Travelblather

First findings for the UK Competition Commission into BAA the Airport operator that controls most of the airports in the south of England including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted suggests the company may not be serving customers as well as it could. Anyone who has flown economy class from these three airports will have little difficulty working out where BAA's priorities lie. Vast amounts of retail and restaurant space at the expense of decent seating areas for passengers who just want to wait for flights without spending their holiday money before they even get on the plane. General seating areas are cramped and overcrowded, particularly at peak travel times. This is all the more apparent if you are lucky enough to have lounge access which I did passing through Gatwick a month back. The contrast was so marked. Spacious comfy armchairs with plenty of natural light versus cramped seats all joined together in the middle of the floor with no natural light surrounded on all sides by retail outlets. And what about so called 'Tax Free Prices' that the retail outlets advertise all over the place. Prices are no cheaper than the high street for all but the most unprice-sensitive of shoppers and the food and drink is seriously expensive. The reason? A simple case of supply and demand. Limited floor space means BAA can charge whatever rents if feels like. I've no idea how much it charges, but I bet it's a fortune. The sooner competition is introduced into the airport sector the better. Break up BAA now.

I recently caught a whole slew of flights to and from Mexico with my girlfriend who is a vegetarian. As a confirmed meat eater I don't really get the whole non-meat thing, but hey we all have our choices to make. It's impressive too that airlines now cater to vegtarians, vegans even people with gluten free diets. What's really weird though is how cabin crew have yet to enter this new age of customer choice. It goes like this: there's a list with the seat numbers of people who have veg meals. Cabin crew dish out these meals first to make sure they get the right meals to the right people. All good so far. Then they go off and distribute food and drink to the other 200 or so people on the plane who eat the normal meals. Without bothering to offer those with veg meals anything to drink. They get a drink with the rest of the cabin when the drinks service comes round - often a different trolley from the food moving just ahead of it. Depending on where you happen to sit you might get your veg meal and then wait literally 15 or 20 minutes before the drinks trolley finally reaches you. So what do you do? Eat it whilst it's hot, but without a drink? (Not a great option with airline food, which although very edible compared with a decade or so back is still pretty stodgy.) Or wait for your glass of wine and eat it cold? Such a simple thing for cabin crew to also offer a drink with the veg meals, but they've never done it on all the flights I've been on with my vegetarian girlfriend.... weird. And on a 10 hour flight? It's not as if there isn't time...

According to a report in Advertising Age Superstar Rapper Kanye West is starting his own travel business. Kanyetravel.com is currently selling deals through Travelocity, but there are plans to expand the business further - in particular to offer travel packages to see Kanye on tour. Smart idea... or just another example of brand extension taken to ridiculous extremes - a la J-Lo?

Here's to Robert Mugabe disappearing off to some long forgotten corner of the world and never reappearing... and hopefully with no violence in the process. Latest reports from the BBC suggest a compromise deal is being negotiated for him to hand over power... Zimbabwe could then retake its place as a serious tourism destination... with fantastic natural scenery and game parks. It will of course take a while for the infrastructure to be rebuilt and parks to be re-stocked, but the potential is huge and tourism could be a seriously important earner of much needed foreign currency too...

Well... can the rumours be true? BA is closing terminal 5 and moving all flights back to terminal 4 til they've cleared the backlog of 28,000 bags? (Including those of a senior official from one of our EU neighbours?) Hang on a minute... it is April Fool's Day today isn't it?