Flights Direct

UK airports will start a trial of using face scans to identify people this summer. Instead of passport officers checking the passport, people’s faces will be scanned and data compared to the data chip in biometric passports.

Border security feel that facial recognition technology will be better at preventing ID fraud, but admit that people’s reactions to being stopped by a machine may be a problem.

It is not clear how many airports will take part in the trial, but if it proves successful the technology will be incorporated in all UK airports.

Spanish airline Iberia has announced it will increase the free luggage allowance onboard its flights, and drop charges for excess baggage.

The new luggage policy will come to affect on May 6th. From then on passengers on European flights can check-in 23kg of luggage while business class passengers can check-in 30kg. On long-haul flights luggage allowance will be 46kg in two pieces and 96kg in three pieces for business class passengers.

The airline will also give 30% discount on excess baggage if passengers pay for it in advance through their website.

Iberia is Spain’s leading airline, with over a thousand flights every day.

Low-cost airline Ryanair has announced it will start providing airport transfers on several European destinations.

As Ryanair airports are often located some distance away from the actual destination, the new airport transfer service will be a welcomed by customers. Ryanair will use ShuttleDirect on more than 50 airports to provide the new service.

The airline is starting the service to generate more ancillary revenue.

Head of ancillary revenue Santina Doherty said: “Ryanair’s partnership with ShuttleDirect will make it even easier for our passengers to avoid those airport queues.

“Not only can passengers dodge check-in queues with our web check-in service, now they can pre-book private car, minibus, coach and shuttle services.”

Last year 42.2 million pieces of checked baggage were mishandled or delayed at airports around the world – the problems ended up costing the air transport industry a massive $3.8 billion.

 “Once again, the past year has seen an increase in the amount of baggage mishandled worldwide. It also brings fresh hope, however, in the shape of new initiatives such as IATA’s Baggage Improvement Programme,” said Francesco Violante from SITA, who published the new figures in the annual Baggage Report.

Baggage handling is facing more problems each year as air travel becomes more and more popular. More demand, stricter security and very short turnaround times put pressure on handling 2.25 billion pieces of checked baggage every year.

The Baggage Report says that in 2007 the reasons for baggage delays were:

• transfer baggage mishandling, 49%;
•  ticketing error/ passenger bag switch/ security/ other, 14%;
•  failure to load, 16%; space-weight restriction, 5%;
•  loading/offloading error, 5%;
•  tagging errors, 3%;
•  arrival station mishandling, 8%

In just four days American Airlines has had to cancel almost 3,000 flights, as its MD-80 fleet had to be inspected for emergency security measures.

On the fourth day after starting the inspections to ensure the MD-80 complies with the  Federal Aviation Administration directive related to the bundling of wires in the wheel well of the MD-80 aircraft, 170 of the fleet were expected to be providing full service.

Wednesday April 9 AA had to cancel 1,094 flights, 930 on Thursday and today more than 500 flights were cancelled.

AA says it will give full refunds to all passengers on cancelled flights, or the possibility to use the value of their ticket towards future travel with airline.

The airline has apologized to all its customers for the inconvenience caused by the cancellations.

The British Airways has announced it will delay the full move to Terminal 5 until June. The airline was supposed to move all its long-haul flights and remaining short-haul flights to T5 on April 30.

The spaces BA was supposed to vacate on April 30 were to go to 54 other airlines, which are now facing major problems due to BA’s delay. Some airlines may seek compensation for costs they expect to have.

The ripple-effect from the BA delay has angered the airlines which have already been running campaign informing their passengers of the changes they were expecting to have. Many airlines have been planning to move to spaces vacated by BA for years.

Nigel Turner, bmi chief executive officer said: “The programme and timescale of changes was agreed in joint consultation with all airlines that are now geared up to undertake the moves as agreed.

“BAA and BA have shown a total disregard for all other airlines and their passengers at Heathrow in coming to this decision because of their own shortcomings and their inability to implement an agreed plan.”

The BA/BAA statement said: “BAA regrets this postponement, and we recognize the impact it has on other airlines, but we believe it is a wise precaution to ensure that passengers can have the maximum confidence once the move does take place.

Virgin Atlantic has called a meeting with its 280 beauty therapists – but says no decisions have been made about its future.

For the past 18 years Virgin has offered manicures, massages and other beauty services for the Upper Class passengers. The meeting has caused suspicion that the whole service might be scrapped.

With 38 aircrafts Virgin Atlantic has a considerably smaller fleet than its main competitors, and special services such as the beauty therapists is one of the ways it tries to attract passengers.

“We are calling our in-flight beauty therapists in to get their input into the product and service review of our Upper Class cabin,” a spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said.

“We constantly look to review our Upper Class service to make sure that our investment is where it should be and that it is meeting the expectations of our customers,” the spokeswoman added.

The opening day of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was a complete disaster – the state-of-the-art baggage handling system didn’t allow staff to login, and the staff was unable to find their car park spaces, among other problems.

BA has had to cancel hundreds of flights, and a week after opening says there are 20,000 bags without owners. The airport authority BAA says the number of misplaced bags is closer to 28,000.

The BA spokeswoman said: “We are throwing resources at this. But as soon as you have bags without their owners there are security issues and it becomes time-consuming.”

BA announced earlier this week that it’s sending thousands of bags to Milan to be sorted out, and the rest to Gatwick, Manchester and Scotland.

Today BA promised that 90% of flights departing from Terminal 5 will be running, and is aiming to get higher during the weekend and early next week.

Flight cancellations are focused on routes with high frequency, so people can be offered alternative flights. There is also the option to re-book a flight or get a refund.

An apology issued by BA said: “Problems developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials. There were problems in car parks, airport areas, computer glitches and the baggage system.”