Bmibaby cuts regional routes

Five routes are being suspended by Bmibaby from Birmingham next summer. Services being dropped between March 29 and October 24 are to Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Madrid and Bordeaux. This will leave the budget carrier with 16 routes from the airport in summer 2009. Bmibaby is also suspending routes from Manchester to Madrid and East Midlands to Prague for next summer. The cuts will lead to the loss of 65 jobs at Birmingham and five at East Midlands.

The budget airline said it was commencing a 30 day consultation period with unions and staff representatives “in order to minimise the impact of potential compulsory job losses”. A spokesman said: "These seasonal summer 2009 routes are being suspended in response to a weakening of consumer demand, which is being impacted upon by the current economic climate and its unpredictability. "Travellers are now booking to fly to typical sun destinations for their annual holiday, rather than flying to the more impulsive short-break city destinations. "In sharp contrast, the key Mediterranean routes from Birmingham are performing extremely well and bmibaby will continue to operate flights to the following destinations: Malaga, Alicante, Faro, Palma Mallorca, Nice, Barcelona, Murcia, Amsterdam, Prague, Edinburgh, Belfast International, Glasgow International, Ireland West Knock, Cork, Aberdeen and Geneva."

Passengers holding bookings for the suspended routes will be contacted by the airline be offered a full refund. Alternatively they can transfer free of charge to another bmibaby.

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Ryanair to withdraw from Blackpool

Ryanair has announced its intention to cancel services from Blackpool after the airport announced plans to introduce an Airport Development Fee from January 5. The airline will stop its daily flights to and from Dublin and its three services a week to Girona from January 4, unless the airport scraps the fee. "This fee will be levied on all passengers without exception after that date and will substantially increase the cost of travel through this small regional airport which is totally dependent on low fares for its passenger traffic," it said in a statement. "Ryanair had engaged in discussions with the management of the airport in attempts to underline the negative effect this fee would have and urge them not to introduce the fee.

"However, now that the airport has decided to go ahead with the introduction of the fee, Ryanair will withdraw all its services from the airport." Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley added: “This is a black day for Blackpool International Airport. The management’s decision, against Ryanair’s advice, to introduce an Airport Development Fee is an extremely regressive step which inevitably involves a massive increase in the cost of travel for passengers through the airport. "With this step, the management at Blackpool Airport have severely dented the economic prospects for the region which this airport serves and we call on them to reverse this decision immediately while there is still time to save the airport.”

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Ryanair threatens to shut Canary island’s routes

Nine Ryanair routes to Fuerteventura have been threatened with closure in a dispute over funding. The budget airline warned that it will close all of its routes from the Canary island from January 31 unless local tourism group AIE honours a "commercial agreement" to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination. The airline blamed a breach of the agreement for the cancellation of a flight from Dublin earlier this month.

Ryanair now says it will withdraw services to Fuerteventura from Birmingham, Bremen, Dublin, Dusseldorf (Weeze), East Midlands, Frankfurt, Liverpool, London and Shannon if agreement is not reached on the alleged contract breaches before December 6. The airline has started legal action against AIE and its individual members for breach of agreement. It claims that annual passenger numbers to the island have risen from 2,000 in 2006 when it started flying to Fuerteventura to more than 250,000.

The carrier’s deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said: “At a time when Spanish tourism numbers are falling, Ryanair’s numbers continue to grow. “However, the AIE continues to threaten the livelihoods of the local tourism industry by blatantly reneging on its contractual commitments. “Ryanair has served 30 days’ notice to the AIE to comply with its contractual agreements. “If it refuses to do so then we will have no choice sadly but to end all Ryanair flights to Fuerteventura from 31 January

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Thomson Cut Holiday Capacity

For Cheap Thomson Holidays. Call FREE on 0800 458 08 08

TUI Travel has revealed further “significant” UK capacity cuts for the coming winter. A nine per cent extra reduction in charter flying means that total winter capacity has been reduced by 28% against last winter. Summer 2009 capacity has been reduced by 16% as the company predicted a “weaker earlier booking environment”.

For winter, average charter holiday selling prices are up by 10% due to stronger pricing the past two months. The winter charter programme is half sold with nine per cent fewer holidays to sell. But the company is seeing weaker demand for ski holidays, while adventure and expedition cruising are seeing positive like-for-like sales growth. Volumes for next summer are 17% down on the same period last year but average selling prices are up 11%.

The total programme load factor is flat at 18% but there is 14% less to sell due to capacity reductions. In a trading statement, TUI Travel said summer 2008 to the end of October had ended “in line” with its last update, with UK average charter selling prices up by 11%, sales up by seven per cent, passengers down four per cent and capacity down by six per cent.

“Despite a more challenging trading environment, we are satisfied with our current position across all our source markets and businesses,” a statement said. “Within our mainstream source markets, through a combination of reducing fixed capacity. third party flying (which is 30% of all tour operator capacity) and uncommitted bed stock (which accounts for 80% of bed stock), we believe we can manage the current market conditions and continue to improve the profitability of the business.”

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Brits don't trust brochures

Six out of 10 Brits no longer traditional holiday brochures, according to a poll of 1,250 adults. The survey, by webTV travel site, Holiday ’09, found over half the people polled would be looking for advice on how to save money and get the best deal on their holiday next year, with 90% doing their research online.

Holiday ’09 editor Ceriann Mullins said: “It’s clear that following recent events in the industry and the global economy that customers want reassurance from travel companies placing openness, transparency and interactivity higher up their decision making process.” While the majority of respondents said they would be going on a beach holiday next year, over a quarter revealed that UK city breaks are in their plans for 2009 and while a fifth of respondents are planning something more long haul.

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