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November 3, 2009

Where the hell is Ornskoldsvik?

Filed under: Ryanair, Uncategorized — Tags: , , — ja @ 3:27 pm

I like to consider myself at least reasonably geographically aware, but one of the advertisers on this website has gone for an all out push on cheap flights to Ornskoldsvik. Where, I here you ask - well, I was thinking exactly the same, and no, for once, this isn’t the latest obscure Ryanair destination.

It turns out that Ornskoldsvik, population 29,000 according to Wikipedia, is on the eastern coast of Sweden, about half way between Stockholm and the border with Finland. Flights to Stockholm are provided courtesy of Hoga Kusten Flyg - but unsurprisingly, there are no flights to Ornskoldsvik from the UK - yet!

I wonder if somewhere like Ornskoldsvik ever gets on Ryanair’s radar - technically, it looks like the runway, at 2,014 metres, is long enough to handle their Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and the airport even offers charter flights to Turkey during the summer season.

November 2, 2009

Finding hidden cheap flights on Ryanair.com

Filed under: Easyjet, Ryanair, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — ja @ 5:25 pm

My brother and I have been talking about going to Morocco for a while, but we’ve never got round to booking. There’s an element of being cheapskates here, especially as Morocco is Ryanair’s only non-European destination, and it falls within the higher tax band. My cunning plan was to skip this tax difference by flying out through Gibraltar, and then taking the ferry.

This was as much about enjoying the journey as it was about keeping Gordon and Alistair’s mitts off my cash - sure, I don’t want them to have any more of it than necessary, but there’s no point in paying more for something just because you think it is taxed less.

So the Ryanair price ‘index’ isn’t quite down to zero at the moment - the confusing ‘80% off our best fares’ doesn’t really mean much, when their cheapest fares are 1p - so are they now going to split the penny and offer me a flight for 0.2p? What the best deal actually meant was that the cheapest flights to Europe started from £3 - but their flights to Marrakech in Morocco were advertised at £34, from either Luton (much easier for my brother) or East Midlands (Coventry is fairly even between the two, but Luton is actually easier to get to on public transport).

So when clicking through to the results page, they have flights going down to £9.99, where the taxes and charges add up to £43, but they also have flights at just £10, and that is all you pay, full stop. Is this a glitch - I somewhat doubt it, that’s not Ryanair’s way of working. Is it a bargain - yeah, and return flights were also available a week later for just £10.

My brother had to get back to work a few days beforehand, and I have a concert to go to which made the £10 deal impossible. This is where Ryanair’s seemingly low fares suddenly rack up - the £9.99 flight working out at £45 with all the charges. So, time to head over to Easyjet to check out the price of that flight back from Gibraltar - £51 all in. For £6 more, I’m getting to enjoy flying out and back through different airports, and my Morocco trip should now include Casablanca aswell as Tangier. There will be a few extras for the train up to Tangier and the ferry to Algeciras, but for me that’s all part of the fun.

Happy travels!

*Note - ‘all in’ includes mandatory taxes and charges - in this case, I paid no fee for online check-in. Both of us are travelling without hand luggage, and I paid using my Co-op Visa Electron card.

October 5, 2009

Economic Arguments for Heathrow’s Third Runway in Dragon’s Den

Filed under: Aviation Economics, British Airways, Regulation, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , — ja @ 1:26 pm

Continued from - Heathrow in Dragon’s Den | Neighbours | Passengers

According to the Institute of Directors (IOD), delaying further investment in Heathrow is costing UK PLC £1 billion each year in lost opportunity and congestion.  Heathrow employs 72,000 people, making it the largest single-site source of employment inthe UK. Yet a third runway is projected to cost a massive £8 billion. How will this investment be recouped? Clearly, BAA believe that they will get their investment back, and the IOD figure would suggest that UK PLC would see a return in just 8 years - not bad for such a huge piece of infrastructure. But what if the airline industry continues to see weak demand?

