First quarter pretax profits fell to €104.6 million after accounting for the cost of almost 10,000 flights canceled in April and May. This takes into account the 34 percent increase in fuel costs to €287 million due to higher oil prices.

Either way, first quarter revenue rose 16 percent to €896.8 million due to an 8 percent increase in traffic flow. This was driven largely by Europe and a 5 percent rise in fares. The carrier has maintained its forecast for full-year net profit to rise between 10 and 15 percent. They confirmed their plans to pay their first ever dividend in October.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said that, despite the volcanic ash disruptions that Ryanair saw, the airline continues to increase traffic, profits and yields. This good news comes as most competitors are cutting capacity and reporting losses.

Mr O’Leary went on to explain that most of the growth for the airline is coming from the European continent. He said that they are seeing an enormous opportunity to grow their business across Europe as many airports compete for Ryanair traffic growth. This aggressive competition between airports has, of course, resulted in airport unit costs falling by 8 percent.

The Unite union, which actually represents nearly all of the British Airways cabin crew, or 90 percent, said that 3,419 of its members voted against the new offer. This is about 67 percent of the union’s British Airways cabin crew members.

The union leaders said now they would have to meet with their members to decide what their next move was going to be. This long drawn out saga started when British Airways said back in November of last year that they were cutting crew pay and reducing the number of staff that they have. This was in order to save the airline from going under.

The offer included two years of guaranteed rises in basic salary. This was, of course, on top of annual incremental pay increases. A spokesman for the union said that they will meet with members this weekend to consider the next steps to take.

Not too long ago the Unite union postponed a strike ballot in order to look over British Airways’ newest offer. Thus, now that the offer has been rejected by crew members, it is very likely that they will considered a strike again. However, as of now, no kind of dates have been announced. The union is not even sure what next step they would like to take.

Some Goldtrail customers have recently reported that some hoteliers have been demanding cash payments for rooms that have already been paid for as part of a package. In fact, at one hotel in Marmaris, Turkey, guests have been threatened with eviction if they do not hand over £210 per room. In fact, some staff are even calling the police on guests that refuse to pay.

So far reports have said that one couple has been evicted from their hotel for failing to pay the price. The Civil Aviation Authority, however, is trying to assure all passengers that they will not be left stranded and that their hotel bills would be covered by the ATOL emergency scheme.

A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority said that most people came back over the weekend on the flights that they were due to come back on. The remaining people are likely to finish their holidays and then come back on the flights they originally booked.

The Civil Aviation Authority is sending out guarantees to hotels all across Turkey and Greece to ensure that holidaymakers are not put out on the streets during their holidays. The spokesperson went on to say that the problem with people being inconvenienced should start to disappear.

Goldtrail is based in New Malden, Surrey. The company first opened its doors in 1996. There have been rumors for several months that the company is struggling. These rumors proved to be true.

This new move will allow members of the British Airways Executive Club to use their Blackberry, iPhone or Android to display new Mobile Boarding Passes on their phones. These boarding passes then can be scanned at check-in to speed up and enhance the boarding process.

This move is very similar to other launches by other airlines around the world. In fact, Southwest Airlines and Etihad Airways did something very similar to this earlier this year. Thus, this is proving to be a very popular trend with airlines all over the world.

The head of digital marketing at British Airways, Chris Davies, said that mobility and convenience is key for British Airways customers. Thus, no matter where they are, they can turn to their mobile phones to find the very latest information about their flight. They can find out about check-in times and even access boarding passes, allowing them to stay one step ahead of other passengers.

This new British Airways app will offer passengers a very easy-to-use and stylish new interface. It will offer instant access to Executive Club details and updates on all flights. Mr Davies went on to add that the Mobile Boarding Pass feature for Executive Club iPhone users will be especially welcome for those customers who are unable to print off their boarding cards when returning from overseas. Overall, this is all about improving the customer experience.

Sir Stelios brought proceedings in London’s High Court over the ads, which appeared in many newspapers, as well as on Ryanair’s website in January and February. The adverts concerned the flight on-time statistics of easyJet. These are the same statistics that have not been published on the airline’s website in 37 weeks.

Recently these two airlines have been knocking heads over ads in an effort to steal the market away from each other. Ryanair also went on to apologize to Sir Stelios for including his photo and referring to him personally in four other ads. The airline, which does create its ads in house, has issued its apology in newspapers recently. This apology is coupled with a smiling picture of Stelios himself.

The apology said that Michael O’Leary and Ryanair unreservedly apologize to Sir Stelios for including his photo in an advert that ran on January 20^th and the 29^th of this year. This ad featured a photo of Sir Stelios and referred to him as easyJet’s Mr Late Again. It also called on Stelios to stop hiding the truth about easyJet’s flight delays and resume publishing its weekly details on its on-time performance.

The apology goes on to say that Mr O’Leary and Ryanair will not publish the ad ever again. It also states that they have agreed to pay Stelios for the damages and legal costs in settlements of his libel claim.

