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Why is the Virgin Trains website so useless, and why is their phone service even worse?

I think this post is one I will have to complete later, to avoid saying anything too libelous, beyond stating the obvious point that Virgin Trains web designers are a bunch of cretins, and their telephone system might aswell just say “Good afternoon, we don’t want your business, please press zero or just hang up.”

Want more people to travel by train instead of flying (I want to go to Glasgow, and could very happily go with Bmibaby or Flybe) - quit the lecturing, just make it possible for me to book online on the dates I want to go.

It really isn’t rocket science!

Last month, Flightmapping caught up with Easyjet CEO Andrew Harrison, who was talking about the benefits of Easyjet’s new Ecojet proposals.

A lot of commentators have suggested that India or China might be able to offer this kind of emerging technology, even though they don’t really have any manufacturers capable of doing this just yet.  Have you considered talking to the Brazilian company Embraer, who have already made major efficiency gains through aircraft like the E195 used by Flybe?

Andy Harrison: No, they are still only building smaller planes. We are looking for a replacement in the 150+ seat market, so that we can offer a replacement for our current fleet of Airbus A319s and Boeing 737-700s.

In terms of cabin noise, is there any advantage in having rear mounted engines?

AH: Yes, they should be quieter.

Do the kind of outbursts we have heard from Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, who refers to environmental campaigners as “nutbags”, help or hinder your cause?

AH: We never take what our Irish rivals say too seriously.

How much do you think that carbon offsetting is likely to cost the consumer?

AH: We are talking about a typical £1 to £2 on an average Easyjet flight.  This compares reasonably against our current average fare of around £40. This is also a fraction of the recent increase in air passenger duty.

If you continue to encourage emissions trading, and keep talking about the aviation industry’s need to meet its environmental obligations, do you risk shooting yourself in the foot, and putting people off from flying?

AH: No, we are just keen to see an informed debate, in which the externalities of flying are properly addressed.  We expect consumers to use this information to make intelligent discretionary decisions about their flying habits.

Do you think it is reasonable for airlines like yourselves to complain about increases in air passenger duty on the one hand, and then to take handouts from regional governments with the other?

AH: I think there are two separate arguments here - one is that aviation should cover its environmental externalities, and the other is that new flight routes do bring in tremendous economic benefits to the regions they serve. I think that both of these arguments are equally valid - so it is not really a sense of giving and taking.  However, air passenger duty is currently significantly higher than the carbon cost of flights.

Will the Easyjet eco-jet proposals result in shorter flying distances?

AH: This design is aimed at flights with a sector length of up to 2000 nautical miles – 98% of all flights operated by aircraft with 120-240 seats are below this. We would expect an extended range version for the longer routes, but this would need additional fuel tanks and fewer seats.

Airlines such as Easyjet very well funded, so this kind of new technology will be affordable to them. Isn’t this all a bit irrelevant though, if your older aircraft are just passed on to other airlines?

AH: We made it very clear that we believe that there are 700 older aircraft in Europe which need to be taken out of the skies and dismantled. There is no point in shipping them out to Africa, as that just relocates the problem. What we are calling for is a win-win situation - airlines get to invest in new, cleaner aircraft with a minimum of noise and CO2 emissions, consumers get to fly much more modern equipment, and the environmental benefits are clear to see.

Doesn’t this create a huge problem, because there are already shortages of new aircraft, and now you are effectively saying to African countries that their airlines cannot expand, because these older aircraft must be phased out?

AH: We are only saying that the very oldest aircraft need to be taken out of service.

What will happen to Easyjet’s current fleet that is due for replacement from 2015 onwards?

AH: The reason why we are asking aircraft manufacturers to take the Easyjet eco-jet proposals seriously is that we are looking ahead now to our first major fleet replacement, which is due to start in 2015. We depreciate our aircraft over 23 years, so it would not be a problem for us to scrap than after this time.

Considering that Easyjet is so desperate to display its green credentials, why did you kick up so much fuss about Virgin Trains’ recent adverts, which were trying to encourage people to swap domestic flights for the train instead?

AH: At Easyjet, we’re not against trains at all, we are just looking for a balanced and sensible debate. Many proponents of rail travel seem to assume that trains are 100% full all the time, and they’re not taking real accounts of actual occupancy levels, or of the infrastructure costs of the track and maintenance. 

Easyjet has always recognised that train travel offers significant convenience on journeys of up to three hours, and that this range is extending - perhaps now to four hours. If the train journey takes less than this time, we simply don’t fly.