Heathrow’s attraction

In the current downturn, Heathrow has stayed steady whilst other UK airports have seen demand fall. Heathrow operates at 99% capacity, whereas its main three European rivals (Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris Charles De Gaulle) all operate at around 75% capacity. Neither Amsterdam nor Frankfurt has the population to support airports of such size in their own right - these two airports only thrive because of the huge volumes of transfer passengers they attract. Only London and Paris can claim to be true hub cities, where there is substantial latent demand together with the demand for inter-connecting flights, which makes more routes viable.

But does UK PLC really want all these transfer flights?

There is a legitimate argument to say that transfer flights are the most wasteful form of air travel, and that it would be better to encourage people to make such connections at airports like Paris, where there is a lower noise footprint. This is, of course, a blatant ‘not in my back yard’ argument, but in terms of economics, is it really worth building an extra runway just to encourage more transfer passengers? The argument behind such transfers is that they enable huge numbers of routes to be profitable, when they would not otherwise be viable. Typically, 25-40% of passengers on long haul flights to and from Heathrow are making transfers - without these passengers, there would be much fewer routes.

Of course, point to point flying is the most efficient way of getting from A to B, but there are always going to be journeys where the hub and spoke system will be needed - for example from Edinburgh to Entebbe or Oslo to Osaka. Is it really right that these passengers should be forced to be funnelled through Paris, Dubai or Amsterdam, just because Heathrow doesn’t have the capacity?

Verdict: UK PLC clearly sees the advantages of Heathrow’s third runway and says ‘I’m in’. Score so far: 2-1 in favour.

Continue to: Environment | Airlines

September 6, 2009

Who would you like to see Flightmapping interview?

Filed under: General Travel (non-flights), Media issues, Routes & News, Site updates, The Travel Business, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — ja @ 4:18 pm

Over the next few weeks, we plan to start interviewing some of the key movers and shakers who inspire us to travel. And we’re not just talking about tired old airline hacks like Ryanair’s motormouth Michael O’Leary, who we’ve already done to death, we want to talk to the musicians, architects and politicians who put destination cities on the map. And we might have a few words with the odd sportsperson or two, if they’ll talk to us.

I know who is top of my list - ok, he is a rich bigwig if that’s not too much of a giveaway, but we’d like to hear from our users who they’d like us to speak to. Anyone who has an influence on transport and the tourism industry is fair game, and they don’t just have to be UK based, our expense accounts like to give MP’s a good run for their money!

July 19, 2009

A local rant about transport integration

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — ja @ 4:09 pm

I’ve just thrown up a post on my personal blog about a new development around Coventry Railway station, which really should include a proper multi-modal interchange between bus, taxi and rail. Sadly, Coventry Airport does not look like it will offer any passenger flights in the near future, but any scheme which improves bus access to Coventry Station will also mean better access to Birmingham Airport, which is just 10 minutes by train from Coventry.

Thinking around Europe, and particularly to countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, it is easy to praise their public transport systems for being efficient and integrated. Such a dream might not seem so easy with so many different bus and train operators plying for trade, but what has this current government achieved in its 12 years of promising to bring more integrated transport? Putting my Conservative, profit driven thinking cap on, surely any opportunity to combine transport modes, increase property values and open up new development land should be grabbed before it is too late.

One such scheme is happening right here in Coventry, under the brand name of ‘Friar Gate’. The design seems generally quite reasonable, but couldn’t it be so much more exciting if they rebranded it as “Cov Central”, and made it totally accessible from any part of the city by bike, bus, car or train? Such a scheme might be a little bit more bold than the current one, but it would at least provide a chance to connect everything together, something which could be such a symbolic gesture in this City of Peace and Reconciliation.

And the bonus? Good bye Pool Meadow - a dingy, ugly and badly designed bus station which merits no Architectural distinction whatsoever. It might inconvenience the Gala bingo players a little, but it would bring a much greater prize to the rest of the city.

I hope my references here can be of interest to people who have no connection with the city of Coventry, although you are probably quite small in number! Coventry started the whole twinning junket, and we’re now linked with some 23 cities around the world. You can also fly over Coventry in an instant using Google maps - our city centre really is quite compact - but still big enough for the distance between bus and train stations to be a major disabling factor in encouraging more people to use public transport.

May 27, 2009

If all roads lead to Rome, do all flights fly from Friedrichshafen?

