The travel agents in the UK have indicated that the winter sales of their holiday packages are still not picking. However, they said that they are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the summer holiday sales at the start of the peaks period.

It has been revealed that most of the sales taking place are for the summer 2010 than the winter holidays. The strongest of all sales made remained the all-inclusive and non-euro destinations.

The commercial director of Advantage Travel Centers, Julia Lo Bue-Said stated that the winter sales was not doing well and the agents of Advantage Travel had seen peak  sales drop by 10%.

The company, however indicated that its summer 2010 sales package have shown a spurt of 20% for the first week post Christmas, that could be driven by a 40% increase for eastern Mediterranean sales.

“The enquiry levels are up and agents are very positive as the conversions are there in very significant numbers,” said Lo Bue-Said.

A number of travel agencies did open for three or four days during the Christmas period as they were no mood to loose the business. Most business took place on Saturday, January 2 and was reported as the busiest day.

The owner of Britaly Travel in Peterborough and trade-only tour operation Typically Italian, Daniele Broccoli, said: “It is a pretty steady sell at the moment and I am cautiously optimistic.”

Paul Dayson, the owner of Wetherby-based Spa Travel said the sales showed leap by 24% but complained that few tour operators did not entertain the queries of the customers during the festive holidays.

“We were really busy on Saturday [January 2] and I couldn’t get through to some operators, while some closed at 1pm,” he said.

Worldchoice said ”pricing is holding up, with an average booking price after December 29 2009 of £1,000 per person, up from £570 last year.”

Operations director Bill Pickering said: “Flight-only and cruise did well and represented more than half of the bookings.”

Johnny Pollard, commercial director of On the Beach said: “We are up around 70% year on year so far. There are a lot of bargains out there and people are taking advantage. It has been all summer holidays so far, no late winter bookings. Turkey and Egypt are very busy and all-inclusive is ahead of everything else.”

Tom Costley, TNS head of travel and tourism said: “The overall picture of 2010 holiday plans seems very similar to last year, but we know from experience that people’s intentions can differ quite substantially to what they eventually choose to do.”

The giant travel operators in UK – Cosmos, TUI and Thomas Cook smashed the results of the holiday survey conducted by Which?, that showed the three have not scored good points for the customer satisfaction.

The survey was conducted this week and observed an online panel of 4,507 members who voted for and against the various travel operators in UK on the basis of their holidays including journey, accommodation, customer service and value for money.

A total of 28 companies were listed in the survey. Out of which Cosmos came last with an overall score of 57%, followed by Thomas Cook, which scored 58%, First Choice and TUI-owned Crystal both scored 63%, while Thomson came 23rd with a score of 66%.

Cosmos Tourama is also included in Cosmos and scored just 44% for efficiency, while Thomas Cook was harshly slammed by the disgruntled members for poor quality hotel rooms and unhelpful resort staff.

The three travel operators Thomas Cook, Cosmos and First Choice have been bestowed two stars for value for money, while Thomas Cook got just two stars for the quality of its reps.

Meanwhile, the survey report also acceded to the fact that the big travel operators relatively face more issues as regards to service because they are likely to rely on charter airlines, coaches for transfers and large hotel complexes.

Stuart Jackson, the director of Cosmos mainstream products managing director said: “We carry out our own holiday satisfaction surveys with our customers [some half a million in 2009] and can confirm that less than 3% have had cause to complain during this time.

“We will continue to listen to our customers and strive to improve our quality, value and choice as well as providing them with the best possible consumer protection.”

Ian Derbyshire, the chief executive of Thomas Cook UK and Ireland added: “The Which? Holiday report is in total contrast to the high levels of service that our customers tell us about and that we pride ourselves on.

“From our own surveys, which number more than 100 times more people than the Which? Survey, our customer satisfaction scores have increased year on year, with 94% of our holidaymakers rating Thomas Cook as either excellent or good for their holiday last summer.

“With almost nine out of 10 holidaymakers rating our reps equally as high, we find these results difficult to accept.”

Christian Cull, the director of TUI UK and Ireland communications asserted in a statement: “More holidaymakers rank their holiday with us as excellent or good than any of our competitors. We also know that 4.6 million people would happily recommend us to their friends.

“Again, 4.6 million tell us they will come back to us for another holiday, and a similar number rate our holiday advisors [reps] as excellent or good too. We intend to raise each of these numbers further in 2010.”

The survey revealed that the top companies as marked by the members were  largely specialists and direct-sale only operators with the top five slots taken by VFB Holidays, which scored 94%, Trailfinders and Explore, both of which scored 89%, Voyages Jules Verne on 88%, and Ramblers Worldwide Holidays with 87%.

