Parking4less Travel Blog

Full Body Scanners Ruled Safe at Airports

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:31:01 +0000

The European Commission stopped new trials of body scanners due to fears they could emit harmful radiation. It permitted Manchester Airport to continue with its trials pending the outcome from an independent study into the health risks.The EC’s Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) said ”In view of the low doses from back scatter security scanners there is no scientific basis to separately consider potentially vulnerable groups, eg, pregnant women, children, in risk assessment. Cumulative doses are very likely to remain below the constraints with back scatter scanners even for frequently scanned individuals. The radiation doses to screened passengers are very low compared with other sources (eg, the cosmic radiation received during the flight) even after taking into account the likely number of scans received by frequent flyers.”

The European Commission now has to decide whether to allow Manchester to continue using the scanners on a permanent basis. Passengers who refuse to go through the scanners are nor permitted to fly. Staff analysing the X rays are not allowed to see the passengers and must be kept in a separate room during the process.

Which Report on Airport Parking

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:49:06 +0000

The old saying “the early bird catches the worm” has never been so true when it comes to airport parking according to the latest survey on uk airport car parking by the consumer magazine Which published today 26 April 2012.

The research was carried out in March 2012 and compared thirteen airports in the uk and the prices on offer. The survey found that in some cases booking your airport parking in advance could be up to three times cheaper than just turning up on the day, which is what Parking4less has always endeavoured to do.

Which looked at various airport parking options including on site, off site and meet & greet services. They gave an example of the price difference of a standard weeks parking at Heathrow airport where they found that customers who booked their airport parking in advance would pay £66 per week but if they had just turned up at the airport on their day of travel they would have paid £120, which is nearly double.

The biggest contrast was found at Birmingham airport where it was discovered that if a customer booked their airport parking in advance for one week it would be £27.93 compared with £85 if a customer just turned up. That means the airport parking booked in advance would have been nearly three times cheaper.

The Which magazine research involved looking at the airport parking available at the following Uk airports, Belfast International, Birmingham airport, Bristol Airport, East Midlands Airport, Edinburgh airport, Glasgow International airport, Liverpool Airport, London Gatwick airport, London Heathrow airport, London Luton Airport, London Stansted airport, Manchester Airport and Newcastle airport.

Luton Airport Parking

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:01:51 +0000

Luton Airport have decided to allow Parking4less to sell their on airport parking at Luton. Parking4less has sold on airport before but about a year ago the airport authourities decided to go it alone and restricted us from selling their Luton car parks. We’re delighted they have changed their minds so that we can now offer all car parks at Luton to our customers.

Have a look at our Luton airport parking page to find out more about what is available or call us free on 0800 902 0381.

Gatwick Monorail

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:52:07 +0000

The Gatwick Monorail will be running every six minutes instead of every three minutes due to maintenance on one of the two cars.The maintenance will be taking place Monday to Thursday inclusive this week and next. If the second car breaks down, Gatwick will lay on a bus service, which will take longer. However, as long as travellers arrive at Gatwick at least two hours before their flight there should be plenty of time to transfer from one terminal to another.

Park Mark Award for Click Park & Park Wise

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:27:33 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that two Heathrow car parks we offer Click Park and Park Wise have awarded with the Park Mark.

The Park Mark Award is given to car parks that have been vetted by the police and has measures in place to endure the safety of your car and you.

You can find out more information about Park Mark safer parking visit their website here.

Marriott Hotel Gatwick

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:22:22 +0000

It is often said a change is as good as a rest, so regular Gatwick hotel users will be pleased to hear that the Marriott Hotel Gatwick is receiving considerable positive feedback.The Marriott Hotel is within a short walking distance of the south terminal at Gatwick. It boasts 218 new contemporary and spacious rooms. The stylish new rooms have LCD TV’s and are all sound proofed with air conditioning which is great as the hotel is really close to Gatwick’s South Terminal.

The Marriott at Gatwick also caters for disabled guests with twelve rooms adapted with roll in showers with a seat and hand rails. There are also 22 junior suites which are good for families.

