Package holidays to Vietnam, one of the fastest growing holiday destinations, may become a reality in the next few years now that Vietnam Airlines is launching a direct service from Gatwick to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

My apologies. This story is two-weeks old but I missed it. Mea culpa. A reader spotted a press release on the Ryanair website and it really is just too good not to share with you.

This morning the Competition Commission has ruled that BAA must sell off Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh Airports. This follows from the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the sale despite the attempts of BAA to say that the travel market had changed quite a bit since the original ruling was given. What will BAA do now? Sell and give in gracefully or try and find justification for continuing its fight?

This morning BAA announced its financial results for 2010. It made a loss but the chief executive calls this “robust” and confidently expects to present a “strong increase in profits” this year.
Now let’s get down to the important stuff. How is BAA going to treat its passengers in the future?

For the last week or so, there has been snowfall over much of the eastern side of the UK. It has been unrelenting in places with stories of the lowest temperatures since records began and the usual heroic tales of the ability of people to get to work. For the traveller, this has been trying and much is made of the fact that other countries are prepared so why aren’t we? Is this fair criticism?
By tomorrow morning Gatwick will have been closed for 3 days. Why should this happen to one of the most important airports in the world let alone this country?

There’s one thing you can guarantee in the wake of the attempted plane bombing above Detroit in December: we’re all going to spend a lot longer at airports. CD Traveller profiles the capital’s four main airports to see how they measure up

From today Gatwick is no longer run by BAA. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the owners of London City Airport, take over the running of the airport so what might be expected? In the short term, probably only cosmetic changes like signage, uniforms and names will alter. But what should happen in the longer term?

A problem with the old owners was that, by owning so many airports around London, competition was stifled so the first thing I should like to see is a wider net of destinations. Bring back more North American and Asia Pacific flights so there will be a true alternative to Heathrow and don’t let Gatwick drift into just being an airport for charter holiday flights and no-frills airlines.

You will probably all be aware by now that Gatwick has been sold by the owners BAA to the owners of London City Airport, Global Infrastructure Partners. GIP paid about £1.5 billion which in normal times would be a bit of a bargain. Since it was virtually an enforced sale I suppose the other bidders, who included Manchester Airport Group, offered even less

BAA has decided that it isn’t going to give up any of it’s airports without a fight. It seems that they have decided to waste more of their money pursuing this idea despite the fact that, to just about everyone else, it seems like a good idea to stimulate a bit of competition. Could it [...]

Unless you have been holidaying on the moon, you have probably noticed that there has been a bit of a general downturn in the economy. Doom mongers have almost been prophesising the end of life as we know it. (Although, to cheer you up slightly, houses are beginning to sell again in our village and [...]