For the holidaymakers seeking to go on a voyage from Southampton next summer season, the sought after Cruise, Princess cruises is offering discounts of up to £800 per couple. The Grand Princess voyages that will be booked  during the Wave period from December 28 to January 31, 2010 are entitled to receive the discounts.

Besides this, clients who will make the booking during the period will also get an on-board credit of upto $200 per couple. They will also be offered either free car parking or coach transfers to and from the ship until February 28, 2010.

Pieter van der Schee, Head of marketing said the cruise is offering whopping discounts on the highest-grade cabins. He said the discounts are so rich that they should certainly encourage a record number of clients to book balcony staterooms.

He said: “As the market is changing, many passengers now expect a private balcony as standard. Balcony staterooms have become much cheaper and our ‘Princess Sale’ is offering massive price reductions, making cruising better value than ever before.”

The passenger can also opt for upgrade while on the cruise. Upgrades from an oceanview to a balcony cabin on a nine-night Caribbean flycruise on Emerald princess cost from £60 per person while an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini-suite will cost £95 per person.

On opting a  two-week cruises from Southampton to the Mediterranean on Grand Princess, the passenger will have to pay £1,269 per person, with upgrades from an oceanview to a balcony stateroom from £175 per person. While for a seven-night cruise from Southampton to Iberia on Grand Princess will cost from £649 per person.

Van der Schee also stated that the Princess Cruise has shown a stark growth of more than 10% this year. The company now is aiming at achieving more growth in 2010 as a result of the Wave offers. In order to promote the offers, the cruiseline has rolled out a marketing campaign worth multi-million-pounds to drive clients to their travel agent.

Apart from these offers, the clients will also fetch striking discounts of up to £400 per cabin for Mediterranean cruises on Ruby Princess in the January Wave campaign. The passengers will have to pay the prices starting from £1,399 per person for a 12-night cruise including flights, transfers and up to $200 per couple onboard credit.

The Cruise line is also making provisions to wave  regional flight supplements for passengers booking a Caribbean cruise on Sea Princess for winter 2010/11. Along with this discounts of up to £750 per couple are also offered to the passengers.  A 15-night cruise costs from £1,469 per person including flights, transfers and $200 onboard credit.

There are discounts of up to £1,000 per couple for a nine-night Alaskan cruises, bringing the lead price to £1,199 per person including flights, transfers and up to $200 per couple onboard credit.

UK’s third largest high street retailer, Co-operative Travel on gauzing the travel booking trends of this year, has forecasted that a holiday price war is about to begin this peak booking period. The retailer has also indicated that Dalaman has overtaken the other sought after tourist destination Majorca as Brits ‘ top hot spot for 2010.

Co-op has also signaled that the rise in the bookings for the last three months is the indicator of  market recovery.

The bookings of Dalaman, the sought after destination were 82% up on the same period last year and the retailer’s top 20 destinations were collectively up 26%, with customers’ focus appearing to be on price and value for money.

The average price of the package holiday to Majorca was (£595), while the price of the holiday to Dalaman was £516, which is £79 per person lower than the earlier one. This garners the preference of the holidaymakers to opt for Dalaman rather than Majorca as they seek to stretch their budget further.

Trevor Davis, director of retail distribution at The Co-operative Travel, said: “As the holiday sector recovers, the battle for bookers will intensify with companies seeking to increase their market share after a challenging 12 months.

“We’re offering as much as 20% off thousands of holidays or free child places, along with very low deposits of £50 per person to allow people to book early and take advantage of the deals available.”

However, this has also been forecasted by Davis that the deals and choices for holidaymakers will quickly vanish.

“If the current increase in bookings continues and confidence returns to the market, we will see fewer bargain deals being offered.

“What’s more, many operators are reducing capacity and this, combined with the recent high profile collapses of major travel businesses, will mean that there are fewer holidays for sale when it comes to people wanting late deals.

“Savvy bookers should take advantage of the deals available now and choose their destination with care.”

British Airways has been in controversies for quite a long time now for its dispute between the staff members and the management. The airline has grabbed the eyeballs for a different reason now. It  announced a new GDS(Global distribution system) deal with travel IT company Amadeus on 21st Dec 09.

The deal is done for three years to 2013 and allows Amadeus to access the airline’s full content.

British Airways signed a second agreement with major GDS company in the last two months.

The airline agreed a deal in November with Travelport,  which owns Galileo, the major GDS in the UK, and Worldspan.

