Lte Airways suspends flights with immediate effect

LTE Airways is forth Spanish low cost carrier to stop flights. In the past few weeks other Spanish carriers; Futura, Lagunair and Flysur also discontinued their services.

At the moment, there is no indication of how the advance reservations or refunds will be handled.

On its website Lte International Airways states:

Lte International Airways S.A. wish to inform you that due to the financial situation of the company, that make it difficult to meet the operational expenses in the next days, we have had to suspend our charter and scheduled operations.
Lte is doing everything to minimize the impact of this suspension of services on its clients and providers. After 20 years operating with maximum dedication to our clients it just was not possible to avoid this situation given world events lately.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to our passengers, clients and suppliers.
Lte International Airways S.A.

Virgin and British Airways cut fuel surcharges

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are reducing fuel surcharges paid by their customers from midnight on October 15th.

In response to falling oil prices Virgin Atlantic yesterday announced the cut in fuel surcharge for its economy and premium economy passengers. Depending on class and a route the flight tickets are going to be cheaper by up to £26.

According to British Airways, its move to cut the fuel surcharges for up to £13 has nothing to do with the price of oil – as British Airways, hedges the cost of fuel to avoid unpredictable price changes.

Royal Caribbean to sail from Dubai

Dubai is also emerging as new the cruise destination.

Following Costa Cruises, the Royal Caribbean will become the second major cruise line to base a ship in Dubai. Between January and April 2010, the ship will run seven-night sailings from Dubai, with details yet to be confirmed.

Carnival to drop fuel surcharges

From 31st October, the Carnival Corp cruise operator will eradicate fuel surcharges on new bookings for 2010 at Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and the Yachts of Seabourn and raise fares instead.

Holland America Line’s MS Veendam is setting for South America

South America is becoming more and more popular cruise destination. In answer to this demand Holland America Line’s MS Veendam is set to cruise South America for the fall 2009 and the winter and spring 2010 season.

Newly-refurbished MS Veendam will offer its guests some of the most scenic cruising in the world in10 sailings ranging from 16 to 20 days. Concentrating on port-intensive itineraries MS Veendam will spend more time in ports than most major cruise lines and is the only premium cruise line offering overnights in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires on select cruises.

For those who want to extend their vacation, Holland America Line offers several pre- and post-cruise land tours. Guests can opt to spend an extra night or two in Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile, take overland 2 to 5 days tours to the famed ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, Iguacu Falls, located on the border of Brazil and Argentina, and Chile's wine country.

Crystal Cruises' exclusive land tours on spring 2009 China and Japan itineraries

It seems quite a few cruise updates we have today.

Crystal Cruises are adding exclusive land tours to their spring 2009 China and Japan itineraries.

Crystal Cruises' five-night pre- and post-cruise land program includes a to journey to mystical, magical Tibet and a visit to meet the rare and nearly extinct Giant Pandas at the Chengdu Breeding and Research Centre in Sichuan province.

"Bridging the best of land and sea, the China and Tibet extended land program offers excursions to regions of the world that few travellers will ever have the chance to see," said John Stoll, director, land programs. "A Crystal vacation isn't confined to the port cities and surrounding areas. With great attention to detail and Crystal care, we transport guests thousands of miles inland to expand their experience."

Human Advertising - New Zealand style

Remember Gordon Brown advertising Fiji? Remember Ryanair's sexy schoolgirl?Well, we have a new kid in town who would like to show us all how well their creative juices are flowing.


Starting later in October, Air New Zealand will advertise at Los Angeles airport with… "cranial billboards". Air New Zealand decided to hire a bunch of bald scalps and temporarily tattoo them with slogans like "Need a Change? Head Down to New Zealand". Yes, scalps are firmly attached to the human being.

Air New Zealand Marketing Manager Steve Bayliss said: "The cheeky sense of humour in the campaign has sparked people's imagination," and when human billboards are not on airport duty they are "making new friends and being stopped on the streets to talk about the campaign."

India banned smoking in public places

Even though the list of countries with smoking ban in public places is long, the smoking bans are much rarer in Asia. Now, India is following footsteps of Hong Kong and Singapore prohibiting smoking in many public places.

From the 2nd October smoking in hospitals, train stations, offices, hotels, restaurants and even bars in India is banned. According to government, there are over 120 million smokers in India, most of them under 30 years old.

The violators of the smoking ban will get a $5 fine initially, however India officials consider to raise the penalty to $25 in future.

Virgin Galactic says no to space porn movie offer

With space flights scheduled for 2009 it was bound to happen… Someone came up with an idea of making galactic porn and supposedly offered Virgin Galactic $1 million for a “location setting”.

Taking under consideration that regular flight on Virgin Galactic will cost $200,000, $1 million does not look very profitable… Let me think; two actors plus camera man plus light man plus sound man plus director plus wardrobe plus set designer plus props master plus make-up artist plus at least one assistant… No wonder Virgin Galactic refused, offer came at least $1million short.

Photo source: wikipedia