HOTDESTINATIONS - VENEZUELA

Podwhat? Stephen Bleach gets to grips with the downloadable audio guides we could all be using soon

Packing list for your next city break: clothes, cards, passport, camera ... guidebook? No, leave it at home. Just remember your MP3 player — and make sure you’ve loaded the latest podcasts, of course.
That last sentence might sound like a foreign language, but it’s one many of us will want to learn over the next few months. Because podcasting is shaping up to be the next big travel trend.

The principle is simple. Over the internet, you subscribe to a “feed” that enables you to download a series of sound files to your computer: these are then automatically transferred to your MP3 player (the system’s name is derived from Apple’s ubiquitous iPod) and, hey presto — you can listen on the move.

There’s no doubt podcasting is still at an embryonic stage, but in the past few months, the technology has been taken up by a range of radio stations, including the BBC: according to one chart, Radio 4’s In Our Time is the most popular podcast around.

So far, so intriguing, but what’s it got to do with travel? Well, the technology is also perfectly suited to supplying spoken-word travel guides to be listened to at the destination. While they could never be as comprehensive as a guidebook, they’re a lot lighter, easier to use, more personal — and they don’t cost anything.

You can wander the streets with your earphones in, and when you want some local knowledge on, say, choosing a restaurant, or interpreting the public sculptures, you scroll to the relevant podcast, just like choosing a song on your MP3, and listen in.

And it’s already happening. Virgin Atlantic has published four podcast guides to New York on its website (http://virginatlantic.loudish.com), with six minute segments on restaurants, shopping, essentials for first-timers and off-the-beaten-track sights and activities. The company is planning to produce podcast guides to all its 26 destinations over the coming year: Havana is expected to be available within days, with Shanghai and Las Vegas following soon.

“We’ve had 3,000 downloads so far,” says the company’s Breda Bubear. “It’s a very new technology, but people are obviously catching on fast.

“One beauty of the system is that we can update the infor- mation much more frequently than a guidebook would. It’s great for cities, where things change so fast.”

But are the guides any good? After all, there’s no point having a native New Yorker talking you around their city if they’re talking garbage.

Happily, Virgin’s guides are lively and informative. The choices in the top-10 restaurant segment are bound to be contentious, but it’s a good, wide selection, from a Chinatown noodle bar to Thomas Keller’s Per Se. The offbeat New York guide is fun too, with spots on hip cocktail bars and diamond-district restaurants. The presenter is a touch arrogant, but, hey — as he constantly reminds us, this is Noo Yoik.

In addition to Virgin’s offering, there are hundreds of travel- related podcasts out there: the problem is finding the good ones. Podcasts are cheap and easy to make, and as a result, thousands of individuals and groups have done just that, with hugely varying results. Some are unwittingly comical, such as the lugubrious Finn giving his thoughts on local culture from his Helsinki bedroom.

HOW CAN I LISTEN IN?

All you need to download podcasts is a reasonably up-to-date computer and a good internet connection — broadband is recommended. If you want to take full advantage and hear them on the move, you’ll also need an MP3 player, such as an iPod.

Step 1: Get a podcatcher

First, download the software package, or “podcatcher” as it’s known, in order to receive podcast files. There are a number of free podcatchers available: try www.ipodder.com or www.dopplerradio.net; for iPod users, the latest version of iTunes, from www.itunes.com, has a podcatcher built in. Thankfully, all these podcatchers also have idiots’ guides on how to use the technology.

Step 2: Find your podcasts

Most podcatcher sites have links to a number of “feeds” from a range of podcasters, so you can sample a bit of what’s out there straightaway. To find more, though, look on www.digitalpodcast.com and www.podcast.net, both of which have a range of travel-related shows — or just type “travel podcasts” into your web search engine.

While many of the podcasts are the work of enthusiastic amateurs, others are more professional and information-packed. Try Las Vegas Insider (www.sincity-insider.com), the Definitive London Podcast (www.podcast.net/show/81419) and the New York Minute Show (www.podcastnyc.net).

Step 3: Listen in

You can now play the podcast directly through your computer’s speakers, or to listen as you travel, use your normal music software to transfer the sound file to your MP3 player.

But chatterboxes who want to save money on calls to the UK may be better off sticking to the 'premium rate satellite phones' in their cabin

P&O claims that cruise passengers who once had to rely on satellite phones to call the UK can now save money by using their mobile phones, but it depends on the length of the call.

The development follows investment by P&O Cruises in new technology, which allows its passengers to connect to a global mobile phone network called GSM. The GSM network is available on Oceana, Arcadia, Aurora and Oriana (but not Artemis) and is activated once the cruise ship is 12 nautical miles from the shore. At this point mobile phones fail to connect to a land-based network and switch to the GSM one, although charges for the calls will still appear on the passenger's regular mobile phone bill.

Rates for receiving calls, making calls and sending text messages vary across the networks from around £1.29 per minute to £1.68, with the average at about £1.40 to make and receive calls, and an average 50 pence to send a text.

Previously the only way to phone home from the middle of the Atlantic was to use the satellite phones provided in each cabin, which cost £5 for up to five minutes, £8 for up to 10 minutes and £12 for up to 15 minutes.

Based on a mobile phone charge of £1.40 per minute to make or receive mobile phone calls, passengers making an international call for less than three and a half minutes will save money by using a mobile phone, but for calls of up to five minutes, the fixed satellite phone charge of £5 makes it more affordable.

P&O claims that we're witnessing "the end of premium satellite call charge at sea", but passengers who chat at length on their mobile phones may well be in for a shock when they get home and receive their bill.

By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

GERMANY’S biggest airline is blocking a British plan to make passengers pay for the environmental damage caused by their flights.

Lufthansa has rejected proposals put forward by British Airways for an emissions-trading scheme, under which airlines would buy permits to cover their production of carbon dioxide.

