News
03/03/10 - New York airport jets 'directed by child'
US officials are investigating how a child was apparently allowed to direct planes at New York's JFK airport - one of the country's busiest.
19/02/10 - Etihad to boost Manchester services
Airline add 2,100 seats a week on routes between Manchester and Abu Dhabi after successful 2009.
15/02/10 - Twitter storm takes off over Southwest Airlines and 'too fat' Kevin Smith
A Twitter storm has erupted over the ejection of an American film director from a Southwest Airlines flight for being too fat.
10/02/10 - Introducing Google Slope View
Google's camera cars, have now gone off-piste. In celebration of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Google has stuck one of its cameras on the back of a snowmobile and driven it around the slopes of Whistler Blackcomb, site of the alpine skiing events at the Games.
26/01/10 - Dubai World refused permission to use QE2 as floating hotel in Cape Town
The QE2 will not be sailing to Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town has refused the vessel
permission to berth for use by owner Dubai World as a floating hotel.
15/01/10 - No ban on climbing Uluru… for now
Tourists can continue climbing Uluru, the enormous rock in Australia’s red heartland, after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ruled out a
proposal to stop them.
15/01/10 - Changes to P&O Ferries
P&O Ferries has given notice that is it proposing to withdraw from the Portsmouth-Bilbao route at the end of September 2010, when
the charter of the ship it uses for the service, the Pride of Bilbao, comes to an end.
14/01/10 - Haiti Earthquake - how can you help?
International aid agencies are appealing for urgent financial help to support victims of the catastrophic earthquake in
Haiti.
04/01/10 - Dubai to open world's tallest building
The world's tallest building is set to be opened in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. More than 800m (2,625ft) high and clad in 26,000 glass panels, Burj Dubai has 160 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and apartments. The Burj Dubai is almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building.
30/12/09 - The Empire State Re-building
The most iconic building on the Manhattan skyline is undergoing a £340m refurb, not only to recreate its art deco grandeur but also make it fit for the 21st Century. The replacement of all the building's windows should lead to 38% energy saving.
30/12/09 - First integrated hotel helicopter solution in the world
The owners of Cliveden in Berkshire and the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath are opening Hotel Verta in
Battersea at the London Heliport (the main helicopter port in the city) next spring.
29/12/09 - Diarrhoea vaccine guinea pigs wanted for free holidays
A US company is offering free holidays to Mexico and Guatemala for volunteers on a diarrhoea drug programme.
26/12/09 - New hotel in Saint Lucia
Hotel Chocolat the chocolate-making company, is opening a non-chocolate hotel on a working cocoa plantation in March. The hotel, with
views of the Pitons peaks, will have six rooms (rates not set).
08/12/09 - Richard Branson unveils Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo
Passengers aboard the SpaceShipTwo will be able to remain strapped in and view the Earth from portholes next
to their seats, or unbuckle and experience weightlessness, once the craft passes beyond the atmosphere. 300 or so people hold a $200,000 (£122,000) Virgin Galactic ticket.
06/12/09 - Dubai cheaper than Doncaster as room rates tumble.
In the wake of Dubai’s financial crisis, a night in a five-star hotel there is now cheaper than a night in a
three-star property in Doncaster. Four-star hotels, including the Al Manar, are offering rates of less than £30 a night, and prestigious five-star city-centre properties have slashed prices to well
below £100.
29/11/09 - BA flies toward biofuel planes
British Airways has taken a big step towards using biofuels in its jets by starting trials in conjunction with Rolls Royce.
25/11/09 - Nottingham? Top tourist destination?
Nottingham has somehow made it into the top 10 tourist destination in the world for 2010. The East Midlands city joins Reykjavik, Oslo and Delhi.
19/11/09 - Emirates serving BlackBerrys
Passengers on Emirates will be able to use BlackBerrys in flight within months, the airline's president, Tim Clark has announced.
18/11/09 - More Michelin starts in Tokyo than Paris
Tokyo has overtaken Paris as the city with the world's most Michelin 3 star restaurants. Awarded 11, one more than Paris.
17/11/09 - Ice skating at Somerset House
Skate under the stars in central London this winter, as Somerset House ice rink opens today to celebrate its 10th birthday.
12/11/09 - BA merge with Iberia
British Airways have announced a £3.96bn merger with Spanish rival Iberia, creating and airline with 61.5m passengers flying to 205 destinations worldwide.
05/11/09 - Tutankhamun finder's home on show
The Egyptian mud-brick house of British archaeologist Howard Carter has been reopened as a museum.
04/11/09 - Disneyland approved for Shanghai
The Chinese government has approved plans for the Walt Disney Company to build a theme park in Shanghai, its first in mainland China.