Booking an airport hotel so close to Gatwick airport can be an ideal way to start off holiday adventures, especially if the flights depart mega early. The airport hotel has got a restaurant which has an international menu and open for breakfast and dinner. There is also a lounge bar to relax in with a sandwich/snack menu.

For those travellers who want to relax in their room there is aslo room service from 12 noon to 10 pm. For more energetic guests there is also a fitness centre at the airport hotel which provides gym equipment like tread mills rowing machines, step walkers and cycle machines to keep travellers in trim. There is internet access and wifi throughout the hotel for a small charge.

This Gatwick hotel also has airport parking on offer with check in at 3pm and there is an express check out for gatwick guests in a hurry to get to the south terminal at Gatwick.

Emergency Landing at Belfast Airport

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:20:43 +0000

Breaking news – officials are preparing for a passenger flight to make an emergency landing at Belfast Airport.

Who will buy Stansted Airport

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:57:14 +0000

Stansted Airport has to be sold by BAA inorder to reduce their stronghold over the U.K’s airports. BAA are already in the process of selling of Edinburgh Airport. As a consequence there is a question of who will want to buy Stansted Airport from the spanish owned company. Reports are circulating once more that the Manchester Airport Group (MAGS) will be expressing an interest in buying Stansted Airport. MAG PLC already own Manchester Airport, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports. The MAG group are currently the U.k’s largest British owned airport operator serving over 24 million passengers each year. the group is currently spending over £650 million pounds on projects at Manchester Airport.

Stansted Airport for Sale

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:11:45 +0000

Today was not a good one for BAA the British Airport Authority. The spanish owned company has been told the disappointing news that they will have to sell off Stansted Airport. In 2009 BAA was deemed to be dominating the airport market because the company had control of many of the UK’s airports. It was felt that their domination affected the quality of services for passengers and airline due to restricted competition.

BAA were ordered to sell off Gatwick airport, Stansted Airport and either Glasgow or Edinburgh in order to improve competition between airports in both the south of England and Scotland. BAA agreed to sell off Gatwick and put Edinburgh airport up for sale but decided to challenge the decision to force them to sell off Stansted airport. However, today 1.2.2012 The Competition Appeal Tribunal, which is a specialist judicial group made up of experts from law, economics, business and accountancy upheld the original 2009 decision.

This now means that Stansted will have to be sold immediately which is not a good time economically to be selling a business like Stansted Airport. BAA sold Gatwick airport to the owners of London City Airport Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2009 for £1.5 billion. BAA will still be involved with the day to day running of Glasgow airport, Southampton and most importantly Heathrow airport.

Parking Perfection

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:58:38 +0000

Parking can be a thorny issue. Every driver will have had their shackles raised by a comment on their parking skills or judgements at some point in their driving and parking career. Some male drivers tend to think that when it comes to parking they have got the upper hand, but a new survey appears to dispel that theory. According to a new parking survey which involved over 2,500 drivers in over 700 car parks in the U.K. woman drivers came out on top. The car park company NCP discovered that women are more capable of parking in the centre of a car park space than male drivers. The car park survey also discovered that woman were more effective than their male counter parts at finding car parking spaces, lining up their car correctly for each manoeuvre and more likely to effectively reverse into the space.

However, its not all gloom and doom for the men: the survey found that they were quicker at parking with an average time of 16 seconds compared with 21 seconds by the female drivers. According to the study men are also more skilled at driving forwards into a car park space but less likely to spend time adjusting their parking to align with the space.

But, then the Driving Standards Agency reports that more women fail their driving tests on parking errors than men so perhaps more research is needed to explain why this would be. The survey has provided a lot of food for thought about the way motorists tackle parking in and out of parking bays and which areas they find difficult. As a result there are plans to introduce “stop lollipops” and raised “park central” markers in the front of the parking bays to help drivers to park in the centre of the space easily by aligning their tyres in the correct parking position.

At Parking4less we’re keen to help customers be the best at parking in the world. We’ve developed a parking game for everyone to practice forward and reverse parking between the white lines.