The deal states that Amadeus agents would be able to access the schedules, same fares, and inventory as those offered through any direct or indirect channel, distribution provider or website.

It added: “Amadeus users can continue to access and book fares and inventory that the airline makes available to the public through its internal reservation system and its consumer website, as well as through third-party sites.

“In the UK and Ireland, the opt-in levels that were established by Amadeus in 2007 remain unchanged.

John Mornement, BA’s head of selling and distribution, said: “Amadeus is a trusted and important distribution channel and we are delighted to have reached an agreement that continues to give Amadeus agents worldwide access to our fares and which reduces our distribution costs.”

Ian Wheeler, Amadeus’ VP marketing and distribution, said: “We are delighted to bring continued stability to the travel distribution marketplace. Amadeus strives to offer the widest scope of integrated content to our travel agency partners. Our customers have long told us that access to complete content is their highest priority.

“Full content agreements with carriers such as British Airways are a significant part of our ongoing mission – to provide our customers with stability and clear long-term planning.”

British Airways also declared that talks were continuing with the other major GDS, Sabre.

After Court held off ‘Unite’s’ strike plan overt the 12 day long festive period, on the basis of invalid ballot, the crew members union at British Airways is planning to hold a second strike ballot soon.

The earlier ballot was termed ‘illegal’ by a high court judge that however received overwhelming support and votes in favor of the strike.

The ratio of vote was nine on one that if not stopped, would have hit the traveling plans of millions of travelers seeking to travel during the long Christmas and New Year holidays. The strike was scheduled to start on 22nd dec and continue till the first week of January.

The joint general secretaries of the crew members union, ‘Unite’, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said in a statement after the strike was called off: “We will move directly to a fresh ballot for industrial action.”

Organizing a ballot takes weeks, therefore the next ballot will probably take place in late January with12,500 British Airways staff members voting in favor or against the strike.

The two day long high court hearing conducted by Mrs Cox declared to Bruce Carr, the British Airway’s counsel that there were “serious and substantial irregularities” in the vote.

The main discrepancy that figured out in the voting was the people who had ceased to work with the airline also took part in the voting process.

However, the union reacted to the allegations and said that it had done all it could do to ensure the vote was conducted correctly.

Mrs Cox said in her ruling,: “A strike of this kind over the 12 days of Christmas is fundamentally more damaging to BA and the wider public than a strike taking place at almost any other time of the year.”

While BA said it was “delighted for our customers that the threat of a Christmas strike has been lifted by the court,” Unite called the decision a “disastrous day for democracy”.

The statement of Mr Simpson and Mr Woodley added: “Let us assure you that your representatives and the union’s officials did everything possible to comply with every dot and comma of the incredibly – and deliberately – complex laws designed to make industrial action very difficult, and we are shocked that the judge has made what is a clearly political ruling.

“We want to tell you unambiguously that the High Court ruling is not about the legitimacy of your case, nor is it about denying the strength of the majority feeling expressed in the ballot.

“It was simply and solely about British Airways exploiting a legal loophole concerning the balloting of colleagues who had applied for voluntary redundancy.

“We wish to make it clear to you immediately that this is not the end of the matter.  BA management must understand that it cannot sub-contract the conduct of industrial relations to the High Court.  The judge’s decision does not mean the end of the dispute.

“Only a negotiated agreement can ensure that.”

Both the disputing parties are claiming for long that they are ready for the more talks. However, no date has been fixed so far for the meeting to take place.

Meetings that were expected to take place between Willie Walsh, BA’s ceo, and the two union leaders were also not conducted in the end.

The whole controversy stated to take off when British Airways announced to cut jobs and costs due to reduced demand during the recession period. The airline declared that it was planning to plummet the equivalent of 3,000 jobs though voluntary redundancies and staff switching from full to part time work. Also the salaries of the staff are also expected to freeze for two years.

The staff members union objected to these changes also they refused cutting cabin crew on long haul flights form 15 to 14, saying that it would impact the quality of service to the passengers.

BA has refused to change its mind and said there would not be any altercations in the proposed  working practices.

Finnair, the national carrier of Finland has recently declared its intentions of imposing surcharges on payments made through credit cards. This has clearly agitated the two leading travel bodies in UK, that have warned the carrier of not implementing the charges.

The national carrier is already charging €7.50 for bookings made in the Netherlands through the airline’s merchant agreement. The advanced charges are certainly declined by the travel bodies as unacceptable and in appropriate.

