Airbus believes that formation flying could potentially happen on high-frequency routes from 2050 onwards.

In its latest vision for sustainable aviation, the plane manufacturer also said that shorter flights would save fuel and dramatically reduce CO2 emissions.
It stated that by the middle of the 21st century, flights in Europe and the USA could be an average of 13 minutes shorter, saving around nine million tonnes of fuel each year.
Shorter journey times, which could be achieved by the optimisation of air traffic management and on-board technology systems, would lead to the annual saving of more than 28 million tonnes of avoidable CO2 emissions a year as well as the saving of five million flying hours.

Airbus also envisages planes free-gliding on their approach into airports to reduce emissions and reduce noise, and aircrafts climbing more steeply on take-off to minimise noise and allow for shorter runways.
In addition, the company imagines an increase in the use of sustainable biofuels and other potential energy sources such as electricity, hydrogen and solar power, plus highly intelligent aircraft which are able to “self-organise” and select the most efficient and environmentally friendly routes.

It would also like to see passengers reaching terminals faster, so travellers at airports such as Stansted and Luton can get to their destinations in a speedier and more relaxed manner.

Copyright Press Association 2012

Families spend 10% of their travel budgets before they even leave the airport, a survey has shown.

Travel agency sunshine revealed that an average family of four spends £116 after checking in before they take off.

A large majority (97%) of respondents said they often spend money like this at places such as Stansted and Luton Airport, with drinks to take on board being the most popular purchase.

Other in-demand items for holidaymakers about to jet off for their break included meals, snacks, toiletries and reading books or magazines.

Results from the poll showed that the average spending money a family of four took away with them was around £1,100.

A total of 1,783 adults who had been abroad as part of a family of four in the past 12 months were quizzed for the research.

Sunshine co-founder Chris Clarkson said: “To see that as much as 10% of the holiday spending money budget is blown in the airport before a family have even left the UK is a revelation indeed.

“When booking a holiday and saving for spending money, people often forget about expenses incurred on things like transport to the airport, airport hotel stays and the money spent on a pre-flight meal, or getting some last-minute toiletries.”

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A new survey reveals that many holidaymakers would rather go on a trip abroad with their pet than their family.

More than a tenth (13%) of the 2,010 adults questioned in TravelSupermarket’s poll said that when travelling, they prefer the company of their pet to that of their parents, siblings and other close family members. And findings also show that almost 40% are now bringing their pets abroad with them on holiday.

Almost half (47%) of travellers flying from the UK’s major hubs, such as Stansted or Luton airports, without their favourite critters said they missed them the most while abroad, and a tenth of the parents quizzed admitted they would choose their pet over their children to go on holiday with.

Furthermore, nearly one in five (18%) said they treat their pet to a souvenir when they come home from a trip, while almost 50% said they like to lavish them with attention.

The survey also indicates that two-fifths of holidaymakers often call home to see how their pets are doing, and more than a third (36%) said their biggest concern was the health of their animals while away on a trip.

TravelSupermarket’s Bob Atkinson said: “We all know that Brits love their pets and this research has found that many pet owners are happy to admit we actually miss our furry friends more than we miss immediate family and friends when we are away.”

Copyright Press Association 2012

“Overpacking” by wives and girlfriends is causing many men to give up part of their aircraft luggage allowance when going away on holiday, according to a survey.

The baggage limited for passengers is usually capped at 20kg (44lb) per person, but some men are having to sacrifice up to 5kg (11lb) of this to cater for items that their other halves could not fit into their own luggage.

Just over half – 52% – of men revealed that at some point they had given up some space to their partner, while 22% of women admitted to not checking packing restrictions before leaving for the airport.

The survey was carried out by Stansted Airport on a total of 2,000 people and found that a quarter of travellers spend three hours packing their bags. Despite this, 37% of women still owned up to reorganising their suitcases at the check-in desk, while 48% conceded they take much more than they need on holiday.

