Those of you who are planning to come to London should be
aware that because of a firemen’s strike, some of London’s deeper
tube stations are closed where safety officials feel that the use of lifts may
cause safety issues. To find a list of the closed tube stations, take a look at
the London Transport website:
LondonTransport
The Canadian Government has issued a travel advisory to its
citizens about visiting the United States.
Because of tightened border controls in America, Canadians
born in some Middle Eastern countries should now think carefully before
entering the United States, Ottawa says.
American border regulations introduced last month require
that people born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan or Syria be photographed and
fingerprinted as they enter the US – even if they are now full citizens of
other countries, including Canada.
That has prompted the travel warning from the Canadian
Government.
This week it advised its citizens who were born in any of
the five countries to “consider carefully whether they should attempt to
enter the US for any reason, including transit to or from third
countries”.
In the Canadian parliament on Wednesday, politicians accused
Washington of harassing Arab-Canadians.
One Syrian-born member of parliament said the American rules
make him a second-class Canadian.
Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham says he has already
registered his strongest disapproval to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
He added that he believes changes will be made to the
American move when common sense prevails.
The American regulations come as a convenient target for
Canadian politicians who sense growing unease amongst Canadians with US policy
in the Middle East.
Many Canadians also worry about increased administration and
delays at the border, which can be expensive for their export businesses.
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Olympia London from January 30 – February 2
You'll find the largest range of holidays and ideas to
be found under one roof – hundreds of tour operators, travel companies and
tourist boards offering everything from adventure experiences to cultural
weekend breaks. A limited number of complimentary tickets are available to
telegraph.co.uk readers (maximum 2 per user) if booked in advance for
Destinations 2003.
Visit www.destinationsshow.com,
click on 'box office' and enter the code 'tcuk' when
prompted.
by Charles Arthur / Independent/UK (via Common Dreams News
Center)
The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, immortalized by an Ernest
Hemingway short story, are melting so quickly they are expected to disappear
within two decades.
Researchers have found that the ice fields capping
Africa's highest mountain shrank by 80 per cent in the last century, from
4.6 square miles in 1912 to just one square mile two years ago, which has
brought down the height of the mountain by several feet.
The ice covering the 19,330ft peak “will be gone by
about 2020”, said Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State
University. The process has cut water volume in some Tanzanian rivers that
supply villages and hospitals. Global warming is one reason, but scientists say
it alone cannot have caused such a dramatic change. The other factors behind
the transformation remain a mystery.
New York City may convert de-commissioned cruise ships into
shelters for its rising numbers of homeless people. Last month, a record 37,000
homeless people were sleeping in city shelters every night according to the
Coalition for the Homeless, which compiles statistics for the city. City
officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg's commissioner of homeless
services, have flown to the Bahamas to inspect disused ships. They say the idea
of using them was just one option being considered – but critics say the plan
is unnecessary, and have called on the city to provide affordable housing for
those in need. City officials stressed that it is too early to speculate on how
the cruise-ship idea might be applied in New York.
Passed on by the London Meetings co-ordinator:
TravelIntelligence is a new website giving access to good travel writing
(mainly British) – Philip Marsden, William Dalrymple, Stanley Stewart, Nick
Danziger et al.
Take a look at Travel Intelligence and sign up
for their monthly newsletter – mostly links to other sites.
A new “no-frills” international carrier,
Qantas-owned Australian Airlines, launched its schedule with flights
from the northern city of Cairns to Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. They plan to
start services to other Asian destinations, most likely Singapore, Taiwan and
Hong Kong and aim to bring thousands more tourists to the tropical north of
Queensland.
The airline is taking over routes which parent company
Qantas found unprofitable and intends to make them viable by cutting its cost
base. Although Australian Airlines is looked on as a no-frills operation it
will not be offering cheap fares.
Another new low-cost airline has started in Scotland.
Flyglobespan is to start flights to Palma, Majorca; Nice, Rome and
Malaga from Glasgow Prestwick Airport between April and November 2003. The
airline is also to offer services from Edinburgh Airport to Palma, Nice, Rome
and Barcelona.
The next time a United Airlines flight attendant
throws a bag of peanuts at you, just bear in mind that they have just offered
to take a 3.6% pay cut for most of their members to help United in its quest to
restructure itself and avoid bankruptcy.
British Airways franchise carrier GB Airways has just
launched a new scheduled service between London Gatwick and Almeria –
twice a week during the winter months on Thursday and Sunday morning and from
March there will be an extra Tuesday flight.
