Futura, once owned by Aer Lingus and at the time headed by the now CEO of BA, Willie Walsh, has suspended flights for 24 hours and ferried its aircraft back to base in Palma, Majorca, It may not survive. This will be another tragedy as the independent airline sector suffers the knock-on effect of the high fuel prices during summer 2008. Futura are now owned mainly by the Spanish managment team, who we know personally and for whom we have tremendous respect. This is not the news we want for a Monday morning and even though it does not affect any of our passengers  (Futura wasn’t on our list of carriers) we feel for those passengers and employees who are subject to uncertain futures and financial loss. 

Alternative Airlines has launched a new campaign to encourage the independent traveller to visit Colombia.

In a new destination feature on the expanding AlternativeAirlines.com web site, flights to Colombia and flights within Colombia are offered on a large variety of carriers ( http://www.AlternativeAirlines.com/FlightsToColombia ).

Prices start at just £460.30 including prepaid taxes and surcharges, for return flights from London Heathrow to Bogota, with Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines, via Miami. UK travellers wishing to avoid Miami (or Heathrow) can find a variety of options via Madrid with Iberia and Air Comet of Spain or Avianca of Colombia, or even via Paris with Air France. With domestic connections to all the main Colombian provincial cities on Avianca and Aero Republica, as well as Copa Airlines of Panama, all bookable through the website, Alternative Airlines covers all of the flight requirements of passengers wanting to visit and fully explore this fascinating and beautiful country.

Alternative Airlines Managing Director, John Pope, said "This destination feature is a very personal choice I have visited Colombia many times and am under the spell of the place and the people. As Colombia’s reputation for providing a wonderful holiday experience improves, more and more people are chosing to fly there. So we are working with all the best airlines to provide the greatest access to cheap flights."

Currently there are no direct services from London to Colombia with most passengers connecting either through Madrid or Miami, but during 2008, the national carrier, Avianca was granted traffic rights by the Colombian Government to start direct services from Bogota to London. Whilst no details have yet been announced, it is expected that this new service will commence in 2009, once Avianca has received delivery of the first of its new long-haul A350-800 aircraft, direct from Airbus.

Most international flights operate into the Colombia’s capital city, Bogota, but many tourists head for the enchanting city of Cartegna de Indias and the holiday island of San Andres. Tourism is Colombia’s third largest industry after oil and coal, with over 2.2 million tourists visiting the country during 2007. The tourist infrastructure is being upgraded with 2,200 extra hotel beds added last year as w...

This blog was going to be about the rise of Alternative Airlines but it is impossible to ignore what is happening on a daily basis in the airline industry and how it affects our passengers. XL Airways which is part of the third largest UK holiday group, is the latest airline to be reported in the Press as having Financial difficulties. Last week XL announced that they were cancelling their entire long haul charter preogramme to the Caribbean and today that has been followed by news that their bankers and their major shareholders are considering their options this weekend.  My expressed wish that Zoom would survive seemed to herald their immediate demise, so in this case I will not be so explicit, but for the sake of the many holiday makers booked over the next twelve months on this professionally run airline, as well as its dedicated management team, let’s hope that the Icelandic owners of XL have more success than the Canadian based owners of Zoom and another airline doesn’t become a casuality of the "perfect storm" conditions of high fuel prices, low access to credit, falling Sterling exchange rates against the dollar and tightening consumer spending. Tomorrow is a new month and September, I hope, will be a month of good news and I can back to reporting what good things we are doing rather than what airlines are in trouble !