The Meet and Greet service is provided by Southampton Cruise Parking a company we have been working with for many years.

It’s also Southampton Port’s only accredited Meet and Greet provider and it serves all four cruise terminals.

A chauffeur will be waiting for you in the short stay car park which is a short walk from the terminal. Your car is driven to a secure car park nearby and brought back ready for your return. The car park has CCTV, a security barrier to prevent access, regular security patrols and security fencing around the perimeter.

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Look out for this sign if you are a transfer passenger at Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport is introducing a new scheme in an attempt to increase the number of transfer passengers via Flight Connections passing through the airport.

What are transfer passengers?

Transfer passengers are people transferring from one airline to another. For example from a short haul flight within the UK to a long haul flight to an international destination.

Transfer passengers often have to collect bags after arriving at Gatwick and exit customs in order to check-in with the other airline and go through security again.

Why does Gatwick want to increase its transfer passengers?

The transfer passenger market is dominated by Heathrow with about a third of the UK market. Gatwick currently has 10% according to a study from the airport.

Prior to the break up of the three British Airport Authoury (BAA) London airports by the UK competition regulator, the spanish owned BAA were happy to allow Heathrow to take the lion’s share of transfer passengers. However, now that Gatwick and Heathrow are independant companies the fight is on for transfer passengers.

Another reason why Gatwick is keen to tap into this lucrative market is to alleviate London’s aviation capacity and reduce the need for a third runway at Heathrow.

How will the new system work?

Gatwick’s new system will allow the second check-in Airside where baggage is collected as opposed to Landside which is everything prior to first check-in and security.

This system should be very appealing to passengers who want to avoid congestion, long check-in and possibly higher flight prices at Heathrow.

Fin out more about what’s happening at Gatwick

For more up to date information about Flight Connections at Gatwick Airport visit the official page at - http://www.gatwickairport.com/check-in-security/connecting/

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East Midlands Airport (EMA) saw its last Bmibaby flight on Sunday 14th September.

The British Midland International (BMI) subsidiary setup to compete with low cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair was wound up following the takeover of BMI in April this year by British Airway’s parent International Airlines Group (IAG).

IAG started talks about Bmibaby’s closure in May after both BA and previous owner Lufthansa failed to find a buyer for the airline. The closure of Bmibaby will mean the loss of 450 jobs.

Established in 2002, Bmibaby operated more than 700 services a week in summer with 14 aircraft to 23 destinations in Europe. Its main base was EMA , the original home of BMI. It also operated out of Birmingham and Cardiff.

EMA owner Manchester Airport Group (MAG), acknowledged that Bmibaby’s demise would have a short term impact on. However, other airlines including Monarch have revealed plans to expand at the airport.

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non drip fuel nozzle

Millions or even billions of litres of fuel could be saved with a new device called the non drip fuel nozzle.

Have you ever dripped fuel onto your car the petrol forecourt or worse still your clothing after filling the tank?

It might only be a few drops but add them all together and an estimated half a billion litres of fuel are wasted in this way each year.

A Canadian company, Dram International are trying to resolve this problem with their new gadget a ‘fuel nozzle drip retainer’.

The concept and design is quite simple as with most good inventions. It looks like just a piece of mesh on the end of the nozzle. However, owing to surface tension and fuel viscosity the drips stay in the pipe until the next delivery.

A spokesman said: ‘Anyone who has pumped fuel before has noticed the drops that fall to the ground after you’ve removed the nozzle from the vehicle.

‘We’ve designed a method of retaining these drops, which initiates a recycling process whereby the next customer in line receives the fuel that would have been otherwise wasted.’

‘These drops may not seem like a significant amount, however when taken into account globally, these drops amount to approximately half a billion litres of fuel that falls to the ground and is evaporated into our atmosphere every year.’

After allowing for evaporation the company claim to be saving 89% of the fuel that would have been wasted. However, don’t bet on the planet being saved just yet as Dram are still looking for buyers of the system in order to get production under way.

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Judging by figures from the BAA (British Airports Authority) it appears that Britons have chosen to stay at home to cheer on Team GB at the Olympics.

BAA which owns five UK airports have reported a 4.1% fall in July. Heathrow traffic was down even more at 4.4% or 6.6million passengers as holidaymakers avoided peak times and potential delays.

Heathrow was expecting its busiest day ever on 26th July the day before the opening day of the Olympics. Despite thousands of athletes passing through the terminals at Heathrow, usual levels of holiday and business travel did not meet expectations.

There was an even bigger drop in passengers on European flights to and from Heathrow of 6.6%.

However, chief executive of BAA, Colin Matthews, was pleased to have avoided the predictions of chaos with long immigration queues. He said: ” We are proud to have played our part in giving the very best welcome to London 2012 athletes and visitors alike. Seven years of hard work and planning, the warmth and enthusiasm of more than a thousand volunteers and additional border staff  produced our strongest ever passenger satisfaction scores.”