30/10/09 - World's largest cruise ship sets sail to Miami
The world's largest cruise liner, Oasis of the Seas has set sail for Miami from the Finnish shipyard where it was built. Commissioned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, it is due to begin cruises out of Miami in December after a stop in Southampton.
29/10/09 - Taxi to have an extra 50 cent charge
Starting this Sunday, an extra 50 cent surcharge will be added on all taxi rides in New York.
27/10/09 - Second wobbly bridge in London
A new wobbly bridge could be built across the Thames to provide better links to the last remaining major regeneration area in central London. Connecting the site in Vauxhall with Pimlico.
19/10/09 - European escape
The Times have teamed up with Eurostar to bring you an exclusive 2 from £90 promotion to Paris, Brussels and Lille.
19/10/09 - Happy holidays from Google
Google and Virgin America are teaming up to bring you free in flight wifi on every Virgin America flight from 10th November 2009 to 15th January 2010.
18/10/09 - Prices plummet across the pond
As hotel rates continue to fall worldwide, research has found that the best deals lie across the Atlantic, where hoteliers are having the worst season since 9/11. Room rates in New York have dropped to an average of £120 a night from £175.
08/10/09 - A new view of Uluru
A new viewing platform has opened at Uluru (Ayers Rock). The platform named, Talinguru Nyakunytjaku, or 'a place to look from the sand dune' in the Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara language, is 3km from one of Australia's most iconic sights.
06/10/09 - Tripadvisor's flight finder offer cup of tea with BA fares
Hotel review giant Tripadvisor has launched a flight search that allows users to include extras like seat selection, baggage and even snacks, when searching for cheap flights.
06/10/09 - Hotel price map highlights cheapest city breaks
A map, published today by hotel comparison website Trivago, shows that British holidaymakers looking to find
a cheap city break should head to Krakow, where hotel rooms cost an average £68 a night.
30/09/09 - BA all-business flight grounded on second day
The new British Airways business-class-only flight to New York, which launched yesterday, has been struck by an engine fault. Leaving the aircraft grounded at London City Airport for nearly two hours earlier today.
29/09/09 - BA launches business class only service
The new service from London City airport to JFK in New York is a bold move by an airline that has been hammered by the recession. They will operate two A318 aircraft from City, seating only 32 passengers in each aircraft.
27/09/09 - Marrakesh's most famous hotel
La Mamounia was the grande dame of the city - and she's back, with a £100m face-lift.
26/09/09 - Refunds after Eurostar breakdowns
About 1000 Eurostar passengers are to be given refunds after being stuck on two trains for several hours because of a power cut to overhead lines.
24/09/09 - Rare gorillas make Facebook debut
Uganda along with Hollywood stars, such as Jason Briggs are launching the "Friend a Gorilla" website and allow readers to become friends with the animals on the Facebook site, for a $1 (£0.60) fee. Officials hope to raise the profile of Uganda and raise cash for the gorillas of the Virunga Mountains.
23/09/09 - Desert dust storm chokes Sydney
Sydney has been shrouded in red dust blown in by winds from the deserts of the outback.
22/09/09 - Ryanair reintroduces ‘smoking’
The Irish low-coster will be selling ‘smokeless cigarettes’ on its flights. The plastic cigarettes look like a real cigarette and
deliver a small amount of nicotine when inhaled.
22/09/09 - Growing number of Airlines allow free changes within 24 hours
flybe has become the latest airline to relax its rules on amending flight tickets. The AUC says the following airlines currently offer free changes up to 24 hours after booking a flight: Continental, Delta, easyjet, flybe, KLM (on telephone bookings only), Lufthansa (on telephone bookings only) & United.
09/09/09 - Passengers face new tax to halt rise in air travel
Tens of billions of pounds will have to be raised through flight taxes to compensate developing countries for
the damage air travel does to the environment, according to the Government’s advisory body on climate change.
08/09/09 - New Rat Species Discovered
A BBC team filming new TV series Lost Land Of The Volcano in Papua New Guinea has discovered a new species of rat. Provisionally named the Bosavi woolly rat, it is 82cm long and weighs 1.5kg. It’s believed to live in and around the Mount Bosavi volcano in Papua New Guinea’s Central Range.
08/09/09 - Samoa switches to driving on left
Samoa has become the first country since the 1970s to change the side of the road on which cars are driven. The government
brought about the change to bring Samoa into line with other South Pacific countries.
07/09/09 - Australian dollar at one-year high
The Australian dollar is at its highest in a year as confidence increases about the global economy.
01/09/09 - Low cost airline SkyEurope goes bust
Low cost airline SkyEurope has suspended flights and filed for bankruptcy. The carrier is the latest in the line of airlines to be grounded due to declining numbers of air passengers and the high price of oil. It flew to Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, Poprad-Tatry and Kosice from Luton, and from Manchester to Bratislava, Kosice and Vienna.
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