Rahul Singh, who is the general manager at Thrifty Car Rental, said that this automation is a huge technology leap for Thrifty in the UAE. It is going to significantly enhance the company’s overall customer experience. This is good, because the company is always looking for ways to increase customer satisfaction.

He went on to say that the solution will eliminate the downtime between customers signing vehicle check-in forms. After all, when the forms are finally filled out, the counter staff has to key in all of the information. Now this does not have to be done.

Let’s say that a driver in Dubai delivers a vehicle to Ras Al Khaimah. As soon as that customer signs the PDA, the data will automatically reflect on a real time basis across the Thrifty Vehicle Management System. This information is immediately accessible to any Thrifty staff with just one simple click of a button.

Singh noted that this new software took about 12 months to put together. They are leading the way for car rental companies to go digital. This is going to be done by introducing new technology like this that makes renting a car just that much easier.

These union members, which work for the underground maintenance company Tube Lines, will vote on an offer, which the RMT said would deliver a pay increase of 4.2 percent this year and an agreement on the protection of jobs. However, it is still not certain that the members of the union will agree to all of the terms of the offer. In fact, all of the terms of the offer are not yet known and more than likely will not be known until after the union vote.

The strike itself was due to start at 7pm on Wednesday. It would have caused a lot of distribution on the Tube’s Jubilee, Piccadilly and Northern lines. The RMT union is recommending acceptance of this new offer, which includes above inflation pay deals for 2011 and for 2012.

Bob Crow, who is the general secretary of RMT, said that once again RMT members are showing people that, if members stick together and take action in defense of pay, jobs and working conditions, then they can win. There is no doubt in his mind that this message will be picked up by other public sector workers, who are being told that they have to take the hit to pay for the mess left behind by the bankers’ bailout scandal.

Mr Crow went on to say that the only defense that working people have against the cut and austerity measures of the coalition government is a strong, fighting trade union. The Tube Lines workers have prove this point.

This new data, which was released by the Office for National Statistics, showed that the number of UK visits abroad fell 15 percent in 2009 when compared to 2008. This is the largest slump since records started back in 1970. The corporate market was hit particularly hard, falling almost a quarter.

The UK’s inbound market also suffered. International visitor numbers fell down 6.3 percent to just 29.9 million. Business trips to the UK also fell by 20 percent. However, receipts from visits by overseas residents did rise to £16.6 billion from £16.3 billion the previous year.

This slump in both inbound and outbound markets follows a long period of growth that only started to tail off back in 2007. According to the Office of National Statistics, those traveling overseas are going for longer vacations. In fact, the average stay jumped up to 10.5 nights in 2009 from 9.9 nights two years earlier.

The UK economy is very slow at recovering from the recession that hit in 2008. The travel industry still maintains a very cautious outlook on the marketplace. This was not helped out by the volcanic ash cloud earlier this year and the strikes from British Airways cabin crew members.

Of course, Scotland has benefited from the staycations. Edinburgh has also enjoyed a 133,000 jump in visits, keeping its place as the second most visited city after London.

This emergency meeting comes as easyJet’s new chief executive has hinted at the fact that a third party will be called in to review the company’s business model. Of course, the pace of growth is going to be they key area of investigation.

Sir Stelios has been battling with the board over these expansion plans for the past two years. He is particularly keen to limit the company’s fleet to the current 189 planes for the next four years. This is something that Stelios wants to do even if that means renegotiating a contract with Airbus. Also, Sir Stelios, is keen for the company to start paying dividends.

For people that do not know, Sir Stelios’s family controls a whopping 38 percent of easyJet shares. He just recently resigned from the board of directors in May, following the departure of chairman Sir Colin Chandler and finance director Jeff Carr.

The former Guardian Media Group chief executive, Carolyn McCall, took over at the airline last week. McCall is believed to want a review of the 7.5 percent growth target, which was approved by the board of directors in June of 2009. She is also expected to argue that the fragility of the UK’s recovery makes the target unrealistic. A lot of this is due to expected public spending cuts and the high price of oil.

This research goes on to indicate that these UK travelers are losing about £28 million a year due to poorer exchange rates and commission charges that are applied at airports. Thus, the research warns that 1.2 million tourists traveling to the euro zone this summer are being left out of pocket despite sterling reaching a 20-month high against the euro.

This study, which was actually done by the Post Office, analyzed exchanged rates and commission charges that applied to a £286 transaction. The reason why this number was chosen as the number to do the research on is because that is the same amount of money that the average British holidaymaker purchases.

The head of travel money at the Post Office, Sarah Munro, said that they compared rates to five UK airports with those available at the Post Office branches. They found that tourists buying at the airport would get far fewer euros for their pounds. She went on to say that, in fact, families changing £286 into euros at the airport face losing about £16. That is enough to buy a round of drinks and eight ice creams in Portugal.

Right now the pound has rallied by almost 10 percent against the euro ever since it sunk to a 2010 low in March. It is now worth four percent more than a year ago.