Filed under: Just get me there, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — ja @ 9:40 am

Okay, a slightly surreal question, but here’s a few thoughts: –

  • Of course all roads lead to Rome today, it’s the Champions League Final featuring Manchester United and Barcelona. Rome might be famous for St Peter’s Square, whereas Manchester just has to make do with shouts of Judas at the Free Trade Hall (now the Radisson SAS Hotel), which indicentally is on St Peter’s Street. At least we do actually finish our cathedrals, which is more than can be said for Barcelona. Hopefully their finishing will be just as bad as Gaudi tonight! Then they call in Norman Foster of Wembley Fiasco and Wobbly Thames bridge fame to redesign the Nou Camp, have they learnt nothing? And speaking of new camp, I think Canal Street offers a different version of that in Manchester.
  • Do all bikes lead to Barcelona? (The Catalan capital is one of many European cities which has an excellent free bike rental scheme).
  • Do all trains go to Turin (TRN)? No, but that is where Virgin’s Pendolini (which operate to and from Manchester) come from, so let’s hope Man-U complete a successful Italian Job (filmed in Turin) tonight.
  • How many ships are heading to the Ship Inn in Barbados this summer? (Where there’s a famous plaque celebrating the draining of all beer stocks by Australian cricket fans and a visiting Royal Navy crew.)
  • And yes, all flights do emanate from Friedrichshafen in Germany — that is where the (Led) Zeppelins were built. It was only after the Hindenburg disaster that flights in fixed wing aircraft became more popular. However, that’s got no relevance for today, let’s get back to work. What’s this got to do with Flightmapping? Flightmapping is all about showing physical links between two places. Sometimes conceptual links are much more fun :) More on our new map concept to follow shortly. In the meantime, enjoy the game tonight!

May 18, 2009

Hellenic confirm Birmingham to Athens flights launch

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — ja @ 6:20 pm

New flights to the Greek capital Athens from Birmingham airport have been confirmed by Hellenic Imperial Airways.

Well, I’ll still maintain my concerns about the long term viability of this route, but it is at least official that these flights will be operating. The first departure date will be 27th May - just 9 days away, an astonishingly quick turn around from putting seats on sale to route launch. It all smacks of a rushed-job, but let’s see.

And if Birmingham can now get flights to Athens launched, how about all those other European capitals still missing off the route map. Madrid? Rome? Berlin?

May 1, 2009

I’m waiting for my Electron Platinum Card

Filed under: Budget airlines, Budget flights, Flybe, Ryanair, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — ja @ 7:52 pm

Reading through another airline forum, I have just seen another poster describe the Electron Debit Card, the budget flyer’s most flexible friend, as being ‘hard to get’.

Nothing could be further from the truth! The Electron card was designed for people with little or no credit history, and as such can only be used in electronic terminals where authorisation is included with every transaction, so that the user does not become overdrawn. Naturally, this includes the online booking systems of the low cost airlines, who appreciate the lower handling charges this card attracts. Or, they just appreciate the opportunity to apply extra charges to everyone who doesn’t use an electron card - it doesn’t really matter which way you look at it, the fact is simple - if you want really cheap flights, you must have an Electron Card.

A few years ago, I signed up to the American Express Platinum card, which claimed to offer all kinds of rewards to the frequent traveller. I found that I used very few of them, and when it came to claiming on their insurance, they were a total nightmare to deal with - but that piece of plastic certainly shined nicely in my wallet (and it stayed in good condition too, as so many retailers don’t take Amex).  The reality for me is that even though I do travel quite a bit through running this website, most of my flights are within Europe, and as I want to use my local airports as much as possible, most of my flights are from Birmingham or East Midlands, and they therefore tend to be with airlines which don’t reward loyalty with air miles or fancy points.

With the new breed of no frills airline, who needs loyalty points anyway? Why should I need to fly around the world three times to collect enough points for a return trip to Scotland, when I’ve just got back from a wonderful trip to Italy which set me back a mere £9 for the flight, all-in?