Stansted terminal manager Mandy Mather said: “The days of saying ‘don’t forget your toothbrush’ are long gone.

“Now the question should be: what can we leave at home? Unfortunately it seems a lot of passengers want to have their cake – and pack it.”

The most common items to get left behind were found to be suncream or sunglasses, with 15% of holidaymakers admitting to have forgotten these on occasion. A tenth of people forgot their phone chargers, while 13% made the costly mistake of leaving the house without their passports or boarding passes.

Copyright © Press Association 2012

Airbus has estimated that the coming two decades will see the passenger plane fleets of world airlines more than double.

The firm made the call during a London briefing, saying that the number of planes with more than 100 seats will reach 31,000-plus by 2030, compared with the 15,000 recorded in January.

The call suggests that in the coming years more passengers could be travelling from Luton Airport to London after flying in the bigger crafts.

However the biggest demand for passenger aircraft will come from China, the US and Germany, the firm said.

Europe is expected to receive 22% of the total number of new planes, with the USA taking 22% and the Asia-Pacific region 34%

It was also forecast that airlines need some 5,000 smaller planes, seating 19-100 people, to cope with regional demand.

By 2020 domestic flights in the US are likely to account for the biggest percentage of passenger aircraft movement, according to the firm.

The firm also predicted that by 2030 the world’s middle class will swell to 4.9 billion. It said this would grow from last year’s figure of 1.84 billion to 3.25 billion in 2020 and onwards.

And it claimed that by 2020 low-cost airlines will account for 19% of all air traffic, underpinning a trend which has seen surging numbers of people flock to airports like Stansted and Gatwick before jetting off on cheap flights.

Copyright © Press Association 2011

A large proportion of holidaymakers try to compete with their friends’ travel plans by booking trips to more exotic and exciting locations, a recent survey has revealed.

Up to two in five British travellers admit they have purposefully sought a holiday that they considered to be more impressive than one a friend, family member or work colleague had recently been on, according to a survey by travel agent Sunshine.

Around 9% of these holidaymakers said they booked these trips because they felt jealous about a holiday recently taken by one of their peers.

Competition among London-based holidaymakers is likely to be particularly intense with airports such as Stansted, Luton and Heathrow all offering cheap flights to some of the most beautiful and exotic destinations across the world.

Some 44% of the 1,208 adults who were questioned said they felt happy for a friend who says they had a “lovely holiday abroad” but 12% admitted they had feelings of envy and 6% said they were “annoyed”.

A total of 79% said they had boasted to their contemporaries about how good their holiday was after they got back and 26% said they thought their friends had often gone on a good holiday just to “get one up on them”.

The survey even revealed that 8% of those who had been away had lied to people about their holiday destination to make their trip sound more exotic than it was.

Sunshine co-founder Chris Brown said: “While it’s nice to hear that someone close to you or someone you get on well with at work has had a lovely holiday, it’s hard not to feel a pang of jealousy.

“However, when booking a holiday, it’s important people choose their location or resort based on what they like, not on what they think will look most impressive to others.”

Copyright © Press Association 2011

Research has revealed that many Britons like to be considerate to hotel staff when on holiday by cleaning their rooms.

The poll of 2,000 people by website Hotels found that up to 59% of those surveyed had given their hotel room a clean before heading off.

Some 60% of holidaymakers even made the bed – suggesting that people travelling out of the major UK airports such as Luton and Stansted like to keep things tidy.

Around 59% of people also said that cleaning their room before heading off was merely good manners – even though the majority of people didn’t say they enjoyed it.

For 45% of those polled this cleaning extended to folding towels, while 11% even cleaned the toilet.

When it came to the exact reasoning behind the cleaning, for 43% it was a matter of routine, while 45% wanted to leave a good impression on hotel staff in a bid to avoid being called messy.

Regionally, people from the South East were the most likely to tidy their rooms – with 67% getting involved before heading off to catch their airport transfers.

But only 39% of people in East Anglia said they tidied up, making the region the least likely to clean.

