Ryanair flight delayed by crocodile

A passenger was forced off a Ryanair flight from Rome to Milan because she refused to move her metre-long cuddly crocodile which was blocking an emergency exit, airport sources said on Wednesday.

The flight, delayed by the squabble between the airline flight attendant and the passenger, finally took off after she got off the plane, along with her mock croc.

Ryanair said in a statement the passenger was asked to leave for refusing repeated requests to stow her hand luggage as required under flight safety rules.

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Strike ballot over pension cuts at BAA

Key workers at BAA's seven airports - including Heathrow, Gatwick and Glasgow - are to vote on strike action in protest at cuts in the final salary pension scheme at the profitable Spanish-owned company.

Over 5,000 airport firefighters, security, maintenance, administrative and clerical staff belonging to Unite, Britain's largest union, will be taking part in the ballot.

The strike ballot will start on November 29, close on December 20 and be run independently of the union. It will cover Unite members at BAA's seven airports at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

In the event of a 'yes' vote the union will have a period of 28 days to take any action, and is required to give 7 days notice.

If industrial action does take place, it is inevitable that airports affected will be closed.

Gatwick Hilton offer

Are you departing from London Gatwick soon? Then Christmas has truly come early! You can pre-book a room at the stylish Gatwick Hilton Hotel from a fantastic rate of just £123.73, combine your stay with 8 days fully secure parking from just £165 or 15days from £189. What's more dinner packages start from as little as £10 per person and kids eat FREE! If you're travelling in 2008, book now and pay 2007 prices!

Airline helps you find love on cloud nine

SkyEurope has announced SkyDates, a series of speed-dating services this month on flights within Europe including Luton to Prague on November 28th and 29th.
This follows a first speed-dating flight in June on a Sky Europe flight between Brussels and Vienna.
Participants will talk to up to ten potential dates on the aircraft before being whisked off on a tour of the Czech capital's attractions and nightlife with their chosen suitor.

Monarch launches full onboard recycling

Monarch is the first UK airline to roll out a full recycling programme onboard its flights, meaning that all aluminium, plastic, glass and paper used during a flight will now be recycled on landing after only 16% of its passengers surveyed in a recent poll said they believed that airlines are doing enough to recycle onboard waste.
Monarch is pioneering the scheme ahead of other UK carriers as part of its MAP initiative (Monarch and the Planet), through which all aspects of the airline’s business are being evaluated as it strives to improve its environmental footprint. The launch of the onboard recycling scheme, which has been introduced on all flights operating into London Gatwick, follows an initial trial which was successfully received by both customers and cabin crew on a selection of flights over the summer.
The scheme will see all recyclable items, such as aluminium drinks cans, plastic wine and water bottles, glass wine and champagne bottles plus newspapers/magazines placed into a separate recycling bag by cabin crew during the flight. This will subsequently be passed over to cleaning staff at Gatwick Airport on the flight’s arrival for recycling.
Commenting on the launch of the scheme, managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans said, “Monarch has been operating a paper collection scheme onboard its flights for a number of years now but feedback from passengers and crew highlighted the fact that the recycling of other items, such as plastics and cans, is a part of everyday life now which people wished to continue – if they were at home they’d be recycling the items, so why should they not do so on flights?
“With 70% of the waste generated in the cabin being potentially recyclable, Monarch has been working with Gatwick Airport on the initiative to ensure that the recyclable waste is removed from the aircraft on arrival and recycled appropriately. We are looking to extend the scheme to include all Monarch’s flights over the coming months and we urge our other UK and European airports to introduce the necessary recycling infrastructure to allow us to do so”.
Commenting on the initiative, David Stretch, Customer Service Director, BAA Gatwick said: “We are continually looking at ways to increase recycling at the airport and I'm delighted that Monarch has led the way in introducing a service which results in all recyclable onboard items now being recycled. I'm also particularly delighted that Monarch has chosen Gatwick as its first airport location to introduce this scheme, which brings benefits for everyone."
Onboard recycling is just one of a number of environmental initiatives that Monarch will be implementing onboard its flights over the coming months. Others include the introduction of biodegradable alternatives to replace those items that can not be recycled due to food contamination, carrier bags used for the duty free service being replaced by biodegradable bags, plus the printing of the inflight magazine on paper that comes from trees grown in sustainable forests.
Monarch is one of the UK’s largest leisure airlines, operating both charter and scheduled flights and was recently voted as Leisure Airline of the Year for the second consecutive year in the TTG prestigious travel industry awards. The airline is the principal independent supplier of charter seats to tour operators large and small, flying to around 100 destinations across Europe, America, Africa and Asia from the UK’s principal and regional airports.
The scheduled service division of Monarch Airlines offers low cost services from Birmingham, London Luton, London Gatwick and Manchester Airports to destinations in Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Cyprus.
The airline, based at Luton, operates one of the most well-equipped fleets in the skies today comprising 23 Airbus and eight Boeing aircraft. The airline will also be one of the first UK carriers to take delivery of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft with six due for delivery between 2010 and 2013.
For more information or to book, visit www.flymonarch.com or call 0871 225 3884.