Finnair’s Global VP of sales Petri Schaff has indicated that the carrier is considering an additional surcharge for reservations made by travel agents with credit cards.

The two industry bodies Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and the UK and Ireland Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM) has instructed the carrier to not to introduce the surcharge, as the impact of it would directly be bore by the customers.

The chairman of the BTC, Kevin Mitchell, and Paul Tilstone, chief executive of the ITM in a letter sent to Mr Schaff has clearly stated that the merchant agreement was”an equitable, time-tested and efficient process for airlines and their customers”.

The letter also stated:”These credit card costs are already baked into the price of tickets purchased by corporate buyers of your airline’s services.

“As such, surcharging will be asking your very best customers to pay for this cost twice. This, of course, is unacceptable.”

In response to Mr Schaaf’s reported statement that “In general, as long as there is a legal and technical possibility, we will consider it (expanding the surcharge), the BTC/ITM letter reminded him that his best customers were the corporates.

“Have you forgotten about your commercial relationships; the interests and concerns of your very best customers?

“Individual travelers are indeed customers, however, corporate travel departments are your business partners.

“There should be a level of respect for and collaboration with corporate customers and the travel management companies that service them that is clearly missing from your statement,” the letter states.

The letter clearly issued that the national carrier, Finnair should ideally be competing with the players in its own markets.

But it adds: “If airlines, including yours, expect to generate corporate managed-travel community support for unbundling and merchandising, there must be sincere collaboration and respect shown for the interests of business partners and distribution system stakeholders.

“We hope you carefully consider any policies that inappropriately shift costs to your customers.”

Comments of Mr Schaff were also sought on the same but he was unavailable for any statement of opinion.

The aircraft manufacturers in UK have vehemently opposed the easyJet’s allegations of delayed delivery of the next generation planes.

The Airbus concurred that the delivery is not late because of any laxity rather it is due to the technology required for building next generation planes was not yet ready.

The CEO of easyJet, Andy Harrison accused the aircraft manufacturer that they are postponing the delivery of cleaner and more fuel efficient planes.

He also emphasized that despite of earlier commitments of delivering the aircrafts in 2010, the delay took place with the fresh promise of making the delivery in 2024.

“They are in no hurry to bring them out. The cash flow they have from the B737 and A320 narrow-bodied planes is really what they are interested in, they want to keep that going. So if we are not careful, we won’t see the next generation of aircraft until 2030,” he said at a press conference.

Airbus confuted the allegations and said that it would be “the next decade” before the technology required for the next generation of aircraft would be developed enough.

A spokesperson for Airbus said: “At the moment there’s the technology ingredient, to make an aircraft very quiet, but it wouldn’t be very fuel efficient.

“Likewise you might have an aircraft that is very fuel efficient but might not necessarily be very quiet.

“To have an aircraft that satisfies all the conditions – to be fuel efficient, comfortable, quiet, to comply to aviation regulations – you need to have a combination of lots of different technologies.

“Where some technologies are mature today, or getting towards being mature today, others are not.”

Airbus also assured that considering the global deformities and need to heave out aircrafts that emit lesser carbon, it is consistent in employing eco friendly technology that also ensures better fuel efficiency “because that’s what the market’s telling us it wants”.

“It’s going to be a real game changer, a real jump,” said Airbus.

The Boeing also claimed that the technology available today is not sufficient.

On asked about any change Airbus would be mulling over to make in its 737 family with the next generation of aircraft, Boeing said it would need “breakthrough technologies-beyond what is currently available or in development.”

“Customers are demanding a substantial improvement in operating efficiency compared to current single-aisle airplanes,” said Boeing.

“Targeted improvements for a new single-aisle are at least 15% improvement in fuel efficiency and at least 25% improvement in maintenance costs.

“Achieving the required efficiency gains will require significant technology breakthroughs in composites, engines, aerodynamics, electrical and other systems.

“Given what we know today, we expect a single-aisle replacement airplane will be ready sometime in the latter part of the next decade.”

At the Press Conference, Mr Harrison demanded the aircraft manufacturers to hasten the delivery of next generation aircrafts.

He also called for formulation of a new legislation from the government to stop airlines flying old, inefficient aircraft.

Besides this, he also stated that complying to the minimum standard in fuel efficiency, the aircraft manufacturers would soon be motivated to deliver the next generation of cleaner and more fuel efficient aircrafts.

“The pressure from climate change needs to be brought to bear on the industry… on the manufacturers.

“Unless we put pressure on manufacturers we will not get the next generation.

“We should force manufacturers to deliver the technology by specific dates and force airlines to use them.”