The website’s communications director Alison Couper said: “Going on holiday is all about getting a break from the routine of home life, yet it’s evident many Brits just can’t drop the cleaning when away.”

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Noise reducing measures at Stansted Airport, including the gradual phase-out of ageing, overly loud planes, have been given the go ahead by the Government.

The five-year blueprint, which comprises almost 60 stringent measures to tackle the issue of noise in the surrounding areas of London Stansted Airport, has been green-lighted by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Transport (DfT).

The Noise Action Plan was developed following a consultation period that lasted 16 weeks, canvassing the opinions of residents from local towns and villages.

Key areas of the strategy include prioritising the use of the world’s most modern, clean and efficient planes while phasing out use of older, noisier aircraft by 2015, increasing penalties for off track flying and noisy aircraft and protecting no-fly zones over the towns nearest the airport.

Other measures include the implementation of new landing techniques to cut down on noise from arriving planes and forging closer relationships with the aerospace industry in order to pioneer new technologies that will improve aircraft efficiency.

Head of health and safety and environment at Stansted Airport, Dr Andy Jefferson, said: “The publication of this plan is all about building upon our solid foundations and renewing our commitment to drive for even higher standards of operations as we work to protect our community from the impacts of noise.”

Copyright © Press Association 2011

Airlines were right to ground aircraft after the eruption of a Icelandic volcano last year, researchers have said.

Scientists led by Dr Sigurdur Gislason from the University of Iceland examined samples of ash from the volcano as part of a new study and concluded they were capable of causing an air disaster.

Flights across the UK including from airports such as Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, were cancelled or delayed due to the volcanic ash, affecting some 10 million passengers and costing between  £1.3 billion and £2.2 billion.

But in a new study the researchers found the fragments remained “sharp and abrasive” even after attempts to blunt the particles by stirring them in water.

They would have sandblasted aircraft windows, making them impossible to see through, and had the potential to stall engines.

The explosive nature of the eruption on April 14 last year was caused by glacial meltwater coming into contact with hot volcanic magma.

Tiny pieces of extremely hard, abrasive material were ejected to heights of more than 9km and carried as far as Russia.

The researchers wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “The very sharp, hard particles put aircraft at risk from abrasion on windows and body and from melting in jet engines.

“In the lab, ash particles did not become less sharp during two weeks of stirring in water, so airborne particles would remain sharp even after days of interaction with each other and water in clouds. Thus, concerns for air transport were well grounded.”

Copyright © Press Association 2011

Holidaymakers heading abroad this summer from certain UK airports may find using tablet computers such as iPads abroad could be up to 1,000 times more expensive than in Britain. 

Consumer group Which? has revealed the potentially crippling costs, which could interest people looking to go on holiday from Heathrow, or Stansted airports this Easter. 

The research shows that while some travellers might think they have been thrifty by using airport transfers, they could end up spending over and above anyway by checking the internet or making calls home. 

In Britain a gigabyte of data can cost as little as £7.50 a month for people who like to check emails, watch videos or download music on a tablet. 

But the study has shown that similar usage while travelling abroad could end up costing several thousand pounds.

It would take a considerable amount of hours watching video online to run up such astronomical charges – but simply using GPS to get around, browsing the internet, or checking emails could lead to a bill of several hundred pounds.

Also, smartphone and tablet users could find their devices racking up big bills without them knowing as the gadgets access the internet to conduct automatic updates.

Although data charges are limited to about £40 in the EU due to an automatic bill cut-off required by EC regulation, and some operators have caps for use further afield, others do not have a limit on how big a bill a customer can rack up.

Which? found that using a mobile phone to make and receive calls, send texts and browse the web while abroad can be extremely costly too.

Unlike within the UK, mobile users must pay to receive calls as well as to make them.

Prices are capped in the EU, but calls made elsewhere can be up to 10 times more expensive and texts can be four times more expensive.

Copyright © Press Association 2011