As I’ve said before, anyone can get an Electron Card, and you don’t need an MP’s expense account to qualify. Banks aren’t particularly keen to push the basic accounts which come with Electron cards as they aren’t going to make much profit from them, but they won’t stop you from opening the account. I use a Cashminder account from the Co-op bank, which can be topped up in any Post Office. I might not be able to get an Electron Platinum Card just yet, but when it comes to the no frills airlines, putting snobbery to one side is the way forward.

April 2, 2009

How many of the UK world Heritage sites have you visited?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — ja @ 4:57 pm

As the weaker sterling makes European holidays more expensive and interest rises in staying at home within the UK, how many of the UK world Heritage sites have you managed to visit? Did you know that there are currently 26 sites designated by UNESCO as being of world Heritage standards within the UK. These are:

Bath (city)*
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
Blenheim Palace *
Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine’s Abbey and St. Martin’s Church
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape* (the Eden project is part of this, surely this must make future lists)
Derwent Valley Mills*
Dorset and East Devon Coast*
Durham Castle and Cathedral*
Edinburgh, New Town*
Edinburgh, Old Town*
Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast*
Greenwich (Maritime Heritage)*
Gwynedd - Castles and Town Walls of King Edward
Hadrian’s Wall*
Ironbridge Gorge*
Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens of
Liverpool (surely The Three Graces?)*
London, Tower of*
London, Westminster Abbey*
London, Westminster Palace and Saint Margaret’s Church*
New Lanark
Orkney  (Neolithic heart)
Saltaire
St. Kilda
Stonehenge (plus Avebury and associated sites)
Studley Royal Park, including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey

I have put a star by the ones I’ve managed to get to so far (16 down, ten to go), and hope that I can make it to a few more this year. How I’ve never been to Stonehenge is thoroughly unforgiveable, I’ll have to admit, and I will also be honest and say that it took me four years of study at Edinburgh University before I finally went inside the castle.

What are your local tourism ‘not seen yet’ confessions?

March 30, 2009

Are British Airways always more expensive when they are the only airline offering direct flights?

Filed under: Aviation Economics, British Airways, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — ja @ 7:34 pm

In our news section, we’ve just looked at long haul routes where British Airways is the only airline offering non-stop point-to-point service.

The expectation might be that they would be able to get away with charging a premium for providing such a service - this has always been the way with the traditional airlines. However farcical it might sound, the logic has always been that the punter should be charged more for the direct routing, even though it costs the airlines much less to service such a route.

The article looked at flights to 10 different destinations across Africa, the Americas and Asia. Generally, the rule does still apply - regardless of the cost to the airline, consumers are prepared to pay more for the convenience of a direct routing, and the market is still driven by what the consumer is prepared to pay, rather than what it costs the airline to provide the service.

Infact, the main exceptions to the rule were where you might expect them - on flights to Bermuda, where British Airways were 18% cheaper than the nearest alternative, the non-direct routing would mean taking flights to New York, and then doubling back again to Bermuda - a route which hardly makes any sense at all, considering that Zoom Airlines used to offer flights from Gatwick to New York via Bermuda.

BA were also cheaper on flights to St Kitts and flights to Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands - again, these were niche destinations where the alternative option would have been an unwieldy flight via the USA. However, BA weren’t always cheaper when it came to Caribbean flights where they were the sole direct provider - on flights to the Cayman Islands, it was cheaper to slug it via New York with Continental. Meanwhile, for flights to Trinidad (Port of Spain), BA were effectively competing against themselves, as the cheaper option was to fly with BA to neighbouring Tobago, and then take a short hop from there with Caribbean Airlines. However, the competition here is simply down to the fact that flights to Tobago are also available from airlines like Virgin and Monarch - therefore BA have to be competitive on that sector, making them competitive on the whole route through to Trinidad, providing you take the hop via Tobago.

On all the other routes we looked at, BA were still able to charge a premium for providing the non-stop service. In many cases, the difference was only a few percent, but when it came to flights to Entebbe / Kampala, the difference rose to 41% over the alternative of flying with KLM and Kenya Airways via Amsterdam. We can only assume that this is down as much to the perceived differences in service between British Aiways and their African rivals as much as it is down to the fact that BA serve the route non-stop.

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