Another BAA airport to suffer from the Olympic effect was Stansted. It suffered a fall of 5.3% compared with the same month last year.

Hopefully, August will see better figures for BAA especially at Stansted as it will be forced to sell the airport after last month’s ruling by the Court of Appeal which upheld a 2009 ruling by the Competition Commission. BAA will try to delay or block the sale with an appeal to the Supreme Court.

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In Portugal, ground handling staff are planning to strike at Faro and Oporto airports on 15th and 17th August. In France, Easyjet pilots are planning action on three days 15th, 17th and 19th August. However, an easyjet spokeswoman said the action in France will hopefully only effect french based crews. She said…

“The company regrets that some of its pilots have chosen to move ahead with an industrial action rather than coming back to the negotiations table, particularly in this busy period for holidaymakers,”

“The Management remains open to discussion and calls the SNPL union representatives to resume negotiations.”

Regarding the Potugese ground handling staff the Easyjet spokeswoman said…

“Our aim is to protect our customers’ travel plans and therefore it is our intention to operate all flights to and from Portugal over this period. There is a risk that there might be some late notice disruption to flights however we are taking all possible actions to guard against this.”

Passengers should check flight times with their airlines and notify car parks if booked in for airport parking.

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Great news about parking at Stansted Airport. The Premier Inn hotel used to charge £8 per day to park but is now offering free parking to guests staying at the hotel.

The Premier Inn is one of the closest hotels to Stansted airport and the coach and train station. Its on the A120 and less than 1 mile from the airport. All the facilities you would expect from a Premier Inn are available including WIFI, lift, disabled access and a restaurant serving traditional and contemporary meals.

Check prices and availability using the Parking4less comparison engine at www.parking4less.co.uk.

The Stansted Premier Inn address is  Thremhall Avenue, Stansted Airport, Stansted, Essex CM24 1PY or follow the directions below.

From the M11, exit via Junction 8/8A, then follow signs to Stansted Airport. At the main roundabout, take the 3rd exit and follow signs for the Mid-Stay Car Park. The Premier Inn is situated opposite the Mid-Stay Car Park, adjacent to BP Petrol Station and McDonalds. The airport shuttle bus first pick up is at 3.45am and runs every 30 mins thereafter. Please allow 15-20 mins to get to the airport. The drop off and pick up point is Coach Station Bay 30. The cost of a single journey is 3GBP per adult and children under 15 are free.

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Its not been a problem for me until this year. I had received my car insurance renewal letter and left it in my to do pile. The premium was almost triple the previous year’s figure so I was definitely going to check the price comparison websites to see if I could get a cheaper policy.

By the time I hat around to finding a cheaper premium I was three days past the renewal date. Normally that’s not a problem. Previous renewals have given me 14 days to pay the premium or the policy would be cancelled and no charges applied. However, this time the insurance company who I won’t name decided it would be helping me out by automatically renewing my policy.

Fortunately, they’ve allowed me to cancel the policy but there’s a charge to do so. I wasn’t very happy about this and refused to pay. Next thing that happened, I received a letter from a debt collection agency.

After calling the Citizen’s Advice Bureau I decided to give up the battle with the car insurance company and pay up. Apparently, if its in their contract then its ok to auto renew the policy.

My fault for not acting earlier I suppose. So be warned, don’t take things for granted and act on those renewal letters or be prepared to pay for your mistakes.

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Vueling.com is another low cost airline helping to transform the airline industry in the UK and abroad. Vueling is a Spanish airline which started flying from Barcelona to Ibiza in July 2004.

Since then it has expanded rapidly and this year is celebrating a major milestone having flown 50 million passengers.

Expansion of the airline has grown to flights from 38 cities including destinations in France and the UK. UK routes now include Edinburgh, Cardiff and London Heathrow.

Cardiff flights operate to Palma (PMI), Alicante (ALC) and Barcelona (BCN).

Edinburgh flights operate to Barcelona (BCN).

London Heathrow flights operate to Bilbao (BIO), Galicia (GLG), La Coruna (LCG) and Vigo (VGO).

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Current legislation allows councils to charge motorists up to £130 in London and £70 outside the capital.

In addition to income from fixed penalty notices, councils  in London earn £4.80 an hour from motorists parking near Oxford Street and other popular central London locations. Outside London, motorists can expect to pay as much as £3.50 in popular tourist locations like Brighton.

Last year, Mike Penning the road safety minister, warned councils to stop treating motorists as an easy revenue earner. Councils are supposed to use their powers to improve traffic and prevent jams by controlling parking on their streets.

Councils are prohibited by law to use income from parking to improve their balance sheets. However, some councils allocate the revenue raised from parking for other transport projects.

Councils made a surplus of £511.6 million from fines last year. That was nearly a 5% increase on the previous year in 2010-11 of £489.4million, according to an analysis of local authority accounts made by the RAC foundation.

Have your say and tell us how much your council charges to park for an hour or for a fixed penalty notice.

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