Pensioner takes mobility scooter in the fast lane
March 9, 2009
A 90 year old man had the shock of his life after accidentally straying onto the A27, which features 3 lanes either side of the road and a speed limit of 70 miles per hour, while driving an electric-powered mobility scooter.
Tough regulations for UK job visa in offing
February 25, 2009
Rising unemployment in Britain has forced the Government to put restrictions on professionals from non-European countries and India so that locals get the first preference.
Come April 1st and the basic requirements to enter Britain under the Tier 1 category of the points-based immigration will be altered. You will have to posses a master’s degrees and minimum salary of ₤20,000 if you are from non-European country or an Indian seeking employment in UK under the Tier1 category. At present under-graduate and ₤17,000 were considered for UK job Visa.
Even changes are on the cards for those falling under Tier 2 category and families of migrants. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is expected to announce the coming measures soon. However, there is some respite as those industries officially recognised as facing shortage of skilled personnel will be able to recruit from outside the European Union.
This is not going to be a ‘All Fool’s Day’s’ joke, but will be a reality for those seeking UK job visas.
Travel Company falls, puts British tourists in discomfort
September 14, 2008
British tourists faced much overseas chaos after a travel firm specialising in tours to Turkey fell and all holidays got cancelled. The Civil Aviation Authority informed K&S Travel that also trades under the brand name Travel Turkey had called off operations as of Saturday (September 13) night. This affected about 550 people either on vacation or set to depart shortly.
“It is a very small failure, but it is a failure all the same,” stated a spokesman for the CAA, while confirming the closure of the travel firm. K&S Travel could not be reached for comment. Its collapse follows that of XL Leisure that grounded all its flights a day before, stranding close to 85,000 tourists in the US, North Africa, the Caribbean and Europe. XL blamed the global economic turmoil and fuel prices for its sudden fall, one among the many in a series of collapses in the travel industry.
Long queues and chaps continued at airports as returning XL passengers tried to work out how they would get back home and those about to begin their holidays realised their plans were in total disarray. The collapse of K&S affected tourists, the CAA stated, mostly holidaying in the Turkish resort of Bodrum. It added that an aircraft would be chartered to fly them back to Britain when their holidays are over.
British Airways plans to land Indians in terminal 5
September 6, 2008
British Airways has decided to move all its flights from India to terminal 5 of Heathrow airport in London. The terminal was subjected to adverse publicity as thousands of check-in bags went missing and many scheduled flights faced cancellation in the weeks following its inauguration in March.
British Airways claimed the unhappy incidents would be a thing of the past and if all goes well, Indian flyers can look forward to a pleasant transit experience. No anxiety about missing bags and schedule upsets. From this month, initially all BA passengers from Mumbai will be disembarking in Heathrow’ terminal 5 (T5). In roughly a months’ time, all BA flights from India will land in terminal 5.
Amanda Amos, area commercial manager, South Asia, BA said:
“We encountered a lot of glitches when we opened the terminal early this year. But now all that has been taken care of. T5 is working fantastically well. Our flights from Bangalore have been landing there since July and the feed back from our customers has been good. T5 offers flyers a smoother, easier and calmer airport experience.”
Cash is still the king amongst British people
August 28, 2008
An increasing number of Britons prefers to use cash over cards when they are traveling abroad. This is owing to the fear of falling victim to fraudsters. According to a survey, lead by insurance services company CPP, almost 60 per cent of people prefer to take cash on holidays when they go abroad. More people are worried about deceptive fraudulent activity when they travel. Roughly 80 per cent of people are concerned about how vulnerable they are when they are paying for goods or using cash machines. However CPP said the fear is exaggerated as Apacs data prove the fact that actual fraud abroad accounts for only 39 per cent of UK card theft and fraud.
CPP offers insurance on sundries, including wallets, payment cards and mobile phones to third parties, which they can market to their customers while they are traveling abroad. CPP confirmed that it received 7,000 cases of stolen credit and debit cards between the period of June 2007 and July 2008. More than a quarter of these cases happened in Spain, which was more than double the amount that happened in France that had the next highest volume of reports.
CPP said only a quarter of travelers surveyed took the time to notify their bank that they will be away. Similarly, only a quarter checked receipts against card statements. CPP is also confident that awareness about card fraud abroad is growing. However, it is concerned that consumers are not taking the basic security steps.
World’s third best airline operates just one plane
June 22, 2008
British airline, Palmair European, has just one plane, a 34- year old Boeing 737.Flying only two flights a day, it carries merely 70,000 passengers a year. The airline has an employee, who while sitting on a kitchen table, plans out seating plans.