* Online poll carried out on flyMonarch.com between 04 and 14 October 2007. 1,138 people responded to the survey.

14 new Ryanair destinations from new Bristol base

Ryanair, Europe's largest international airline, today opened its Bristol base by operating flights for the first time from Bristol to Budapest, Derry, Knock, Milan, Porto, Riga and Wroclaw.

These will be followed tomorrow by inaugural Ryanair flights to Bratislava, Dinard, Poznan and Rzeszow, and to Katowice on Saturday 10 November.

A further two ski destinations to Salzburg and Turin will start 19 and 22 December 2007 respectively.

To celebrate, Ryanair is offering four million seats from Bristol and across Europe from just £10 one way including airport taxes and charges.

BOOK BY MIDNIGHT ON THURSDAY 15TH NOVEMBER
Travel Period: 24 Nov - 12 Mar 08

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Stansted Airport Undercover Hotels

Parking4less are now offering an exciting 4 star option for travellers for a Friday or Saturday night's stay at Stansted - You won't know the name of the hotel until you receive your booking confirmation and you won't be disappointed!

Check out this price!
From £99.00 for a quality 4* room and that includes 8 days parking!

We also offer a 3 star undercover hotel if you are looking for a cheaper alternative - To book an Undercover hotel at Stansted airport search for your hotel as usual. If an undercover hotel is available it will appear as 'Undercover 4 Star Hotel' or 'Undercover 3 Star Hotel' in the list of named hotels - select this and complete your booking.

When you receive your confirmation you will learn the name of the hotel and find out about all the hotel facilities and comforts on offer.

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'Mass exodus' from UK this winter

Millions of British people will take a winter holiday this year, leaving many workplaces with a skeleton staff, according to research.
British employers could find themselves with empty workplaces this winter as millions of people are set to take their main annual holiday over the coming season.
The mild summer in the UK this year meant that many people refrained from taking holidays within Britain as they had done in previous years, leading to a build-up in unused holiday entitlement, according to lastminute.com.
Workers are adopting a 'use it rather than lose it' attitude, the site said, and booking winter trips to make up for the disappointing summer.
Some 71 per cent of the 1,000 employees surveyed said they still have more than half their entitlement of annual leave to take.
Lastminute.com's booking figures show that the majority of sales over the last month are for holidays before the end of the year and 35 per cent of these are scheduled for the last two weeks of December.
John Bevan, UK managing director of lastminute.com, said: "The poor summer weather this year has left people desperate to experience sunnier climes before 2008.
"Many workers have yet to take the bulk of their entitlement, so we are seeing people booking long holidays in their droves for the rest of the year."
Some 78 per cent of the departures booked through lastminute.com for the rest of 2007 will leave from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted or Luton.

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