Further links:

• Easyjet Ecojet press release
• Initial blog about Easyjet’s green offensive
• Flightmapping news about Easyjet

I’ll have to admit to being caught up in the frenzy when Lastminute first came on the scene. They were pioneers of the dotcom bubble, yet somehow they managed to ride out the storm.

Back then, lots of people thought they had a good idea. They certainly had a great name - although there is still an association with booking late, and right now I’m trying to plan ahead.

Back then, lots of people said they’d been to the site, but few people said they’d bought anything from them. I have bought a couple of flights from Lastminute.com in the past, but right now I’m trying to get some concert tickets. I’ve bought a fair few of these this year, but am getting a little bit fed up with paying all these booking fees, so I thought I’d try going through a site that we theoretically have an arrangement with. I tried them last night for hotels in Antigua, and (admittedly just like 3 of the big four), they were useless at that too.

Last time I booked concert tickets through Lastminute.com was back in 2005. I remember them dragging me through several really annoying screens, and I remember getting so frustrated that I decided I would stick with them until I could confirm the booking - whatever it takes. I guess most users would have clicked away by then, but stubbornness was kicking in big time.

So I’ve just found out that Elton John is playing at the new O2 Arena - it should be a great night, but I’d still like to show my “support” to a site we work with. Lastminute doesn’t even have the event listed. Last week, they kindly informed me about new Prince tickets - 3 hours AFTER they had gone on sale.

So I hope they can pull their socks up, but in the meantime, it is back to See Tickets or Ticketmaster for concert tickets, and Expedia for hotels.

I guess I might be ventruing slightly off my cheap (or not so cheap) flights patch here, but I have been asked if we can push a few of the other consolidator websites, especially for hotel and flights packages.

The problem is that I am very stuck in my ways in this respect - if I am looking for hotels in the UK, I nearly always end up on either Late Rooms or Expedia, and Expedia certainly takes the crown for overseas bookings. Sometimes, I’ll give Superbreak a try - and to give them credit where it is due, they do often have some excellent deals on UK city hotels.

So last night I was looking for a hotel for one night in either Antigua or St Lucia, as I can’t find any flights that will get me from Nevis back to Barbados in the same day. When it comes to searching for hotels, I’m pretty flexible - naturally, I’d rather stay somewhere a bit fancy, but I still expect good value. This isn’t always easy to find in the Caribbean, but the starting point has to be at a hotel booking website which offers plenty of choice.

So here’s a simple league table of how many hotels each of the “big four” offered me in Antigua. I think that, for the time being, my loyalty to Expedia shall remain. They have even stopped referring to the “Royal Antiguan” as an “all-inclusive hotel” (see Hotel Snob blog) - about time!

How many hotels in Antigua does each site offer - for one night in early July 2007

• Expedia - 20+
• Ebookers - 2
• Lastminute - 4 (but one was actually in Gaudeloupe)
• Opodo - 2

Coventry airport’s future plans have been scuppered, after a permanent passenger terminal planning application was rejected by the government.

read more | digg story

If you think you can find bargain flights to the Caribbean from the UK, then that is fine - as long as you only want to stay on the one island.

Try moving between them, and journey planning becomes a nightmare. Unfortunately, the story is one with which we are all too familiar - too little competition, inefficient airlines propped up by state subsidies, and an uncaring attitude amongst upper management when it comes to finding ways to make improvements.

Following February’s marger, the only airline offering a significant level of inter-island flights around the English speaking Caribbean is LIAT. Caribbean Airlines (formerly BWIA) connect some of the larger islands, but these services generally act as feeder flights onto their long haul services. Other connection are available with airlines such as Winair (often through St Martin), or American Eagle (usually though San Juan, Puerto Rico).

I’m looking for flights from Barbados to Nevis. This really shouldn’t be difficult, considering the distance, but I am trying to get back to Barbados on a Tuesday, the one day there are no flights to Antigua (from where the connections are made to Barbados), from Nevis.

It would be easy to say that Nevis has it quite good, considering that only around 11,000 people live on the island. But, as with any Caribbean island, when tourism is the mainstay of the economy, the levels of flights are always going to be significantly higher than the population alone might suggest - and the Four Seasons Nevis resort alone can always generate a steady flow of inbound visitors. Unfortunately, from a British perspective, most visitors to the Four Seasons are arriving on flights from the USA, meaning that Nevis always seems to maintain better connections with San Juan in Puerto Rico than it does with Antigua, even though flights to Antigua only take around 25 minutes.

