Good Beach Guide names best British beaches

by Sean McLachlan on

The United Kingdom generally isn’t the first place people think of when they decide to go to the beach. Indeed, the beaches of Spain, France, and Cyprus are filled with lobster-red Brits, so it appears the locals agree, but the Good Beach Guide, published by the Marine Conservation Society, says the UK’s beaches are improving, at least in terms of water quality.

The latest report reveals that 421 of the UK’s 769 beaches have “excellent” water quality, up 33 from last year. In addition, fewer beaches are getting a failing grade. This is a positive trend after heavy rainfall in the past three years made sewage systems overflow and sloughed off fertilizers and agrochemicals from farmland.

The UK can’t sit on their laurels, though, because starting in 2015 the EU is going to enact tougher standards for water purity, and many beaches that are now borderline cases will get failing marks. The BBC has published an interactive map showing what regions do best. Of the two most famous beaches, Blackpool didn’t get the highest “MCS recommended” rating, but Brighton Pier did, which is interesting because the area recently elected the UK’s first Green Party Minister of Parliament.

Now if they could just do something about the weather. . .

Image of Blackpool beach courtesy zergo512 via Wikimedia Commons.

Ryanair fined for not helping stranded passengers

by Sean McLachlan on

Back during April’s travel mess, the European Union warned Ryanair because Ryanair refused to compensate stranded passengers for lodging and food. The EU told them they were legally required to, and the budget carrier backed down.

Here comes the sequel to that story.

Italy has slapped Ryanair with a three million euro ($3.75 million) fine for not providing 178 people at Rome’s Ciampino airport with help required under EU Regulation 261. This includes lodging and food that the airline was supposed to give stranded passengers.

Ryanair is denying the charges so this will probably end up in court. Ryanair will almost certainly bring up a provision in the regulation stating that, “obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.”

Italian officials, however, have pointed out that most other airlines offered food and hotels for the duration of the shutdown. Plus Ryanair’s own website says that you’re covered by EU261, “If your flight is cancelled, for whatever reason.”

Considering that an estimated eight million passengers were affected by April’s volcanic eruption, this is probably only the first in a long series of legal actions.

The ten safest African airlines

by Sean McLachlan on

Airlines based in Africa have a bad reputation. When the European Union published a blacklist of airlines banned from flying in the EU, it included 111 carriers from 13 African countries. Carriers got on the list for having out-of-date planes (often Soviet-era “flying coffins”), poor government oversight in their own country, and not fixing problems pointed out by EU inspectors. You can read more about the criteria and the list here.

Airlines from other countries got on the list too, including a large number from Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines, but the preponderance of Africa-based carriers was noticeable.

In response, Flight Africa blog has published a list of the ten safest African airlines based on “attainment of IOSA Certification, number of accidents per flight and fatalities per passenger kilometres.” That last phrase actually made me wince. Here’s the list:

1. South African Airways
2. Ethiopian Airlines
3. Air Botswana
4. Air Mauritius
5. Air Seychelles
6. Kenya Airways
7. TunisAir
8. Royal Air Maroc
9. Nigerian Eagle Airlines
10. Air Zimbabwe

This is an encouraging list because it includes carriers from every region of Africa and some of the most popular tourist destinations. One common mantra of adventure travelers is that they’re helping the local economy with the money they spend. This list proves they can start helping before their adventure even starts.

Ryanair says “screw you” to stranded passengers – European Union sends them a copy of the law

by Scott Carmichael on

Ryanair CEO Micheal O’Leary played tough guy this week when he told his customers that he wouldn’t pay a penny to cover expenses resulting from being stranded due to the Icelandic Volcano.

In statements to the media, he admitted that he was fully aware of EU compensation laws, but chose to ignore them claiming:

There’s no legislation designed that says any airline getting a fare of 30 euro (£26) should be reimbursing passengers many thousands of euro for hotel accommodation. It’s absurd.

Well, unfortunately for Mr O’Leary, there actually is legislation that is designed just for that purpose. In fact, European air travelers are one of the most protected groups of travelers in the world.

As it turns out, European lawmakers may have told Ryanair to re-read the laws he’s bound to – because two days after his tough statements, the airline took a u-turn and confirmed that they would indeed be refunding passengers for “reasonably-receipted expenses”.

Airlines to EU: “Let us fly!”

by Sean McLachlan on

Airlines are begging the European Union to reconsider the flight ban after four days of no flying have left millions stranded or stuck at home and has cost the airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the urging of the airlines, EU transport ministers are holding a conference on the possibility of lifting the flight ban in areas with lesser concentrations of ash. They’re also discussing using Spain as a hub to fly European passengers back from international destinations and then busing them into their affected countries. Some airports in northern Spain closed over the weekend but have now reopened. The conference is being held via video since most ministers are grounded.

Several airlines have conducted test flights, although most have stayed below the level of the highest concentration of volcanic ash. A British Airways test flight from Heathrow to Cardiff yesterday, however, went up to 10,000 feet, then up 5,000 feet in stages every five minutes until it reached an altitude of 40,000 feet. The flight flew over a portion of the Atlantic and BA says it experienced no difficulties. The plane’s engines are now being examined for damage from the ash, which contains minerals and silica that have jammed jet engines in the past.

Some of the worst affected countries are starting their own measures. The United Kingdom will use three Royal Navy ships to ferry some of its 150,000 stranded citizens back home. Trains, buses, and ferries are seeing record ticket sales.

On a more personal note, my wife, who’s a contributor to the Ethiopia travel series, is still stranded in England. She was taking a flight from our home in Madrid to Toronto via Heathrow and got stuck there. If she had flown two hours earlier she would have made it to Canada; two hours later and she would have never left Spain! We’re racking up hundreds of dollars in hotel bills with no guarantee we’ll be reimbursed, and her travel agency isn’t answering emails. She hopes to get on a train, but with a threatened rail strike here in Madrid, things seem to be only getting worse. And I can tell you it’s no fun explaining to your four-year-old that you don’t know when mom’s coming home.