European airline competition reaching the boiling point

by Scott Carmichael on

Even though the environment has changed dramatically, airlines in the US are a pretty calm and respectful bunch. New airlines come (and go), and their competition is limited to copying each others routes and prices. Very rarely will you hear airline A call airline B anything nasty.

In Europe, things are different – very different. Competition in Europe is cutthroat, and this doesn’t always end up benefiting travelers.

Take for example Ryanair – this airline has become one of the largest (and cheapest) in the world. The airline is rude, charges a fee for everything you do, and is proud of their lack of customer service. But when you can fly across Europe for $20, you forget all of that.

When Ryanair approached Manchester airport requesting they lower their airport passenger fees, the airport refused. Normally, this would be the end of the story, but Ryanair does not take too well to being told “no” to anything, so they are moving all their flights out of Manchester, and moving them to surrounding airports. The stubborn airport will now lose 40 flights a week, 600,000 paying passengers and most likely 600 jobs.

A similar situation is taking place in The Netherlands, but this one is between two airlines and an airport. EasyJet is furious that KLM cut a deal with Amsterdam airport to lower the airport passenger fees for transiting passengers.

Passengers on KLM flights arriving at Schiphol, and transiting to another KLM flight only pay $18. Passengers on EasyJet who arrive at Schiphol as their final destination, pay $40. Even though both passengers use the exact same facilities, the KLM passengers pay much less.

The two airlines and the airport will be facing each other in court, but it is going to be a tough battle, EasyJet is a foreign carrier, and KLM is the Dutch national pride. But once again, the airport better watch out, because after KLM, EasyJet is the largest airline at Schiphol, obviously giving them quite a bit of power. Losing all those flights would put a huge dent in their income.

Photo of the Day (8.22.09)

by Brenda Yun on

There´s something both totally fitting yet out of place in this photo. The London Tower Bridge, as I see it, is one of the most famous bridges in the world because of its age and history. While the bridge that stands over the River Thames today was built in the 19681894, I like to imagine it as a throwback to the days of old. And while the postmodern streams of red and purple lights add nice contrast to this image, it seems like London (just like any other place) has to find that nice blend between old and new.

Needless to say, this photo taken by jrodmanjr is quite stunning. The blur of pedestrians and the streaks of light make for a perfect image of the today´s London.

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Travel to Spain suffering

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It really is a shame: summer travel to Spain is off 6.1 percent this year, as the global economic decline is making the decision to travel tougher for everyone. The country’s Tourism Ministry puts the number of July arrivals at just over 6.6 million. For the entire year (through the end of July), arrivals fell 10.3 percent to 30.2 million visitors. This follows a record 33.6 million for the same period in 2008.

Spain has historically been one of the world’s top three tourist destination in terms of both the number of people arriving and income earned from them; France and the United States are the other two. So, a substantial year-over-year decline is likely to be felt.

Every part of Spain saw arrivals fell except Madrid, where arrivals increased by 6.6 percent. Andalucia saw visits drop by 11 percent, though Valencia had an easier time. Of the regions with falling arrivals, it had the lowest at only 0.4 percent.

Most of Spain’s tourist traffic came from Britain, which sent 1.6 million visitors to the country. France is second, overtaking Germany this year. British share of travel to Spain, 24.5 percent, fell 16.1 percent this year because of economic conditions. Meanwhile, French tourism to Spain increased this year, with visits to Valencia surging 35 percent and Madrid up 23.4 percent.

Tourism helping Iceland weather their perfect storm

by Scott Carmichael on

If you think the recession in the US has been dreadful, I recommend reading up on how Iceland has been coping.

This nation of just 320,000 people let its banks pull the country into a total financial disaster.

Their three national banks had debt equaling over three times the countries gross domestic product.

Their government collapsed, their currency lost a third of its value, they had to take out emergency loans with the IMF, and some of their European neighbors don’t want to let them into the EU until they repay their debt. Sucks to be Iceland.

But despite all this, the country still has its biggest asset – itself. The nation is gorgeous, and they are heading back to their roots to take full advantage of this.

Tourism is up 20% this year, and they are on target to welcome 600,000 people, almost twice their own population. Part of the driving force behind this increase is a substantial drop in the cost of visiting Iceland. The country was always well known for its insanely high prices – it was quite normal to be charged $16 for a glass of wine, or $150 for a short excursion.

Many of these prices have dropped by at least 30%, which still puts them on the high side of what you’d want to pay, but makes it affordable enough to pull in more tourists. The lower exchange rate has also lowered prices of air travel to Iceland, flights from many European countries are available for under $200, and even round trip tickets from the US to Reykjavik are available for under $550 (all in) on Icelandair.

I highly recommend visiting the site of their tourism board to see how much the nation has to offer. Your tourism krónur may not be able to pay off their debt, but you’ll certainly help them in the right direction.

Heathrow hires author to write about Heathrow

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hate it? Embrace it! Heathrow Airport has decided to immortalize the plights of their passengers – rather than bury or ignore them. The airport has tapped best-selling author Alain de Botton – whose titles include The Consolations of Philosophy and How Proust Can Change Your Life – to spend a week in Terminal 5 and reveal what really happens in this environment.

He kicked off this project on Tuesday. Sometimes, he crashes behind a desk in the departures area, talking to passengers and just watching the action. But, he’s been given full access to Terminal 5 and the freedom to write whatever he wants (with the upside that someone will probably read it, unlike our endless frustrated tweets). De Botton’s plan is to show what goes on in a terminal, though he claims he’ll write about whatever he feels like.

Themes already coming to mind, apparently, are technology, globalization and consumerism, which suggests that this high-brow author is unlikely to dive into the muck now. I’m sure whatever he devises will be insightful … but how much does that matter when you’ve been stuck in a sweaty cabin for two hours and still haven’t pulled back from the gate?