So why not hop over from neighbouring St Kitts? There might be regular ferries from Nevis to St Kitts, but I still can’t find a flight connection which will get me to Barbados with enough time to spare to catch the 17:25 flight back to Gatwick. The best I can get is a boat which leaves Nevis at 7:00 am, with an expected sailing time of 45 minutes, and a 5 minute cab ride to the airport, that gets me there at 7:50, if all goes to plan. The time of the only flight connection from St Kitts to Barbados? Guess what - 8:20, check-in time 30 minutes, leeway zero.

I lilke to cut things fine, but not that fine.

It looks like Ryanair have stopped offering cheap flights from Liverpool to Inverness for the upcoming winter season.

Ryanair are quite often very happy to say which routes don’t perform well, but this seems to be one they have let go of quietly. Unfortunately, when it comes to confirming these details, Ryanair’s website is one of the most cumbersome out there. There is no quick way of checking timetable details, so users have to scroll back and forth through the dates they are interested in finding flights for.

This is, I’m afraid, yet another example of Ryanair’s needless unhelpfulness. So in the time it takes me to write this blog, I have got as far as confirming that there are no flights between Wednesdays and Saturdays in November. OK - can now confirm this route doesn’t operate on any days in November. Checking back through Ryanair’s booking form confirms that these flights do indeed end on 26th October.

So, we can expect the usual questions about why a route which appears to have been popular, both with point to point travellers, and people making their own onward connections from Liverpool, has been axed.

Our understanding is that these flights were indeed relatively full. There is certainly room for competition on this route, as passengers who have got used to Ryanair’s cheap flights to Inverness will now have to make do with Eastern’s services from an alternative airport like Manchester or Birmingham.

The clue lies in the probable reason for Ryanair offering cheap Inverness flights in the first place. Budget airlines like Ryanair do everything they can to get the best usage out of their aircraft, and this process involves carefully matching up city combinations, so that each plane can perform a maximum number of “rotations” (out and back trips) in one day. Sometimes, the schedule results in a time slot of, let’s say, 2 1/2 hours, into which they need to fit a return trip.

We have always suspected that destinations like Inverness and Aberdeen suit Ryanair’s purposes in this respect very well. In the case of Ryanair’s Aberdeen flights, the “yields” (i.e. the revenue the airline earns for each passenger) seem notably above those for Inverness, so the route seems likely to stay - for the time being at least. In the case of Inverness, it looks like even if Ryanair were making money, they can now make more money by moving their aircraft around to serve other routes.

Yesterday (Monday 18th June) was a record day for Flightmapping.com, in terms of visitor numbers. In total, 9977 people visited the site, leaving us an “unlucky 13″ short of the big 10k.

If we include the 47 visitors to our new (but fast growing, of course) blog, then the total pips just over 10,000 for the first time.

Naturally, we still want to see Flightmapping.com reach this in its own right, and you can rest assured that we will let you know when it does. In the meantime, next time we come close like this, I think it will be time for an internet cafe crawl around Coventry.

That might have brought us to 9979 - ok, maybe not such a good idea then. Cheers!

Flightmapping’s MD James Avery will be on BBC Radio CWR, in Annie Othen’s travel slot, from around 11:40pm tomorrow (Tuesday 19th June).

Topics set for discussion include:

• Summer 2007 travel opportunities from the Midlands - where the best bargains are.
• New flight routes for 2007.
• The impact of the recent government decision on Coventry Airport’s future.
• How the aviation industry is responding to its environmental critics.

As always, James promised to be on fighting form, so tune in for some interesting discussion.

My email is still downloading as I type this - all 57MB worth. Of course, there’s the usual varieties of Monday spam, but the real offender is 11MB worth of image attachments, courtesy of Easyjet, who now need to be dubbed as the web’s most un-email savvy PR office.

I’m not sure if there is a universal guideline for email attachments - I’ve previously worked on about 1MB, but there’s certainly no need to send me images this size - especially when (a) I already have them on a zip disk they gave me at the press conference, and (b) if I do use them, they will only end up as a tiny jpeg image on a news story - no more than 400 pixels wide. If I want more, I know where to find them.

Apart from this minor breach of netiquette, I think the Easyjet Ecojet is a very interesting concept, and will be back for more comment on it later. I just hope the Easyjet PR team think before sending out large attachments next time. This kind of initiative is always going to get a very welcome reception here at Flightmapping.com, but other media outlets, especially the doomsday-predicting Independent, and officially biased BBC are a lot less tolerant!