Taxi touts jailed over fare scam

Two taxi touts have been jailed for fooling foreign students into paying hundreds of pounds extra for cab rides.

Kenneth Grieveson and Frederick Gross worked as unlicensed drivers at Heathrow airport.

They approached students as they arrived in England for the first time, claiming to be their drivers.

Grieveson and Gross were found guilty of obtaining property by deception and were sentenced to two years and 15 months in jail respectively.

Grieveson, 47, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Gross, 35, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, would charge the students huge sums before passing them on to other unlicensed taxi drivers, who would take them to the language schools where they were staying.

One 15-year-old Japanese girl was charged £340 for a cab ride to Southampton, while another Japanese student was told to pay £240 for a taxi ride to Golders Green, north London. Read more

After this incidence London Police said that it was a shameful incident and they were alerted to the students and the tourists who were coming in London at first time that they should be aware of licensed travelling agencies.

Online travel agencies claim Lufthansa GDS charge is manifestly illegal

It hasn’t been a greatest seven days for Lufthansa with its plans to introduce a Euro 16 levy on all bookings made via intermediaries. First of all, a tax loophole in Brazil meant that travel agencies in the country are going to be exempt from paying the fee when it is introduced on 1 September. Then it emerged that Brazilian agencies will be joined by those in China, Hong Kong, Iran, Yemen, Libya and New Zealand with a similar postponement. Now, in a strongly statement, a group of leading online travel agencies in Europe have called on Lufthansa to scrap the proposal immediately. The OTAs signing the plea include two of the big guns in Europe, Lastminute.com Group and eDreams Odigeo, alongside Travelgenio, Travelplanet24, Travix (run by BCD Travel), Unister Travel, e-Travel and Etraveli. 

Although none of the companies on their own punch enough weight to deter Lufthansa, perhaps with the slight exception of Lastminute.com and eDreams Odigeo, as a group they estimate some four million Lufthansa tickets are sold on an annual basis. There is no suggestion of a boycott in the statement issued by Simmons & Simmons, a UK-based law firm. Instead, they claim the GDS tax will “have a significant negative impact on consumers and the industry as a whole”. This, they argue, will come about through limiting choice, increased prices to consumers, a reduction in fare transparency and a restriction on agencies “in their ability to serve their customers”. View more…,

 In brief, finally it was determined that Lufthansa surcharge is “manifestly illegal” and a “direct attack on the OTA business model”, and called up by a group of leading online travel agencies in Europe.

Heathrow plans for 9,000-home new garden city

Heathrow chiefs today unveiled plans to create a three-runway “aerotropolis” in west London with a 9,000-home new garden city.

In his first speech since the Airports Commission recommended a new runway at Heathrow, the airport’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye told how it would be reshaped to better fit into the local environment and economy.

“When you are relocating hotels and offices, why not put them next to the rail interchange, so that we can have fewer cars on the road — an aerotropolis, if you like,” he told a Runways UK conference in central London. Read more..,

A strategy was disclosed by Mr. Holland-Kaye to increase public transport use by more than 10 % over the next four years in order to cut air pollution and this strategy will leads to turn a new developing way to all the Heathrow transfers.

Helping passengers improve their journeys this summer

With the busy summer period now upon us, UK Border Force has created a package of shareable materials for ABTA Members to use. These are aimed at providing UK passengers with advice to help them have a smoother experience when they arrive back at UK passport control. They also encourage use of ePassport gates and improve passenger understanding of how to use them.

The package of materials includes:

Ø  Animated and static twitter graphics

Ø  Vine and Instagram videos

Ø  Animated Facebook graphic

Ø  Animated mobile ad and leaderboard banner ad

Ø  Suggested social media posts

Border Force would be grateful if you could use and share this content through your communications channels, for example websites, social media and newsletters, so that we can reach as many passengers as possible. It would be helpful to hear your feedback on the materials and whether you are able to use them. Read more..,

This auspicious package of ‘shareable materials for ABTA Members to use’ would be provided by most of the reputed travelling agencies in UK, for customer’s pleasant and joyful journey.

Indian tourist visas: e-visa scheme extended to British travellers

India is finally opening up its e-visa system to UK passport holders, in an attempt to boost tourism.

From August 15, Britons will be one of 113 nationalities who will be able to apply for India's “e-Tourist visa”, making the process of obtaining correct entry documents cheaper and quicker.

UK passport holders will be able to apply and pay for an online visa using the Indian government’s tourist visa website, removing the need to book an appointment at the outsourced visa processing agency, or make a laborious postal application. Read more

But at now visas will not be issued immediately. It will be done by filling an online application even travelers can filling their application through emails. There after they can also continue their journey through several and licensed travelling agencies in UK. 

  

Heathrow releases record July passenger numbers of 7.29 million

Heathrow has strengthened the case for the Government to implement expansion at the airport after announcing record July results today including 7.29 million passengers!

The results were achieved in the same month that the Airports Commission made a clear and unanimous recommendation for Heathrow expansion.

Significantly, not only did Heathrow break its overall July record but it also for the first time handled over 250,000 passengers on one day – and not just once, but three times!

Full highlights from the results include:

·         July was a month of personal bests for Heathrow, with the UK’s only hub welcoming a record 7.29 million passengers (+4.7% on July 2014) and for the first time ever serving over a quarter of a million passengers, not just once but on three separate days. July 31st saw the most passengers ever travelling through Heathrow, with 254,375 passengers choosing the UK’s only hub airport;

·         Larger, quieter, fuller aircraft continued to be a driver for passenger growth at Heathrow. Seats per aircraft increased 2.3% to 209.6 while passengers per aircraft rose 4.1% to 175.6 and load factors increased 1.8% to 83.8%;... Read more,

As the UK’s largest port, Heathrow is the beating heart of Britain’s trading network. Therefore, this record of 7.29 million passengers can be handled with the help of several travelling agencies in UK.

Bookings with Travel Agents rise

In the past 12 months, there appears to have been a shift away from booking directly with service providers most notably to booking with a travel agent (either online or on the high street) according to new research* by ABTA.

In 2013, 41% booked at least one overseas holiday directly with a service provider, compared to 34% this year. During the same time period, more people booked both an overseas holiday and a domestic holiday with a travel agent, either online or on the high street. The shift is particularly marked for domestic holidays: one in ten (10%) people said they booked a domestic holiday with a high street travel agent in 2014 (up from 7% in 2013) and 16% booked with an online travel agent (up from 12% in 2013).

Bookings with general holiday booking websites have remained stable, direct bookings with tour operators have increased slightly. For more,

With this new research* by ABTA, There are also some noteworthy regional variations in this appraoch consumers book their holidays with those outside London far more likely to use a travelling agency than those in London.