Drunk pilot arrested in London

by Tom Johansmeyer on

After (another) pilot was found drunk in London this week, the issue of pilot inebriation has become a frequent discussion topic. Since 1997, 11 commercial pilots, on average, have tested positive for alcohol every year. According to FAA regulations, pilots can’t fly with a blood alcohol content of above 0.04 percent (it’s 0.02 percent in Great Britain). Last year, 13 pilots tested positive, making 2008 slightly above average.

The FAA conducts more than 10,000 random alcohol tests every year, says spokeswoman Laura Brown. This is approximately 10% of the total, as there are around 100,000 commercial pilots in the United States.

The latest culprit, Erwin Washington of United Airlines, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Monday, when he was suspected of being drunk in the cockpit — members of his crew reported him to the authorities. Washington could lose his license as a result. Two other U.S. pilots have been arrested in England on charges involving alcohol in a little more than a year.

Though an intoxicated pilot is obviously a danger to the passengers, the National Transportation Safety Board says that no airline in the United States has crashed because the pilot was drunk.

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UK online bookings to grow this year

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Yes, you read that correctly – online bookings are expected to finish higher in the United Kingdom this year! Even in this dismal economy – which has been particularly brutal for the travel industry – the web guys have something to celebrate. Sure, the forecast is only for 3 percent, but that beats the losses being posted elsewhere.

Travel industry research firm PhoCusWright’s new study puts the amount spent on leisure and unmanaged business travel (i.e., employee picks for himself) at £17.1 billion for 2009, comprising 45 percent of all bookings for the year in the UK. So, a hefty portion of the industry over there is seeing some growth.

Meanwhile, the overall UK travel business is expected to shrink by 8.9 percent this year, with gross bookings dropping to around £37.6 billion. So, the online world is holding its own while the rest of the market gets spanked. For the near-term, PhoCusWright says, the “outlook is bleak.” The UK travel business should reach 2007 levels in 2012 (ouch).

“British travelers have had to cope with currency devaluation on top of the recession, and both have driven significant changes in travel patterns,” says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright.

The situation isn’t as bad at home, though. Rheem continues, “The blow to domestic travel has been relatively soft while the fall-off in U.K. visitors to the Mediterranean has been significant.”

Airline websites beat other suppliers in the digital space, the research firm says, picking up more than half of direct online sales in the UK. Hotel company sites are expected to grow with the market, and tour operators are forecast to have the biggest wins (in terms of growth rate) on the web. They’ve invested heavily in marketing to bring customers online, according to Peter O’Connor, PhoCusWright’s market analyst, U.K. and France. “Selling a combination of pre-packaged, dynamically packaged and decoupled travel components, their share of U.K. online direct travel is expected to increase through 2011,” he says. Even with the jump for tour operators, though, online travel agencies are going to lead growth for all online channels in the UK.

It’s not time yet to celebrate an end to the travel recession; that will only come when the bigger recession has been resolved. Nonetheless, it’s great to see some hope in any part of the travel business. It means that people are getting on planes and heading either to old favorites or new experiences. Let’s hope that next year the stats are higher in the UK and everywhere else.

Museum Junkie: Oxford’s Ashmolean reopens today

by Sean McLachlan on

The long wait is finally over for the grand reopening of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology.

After being partially or completely closed for the past three years, the museum’s vast collection is finally open to the public again, with twice the exhibition space it once had.

The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the world, having opened in 1683, and while there have been a lot of changes over the years, none have been as big as this £61 million ($101 million) project. The expansion includes four temporary exhibition galleries so the Ashmolean can host blockbuster traveling shows, something it couldn’t do with its previous space.

The permanent collection has gone through some major changes too. More of it is on display now, of course, but also the style of the displays has been revamped with the new idea of Crossing Cultures Crossing Time, which allows visitors to see how civilizations developed as parts of an interrelated world culture. This is an an improvement over the old-style way of displaying civilizations as separate entities when in reality they influenced one another on many levels. It also echoes the global perspective that Oxford’s other world-class museum, the Pitt-Rivers, brings to its own collection.

The museum is best known for its collections of Anglo-Saxon, predynastic Egyptian, Asian, and Renaissance art and artifacts, but has a good sampling of treasures from just about every period and culture, everything from crocodile mummies to medieval beer mugs. Museum junkies will not want to miss the new Ashmolean.

If the pictures in the gallery below aren’t enough for you, check out this collection of photos by yours truly and Mrs. yours truly.

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Financial trouble at British Airways could lead to strike

by Sean McLachlan on

Anyone following the travel news knows the airlines are in trouble. Well, it appears some airlines may be in more trouble than expected. British Airways announced that in the first half of its 2009 financial year it suffered a loss of £292 million ($485 million). In the same period in 2008 it made a profit of £52 million ($86 million).

This was more than a 13% loss of total revenue, with the company earning £4.1 billion ($6.8 billion) in the first half rather than the £4.75 billion ($7.9 billion) it earned in the same period in 2008. In a cost-saving measure, the company has announced it will cut 4,900 jobs by March 2010 and is considering a two-year pay freeze and a reduction of cabin crew from 15 crew members to 14 for long-haul flights.

What this flurry of numbers means to travelers like you and me is that there might be a strike at British Airways in December, just in time for the holiday season. Unite, the union for BA workers, is against the airline’s cost-saving measures and is asking its members if they want to go on strike. The strike vote has been put off for some time as the union negotiated with the airline, and the result of the vote won’t be known until December 14. Tune in here at Gadling for updates on this story.

Christians protest transssexual Jesus

by Sean McLachlan on

A play in Glasgow, Scotland, has sparked an angry protest by local Christians. Jesus Queen of Heaven depicts Jesus as a transsexual woman and is part of the Glasgay! Festival celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered culture.

The festival, which runs through November 8, features plays, music, dance, comedy, and many other events and has drawn artists from around the world. The annual festival has been held since 1993, attracts more than 20,000 visitors, and receives partial funding from national and municipal arts councils.

While gay arts festivals and the inevitable protests against them are nothing new, Jesus Queen of Heaven has drawn special ire. The play, written and performed by leading transgendered artist Jo Clifford, looks at her personal path to faith as a transgendered person.

The description of the play begins, “Jesus is a transsexual woman. And it is now she walks the earth. This is a play with music that presents her sayings, her miracles, and her testimony. And she does not condemn the gays or the queers or the trans women or the trans men, and no, not the straight women nor the straight men neither. Because she is the Daughter of God, most certainly, and almost as certainly the son also. And God’s child condemns nobody. She can only love…”

About 300 Christians, on the other hand, felt differently. They held a candlelight vigil outside the Tron Theatre last night, holding signs protesting the use of public funds for the festival and Clifford’s depiction of Jesus. One read “God: My Son Is Not A Pervert.” It is not clear if the sign was written by the protester or was a direct quote from the Almighty.

If November sounds like a bad time to go to Scotland, there’s always Pride Scotia in June, a ten-day national LGBT event that culminates in a massive parade in Edinburgh. If you really want make sure you’ll be partying in the sun, head south to Madrid, where the Orgullo (“Pride”) festival is held in the toasty months of late June and early July.