathrow at 1.05pm GMT. The return flight departs a little over an hour later at 2.25pm GMT and arrives in Larnaca at 9.05pm local time.The afternoon flight from Larnaca departs 5.45pm local time, while the return flight leaves Heathrow at 10pm GMT.

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AirAsia X has touched down at Gatwick Airport for the first time following its move from Stansted.

By mid-December the current timetable of five flights a week to Kuala Lumpur will have been ramped up to six, suggesting that more people will be taking airport transfers for the service as Christmas approaches.

Guy Stephenson, Gatwick Airport’s commercial director, pointed out the emerging importance of the south-east Asia market for both business and tourism. He added: “South-east Asia is an important destination for UK business and leisure travellers and so we are excited that AirAsia X has chosen to operate the popular London-KL route from Gatwick and enable us to meet growing passenger demand for travel to this region. Gatwick offers an attractive proposition to airlines and their customers.”

AirAsia’s 327-seat Airbus A340-300 will carry passengers on the new London to Kuala Lumpur route. Also 18 passengers will be able to book premium bed seats.

AirAsia head of commercial, Darren Wright, said: “Our aim has always been to open up travel for all. The popularity of the London-KL route is further testament to the pent-up demand for long-haul travel, provided the fares are low and the quality is high. That is the combination that we at AirAsia X are offering our guests.”

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Holidays, especially ones to idyllic beach locations, are supposed to be joyous occasions where the memories made are only of the happy variety.

However, a survey by travel agent Sunshine has revealed that holidaymakers do worry about many things that could go wrong while on an overseas break.

These holiday fears, according to 53% of those polled, have ruined at least one of their trips.

The most ‘popular’ holiday fears people experience is that they will not get a decent tan during their break, followed closely by losing their passport and their luggage.

Many, according to the poll, also worried about missing a flight. This can easily be avoided by arriving at the airport several hours before the departure time, while taking a bus to the airport can also help to make holiday travel as stress-free as possible.

Other travellers said they were most concerned about staying in accommodation that they did not deem to be good enough.

Other unfavourable occurrences that played on the mind of holidaymakers include bad weather, not having enough money to spend while on holiday and not liking the resort.

Last, but by no means least, holidaymakers feared getting ill or getting burnt by the sun.

Sunshine questioned a total of 1,672 people for the survey.

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Many people deemed a holiday to be an essential purchase last year, according to a survey.

The figures from LV= found that the average household spent £3,181 on holidays and weekend breaks last year, suggesting that plenty of people will have found their way to London Stansted Airport via airport transfers in 2010.

Holidays were just one of a list of essentials, which also included take-aways and haircuts, according to the research carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) among more than 2,000 people.

The past 12 months saw some £5,850 spent on such items in the average household. This included £754 on eating out; £29 on trips to the cinema; and £456 on take aways.

Some 77% of people polled paid for these items by cutting back in other areas, such as dropping a brand in the supermarket, taking sandwiches to work and shunning the office vending machine for a good old-fashioned flask of tea or coffee.

Cebr carried out the research using Office for National Statistics figures, with people racking up an annual cost of £75 on their daily coffee shop fix; £306 on premium food and £297 on TV subscriptions. Culture vultures also spent £105 on visits to museums and galleries and suchlike.

Airside bedrooms available at Heathrow

Holidaymakers catching connecting flights from Heathrow might be too relaxed to leave the west London airport now that it has installed the first airside bedrooms in the UK.

Air passengers flying in and out of Terminal 3 will not regret booking one of the 12 rooms available, which contain a bed, bathroom, TV, mini-bar and Wi-fi connection.

Airports can be busy places, especially during holiday season, so the opportunity to kick back and relax in one of these soundproof chambers might be too tempting an opportunity to resist for many travellers.

Airports across Europe, including Schiphol in Amsterdam, have had these short-stay hotels for a while now, but the UK has been slow to catch on, with Heathrow the only British airport with such facilities.

This could change in the future as the company behind the idea, No1 Traveller, hopes to implement these airside bedrooms in several other UK airports.

Given that the company already runs airport lounges at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted in the UK and JFK airport in New York, it might be safe bet that these airports are the next to have these bedrooms installed.

The rooms, which are available between 4.30am and 10.30pm, cost £20 per hour for a single room and are available for a minimum two-hour slot. Passengers can reserve a room beforehand or turn up on the day, depending on availability.

Passengers appear to be impressed with the rooms, with No1 Traveller founder and chief executive Phil Cameron revealing that a 100 per cent satisfaction rating from guests has been recorded.

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British Airways, which flies to a number of UK airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, has been voted the best airline in a poll of 3,000 people.

BA scooped almost a fifth (19.1%) of the votes for the best airline, while Virgin Atlantic (13.8%) finished second in the Gocompare.com survey.

Participants of the poll were asked to rate their favourite and least favourite airports in terms of cost, service and overall comfort of their journey.

Many who took part also added extra comments about their travel experiences, some complimentary and some not so complimentary.

The poll discovered that more than a third (35%) of travellers find airports stressful, while a similar number (33%) think it takes too long to check in.

A total of 11% feel that security checks are too stringent, while once they are on the plane, 40% do not want to sit near families with young children.

Meanwhile, 17% of those polled want airlines to ban the consumption of alcohol on flights.

Jeremy Cryer, Gocompare travel head, said: “Clearly some airlines will get your holiday off to a better start than others and it’s interesting that even with the bucket shop pricing of the budget airlines plenty of passengers still don’t consider their service good value for money.

“Our research found that while some people will put up with poor service in return for low fares many have vowed never to fly with a particular airline again.”

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It seems more and more Britons like the idea of having a car while on their holidays abroad, research has revealed.

Travel agent sunshine found that of those who took foreign trips this year, 38% said they had hired a car, compared with just 19% of people in 2010.

The fact that people have more money in their pocket to spend on holiday extras was the reason given for the surge in popularity of car rentals as they fly from airports such as Gatwick, the travel agent said.

A whopping 79% of travellers said hiring out a car in 2010 or 2011 had proved a worthwhile experience and enhanced their holiday, compared to just 6% who said it was a waste of time.

The process of arranging a bus transfer to the airport and between any connecting flights, before picking up a hire car at the other end, can take a lot of the stress out of travelling abroad.

The majority of people – 52% – said they would probably hire a car for a trip abroad next year.

The travel agent surveyed 1,119 UK adults, each of whom had been on at least one overseas holiday in 2010 and also 2011.

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Business jet flights are growing in popularity in the UK, statistics have revealed.

There was a 7% rise in January to June 2011, equating to an average of 393.5 business aircraft flights a day, business aircraft company Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) said.

Of the total in Europe, UK flights accounted for 22.18% of traffic from the 27 member countries. The average rise in flights in the first half of this year was only 4.7%.

There are now more than 700 business aircraft based around the UK in places such as Stansted and Gatwick. Only Germany has more.

HBC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa president Sean McGeough said: “Our analysis shows that the business aviation market continues to recover, despite the current uncertain economic climate.

“One of the reasons for this is that businesses are increasingly realising the many business benefits of having their own aircraft. We have a growing number of clients who use our aircraft to personally visit key clients all over Europe.”

Only Poland had a biggest increase in the number of daily business flights, rising 15.5%, of the countries reviewed. The largest number of daily business flights of on average 698.3 during the first six months of this year went to France, while Germany had the second highest number.

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