They say: “We will be the first airline to offer direct
full-frills scheduled services to Almeria, which, although already popular with
British holiday makers and villa owners, remains a relatively untouched area of
Southern Spain.” The carrier has introduced year-round return fares from
£149, including all taxes and charges. This fare does not require either
an advance purchase or a minimum stay, but book early for the best offers.
Remember the Swedish man who tried to board a Ryanair
flight from Vasteras Airport, near (note – NEAR!) Stockholm to London
last August, with a gun in his luggage? Police have just admitted that they do
not have enough evidence to suggest that the gun was intended to be used in
hijacking the Boeing 737, nor has the man any links with any terrorist
organisations. The man claimed he had brought the gun by mistake and had owned
it for some time. Police say that he could still be prosecuted for gun
offences.
If you are booked with Hawaiian Airlines,
Hawaii's oldest and largest carrier, maybe worth checking you are covered
if the airline goes belly up. Hawaiian Airlines, are cutting their workforce by
around 150 (4% of total workforce) over the next few months to cut costs and
they have also secured voluntary leaves of absence from 60 of its flight
attendants.
Three men who arrived on a flight into Vancouver from
Japan had their baggage searched and 16 kilos of heroin were discovered
disguised as tea. “This seizure is the direct result of CCRA's
targeting program,” said Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan. “These
arrests clearly demonstrate how data from the advance passenger information
systems assist law enforcement agencies in protecting the health and safety of
Canadians”.
Ryanair, the Dublin based low cost carrier has just
announced record net profits of EUR150.9 million (USD$150.5 million), a rise of
71 percent over the same period last year. Ryanair achieved this by attracting
more passengers and, at the same time, lowering its operating costs. During the
six months to September 2002, the airline carried 7.84 million passengers – a
37 percent increase. Fares dropped by 2 percent and costs by 11 percent.
Ryanair has bases in Ireland and the UK and has just
announced a third in Europe at Milan Bergamo, has also unveiled plans to
develop a second terminal at Dublin Airport costing an estimated EUR114 million
and is said to be thinking about the idea of opening a Scandinavian base at
Stavska Airport, near Stockholm.
Indonesia's national airline, Garuda, is ending
its flights to Frankfurt in Germany and Fukuoka, Japan and also reducing the
number of flights it makes to London. The number of flights from Bali to both
Australia and New Zealand are being cut from November to the end of March 2003
due to security concerns raised by last month's bombing. Garuda says it is
also postponing the launch of a new service between Perth and Jakarta and
suspending its direct Adelaide to Denpasar service. Garuda emphasized that it
hopes to restore some services when the security situation eases.
In the US, bankrupt National Airlines has stopped
flying. National had a low cost economy and first class services between Las
Vegas, the gambling centre of the US and major US cities in 1999 but filed for
bankruptcy protection in December 2000. The abrupt announcement, made mid
November left some passengers stranded at its Las Vegas hub. National says it
will not be making refunds on tickets and customers must apply through credit
cards companies. Some airlines have offered to fly National ticket holders on a
standby basis.
BMI (British Midland), the UK airline will cut its
transatlantic flights from Manchester to Washington from December 2nd but plans
to resume in June 2003. Passengers already booked on winter flights will be
offered either a refund or the opportunity to transfer to another carrier.
The FCO said early November: 'Following the terrorist
attacks in Bali… in which Western tourists were deliberately targeted, the
threat to British nationals in Thailand, including popular tourist areas, the
island of Phuket in particular, has increased significantly.'
This statement has enraged not only the Thai and other South
East Asian tourism authorities, but ABTA, that venerable travel industry
association who have asked for greater clarity in the travel advice issued by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Keith Betton, head of corporate affairs at ABTA, said:
'Surely they should tell us if they have had a specific threat about
Phuket.' He added: 'The advice they have given has scared people and we
have no idea whether it is reasonable. As far as we can tell Thailand is as
dangerous for the 6,000 or so Britons there as London was for Americans when
the IRA was bombing here.'
In response, an FCO spokesperson said: “We would not
mark out Phuket just to be on the safe side. Our advice is drawn from a number
of sources, including intelligence officials”.
Tour operators have been calling customers with bookings to
Thailand, or travellers in Thailand, apprising them of the FCO advice and
allowing them to postpone or alter their holiday plans. Airtours has dropped
Thailand, and Thomson Worldwide says bookings have dipped.
Early November, the FCO updated its advice on 12 countries –
including Honduras, Seychelles, Gibraltar and the Marshall Islands in the
Pacific – advising travellers to be 'aware of the risk of indiscriminate
attacks on civilian targets in public places' although no one at the FCO
could explain what this risk is, and it has promised to discuss the
practicality of its warnings with the Travel Advice Unit.
Foreign and Commonwealth
Travel Advice is available on 020 7008 0232/3.