Yet when best experience and value for money is the criteria applied, David (Palmair European) bagged the third place beating the Goliaths (Walsh’s BA and Branson’s Virgin Atlantic) who were among other 64 contestants. In the ‘Which’ poll, it also earned the distinction ‘best for short-haul’.
Boss David Skilicorn was delighted with the results and said: “We are just little Palmair with a little Boeing 737. Those who want more legroom get it and families who want to sit together can. This is made possible by removing seats so that the 130 passengers can avail more leg room and that too at no extra charge.”
The workforce comprises 25 crew and 25 support staff. The 51 year old airline provides services to 14 European destinations. Spain, Tenerife, Portugal, Corfu and Croatia are also on their destination chart. At Dorset, each and every passenger is greeted by Tersia Rossello, prior to seeing them off.
US President’s visit makes the UK flight schedule go haywire
June 16, 2008
US President flew to London for a stopover. Unfortunately, he will be remembered by about 40,000 travellers for an unsavoury visit, for it resulted in cancellation of 68 flights. Most of the 40,000 travellers faced either cancellation of their flights or delays at Heathrow Airport owing to the VIP’s visit. Certainly an annoying situation by any means!
According to the confirmation of BAA (the Airport owner), 36 outgoing and 36 arrivals, mostly British Airways were subjected to cancellation on June 15, when President Bush arrived and the following day when he left.
BAA stated in a statement: “BAA, the airlines and other business partners at Heathrow did every thing possible in their power to minimise disruption at the airport during George Bush’s presidential visit. In spite of our best efforts some disruption did occur, for which we apologise to affected passengers.” Perhaps, any other disruption in the Presidential visit would have certainly affected the Heathrow Management adversely, but thankfully that did not happen!.
British Airways’ Terminal 5 starts operations
June 7, 2008
The British Airways’ Terminal 5 has stated working fro June, 4. The £4.3bn building had collapsed on its debut on March 27. The BA chief executive Willie Walsh while announcing increase in the number of flights from T5, informed that state-of-the-art baggage system was working better than the system at Terminal 4. He is confident that it will not trigger another baggage fiasco.
BA’s flights to eight destinations, including New York, Cape Town, Beijing and Cairo will be operated from Terminal 5. The terminal will funnel additional 7,000 passengers and 4,000 bags. Walsh informs that about 3 million people would be going through the terminal and many of them already had good experience of it. He described the media focus on T5 as completely misplaced.
Walsh would have lost his job when the disastrous collapse of the terminal building on the day of launch had resulted in cancellation of 500 flights and the loss of 24,000bags. He himself took over the charge of T5 operations after sacking two executives responsible for the debut.The T terminal will handle 48,000 bags, an increase of 8,000; and carry 50,000 passengers each day. Rest of the Heathrow services will be transferred in two stages in August and October, 2008.
Britain gives green signal for new aircraft carriers
June 7, 2008
The wait was long, but worth it! We are talking about the 4 billion pound deal to be signed by Britain. And what is it for? Well, it is for building two aircraft carriers, supposedly Royal Navy’s largest ever ships.
Minister for Defence Equipment and Support Ann Taylor confirmed the same. Called the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales (tentatively), the two will be 65,000-tonne carriers. They are expected to enter service by 2014 and 2016, and will carry 36 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter combat jets as well as four early-warning aircrafts, each.
The carriers will be built in a joint venture of BAE Systems and VT Group while Babcock International Group and France’s Thales take care of the design. The carriers are supposed to sustain 10,000 jobs at the peak of production. Production starts at shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness, Glasgow, Portsmouth and Rosyth. The two carriers are smaller than their US counterparts. Two aircraft carriers, once they get added to the Royal Navy fleet, will truly boost its strength.
British government asked to ease up visa regulations
May 21, 2008
Getting a Schengen visa is next to impossible! However, the British government has now been asked by parliamentary committee to find out a plausible solution so that Indian Residents in the UK can be benefited. The House Commons Business and Enterprises in its fifth report opined “We urge the government, to explore with Schengen countries how the visa regulations for Indian residents in the UK, keen on travelling to other European Union countries could be eased, or periods of EU visa validity extended considerably.”
The committee, keeping in mind the mutual benefit of the British and Indian economy, wants the government to review the possible improvements in visa and other related arrangements. This process should be under constant review for better profitable results. ‘The Waking up to India; Developments in the UK-India economic relations’ committee is headed by Conservative MP Peter Luff, and comprises honorable MPs Roger Berry, Michael Clapham, Lindsay Hoyle, Anne Moffat, Anthony Wright, Brian Binley, Julie Kirkbride, Mark Hunter and Mike Weir.