Britain strongly supports the scheme and, with the backing of France and the Scandinavian countries, hopes to introduce it within Europe by 2008.

The scheme would add up to £6 to the cost of an airline ticket, depending on the length of the flight and the market price of permits. The European Commission is studying the idea and is expected to produce firm proposals in September.

But Lufthansa is lobbying heavily against the scheme in Brussels and is trying to persuade politicians from Germany and other countries to vote against it. The airline has infuriated BA by issuing statements claiming that the scheme could cost airlines more than £1 billion a year and burden them with an “unacceptable cost risk”.

Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the chief executive of Lufthansa, said that climate change was a global issue and that it would be better to wait for a worldwide scheme covering all airlines rather than focusing on a solution within Europe.

He told The Times: “We want to understand the consequences before we go for emissions trading. It would be better to work on improving technology to reduce emissions as this will help everybody.”

But BA believes that it is important to act now on aviation emissions because the industry is fast becoming the scapegoat of environmental groups across Europe. Aviation is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases, and flights within Europe are due to double by 2020.

Andrew Sentance, the head of environmental affairs at BA, said that Lufthansa had exaggerated the costs. While he was unable to say how much the scheme would cost airlines, he insisted that it would be affordable and far cheaper than the alternative of a flat-rate tax on flights.

Dr Sentance said: “We accept that there are risks to airlines, but we can work to manage those risks. It is better to co-operate with the policymakers devising the scheme. That way we can influence the outcome.”

Roger Wiltshire, the secretary-general of the British Air Transport Association, which represents 13 airlines, including Virgin, bmi and BA, said that Lufthansa could undermine the whole initiative.

If airlines failed to co-operate with emissions trading, he said, the European Commission could seek to impose a tax on flights that would leading to a steeper rise in ticket prices.

Jeff Gazzard, the co-ordinator of the GreenSkies Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, said: “Lufthansa are pretty determined not to pay one euro towards the climate damage their flights cause and are going all out to wreck the Commission’s proposals.”

£120 to take a second suitcase to Australia sounds steep but you could actually be better off under BA's new strict baggage policy

(Tim Ockenden/PA)

BA has simplified its baggage policy by limiting economy class passengers to checking in a single bag weighing no more than 23kg. The new strict weight limit and flat rate fee to carry extra bags will leave domestic passengers worse off but will benefit long haul passengers who want to travel with a lot of luggage.

For passengers travelling after October 11, the airline will no longer check in any bag that weighs more than 23kg. Previously passengers on domestic flights could take bags of up to 32kg, but now passengers in any class, on any flight must take items out of their luggage if it weighs even a few kilos over 23kg.

For business and first class passengers this is less of an issue because they can check-in two pieces of luggage weighing up to 23kg - both on short and long haul flights.

If items have to be removed from a checked piece of luggage, they can be transferred to hand luggage, which will from July 5 be in line with the baggage policy of easyJet, allowing passengers to carry bags of unlimited weight onto the aircraft. The only criteria is that a passenger can lift the bag into the overhead locker, and that the bag will fit in the locker, so it needs to be within the dimensions, 56x45x25cm, slightly larger than easyJet's 55x40x20cm. In addition to this bag a laptop-sized bag or handbag can also be taken. The limit is the same for all passengers, regardless of the class they travel in.

If excess items cannot be unloaded from a check-in bag into the carry on, then a second bag must be checked in, which incurs a set fee per bag. This fee is £30 per bag for UK domestic flights, £60 per bag for short haul flights and £120 per bag for long haul flights. It is hard to say whether travellers will be better off with these new fees, because previously the excess baggage charges were made per kilo and varied according to route.

For example, on Frankfurt flights, excess baggage was charged at £4.96 per kilo, amounting to over £100 on a 23kg bag, which would now cost £30, likewise the charge was £34 per kilo to Singapore - a weighty £782 for a 23kg bag versus the new charge of £120. Obviously, the lighter the second bag, the less the cost savings gained from the new flat rate fee.

The excess baggage fee can be paid at the airport, or from July 12, passengers can pay the fee in advance, and save 20 per cent using BA's "manage my booking" facility online.

In addition to the new policies above, passengers can continue to check in one piece of sporting equipment free of charge, such as golf clubs or skis, and from October 11 families travelling with infants can carry 23kg for each infant (up from the current 10kg) plus a pushcair and a second piece of carry-on luggage.

Check-in is set to be simplified as paper tickets give way entirely to electronic tickets, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The airline trade organisation said yesterday that almost half of the tickets currently issued to travellers are electronic, or e-tickets, and that they would entirely replace paper tickets by 2007.

The electronic system eliminates problems that the traveller might experience if they lose a paper ticket.

Furthermore, it allows for extra services such as online check-in, a facility that has been rapidly growing in popularity across UK airlines in recent months and which is used by bmibaby, Ryanair and others.

Now the IATA has indicated that it will penalise member airlines that do not introduce e-tickets by the end of 2007. Phasing out paper tickets could save the airline industry more than $3 billion a year, because printing tickets is so much more expensive.

IATA chairman Robert Milton said: "The real challenge is to accelerate the pace of implementation to meet the targets of 70 per cent use in 2006 and 100 per cent by the end of 2007."

British Airways, under the banner of its new low-cost arm BA Connect, is to begin offering flights from Nottingham East Midlands Airport.

The airline has said it will start flying from the airport to Tenerife, with three flights a week on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday beginning on October 31.

At the same time BA Connect also said it would begin a link between Bristol Airport and Tenerife; starting on October 3 flights will also depart Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

The flights will be operated by BA’s franchise partner GB Airways, whose managing director Kevin Hatton said: “Tenerife is literally a new direction for BA Connect’s services in the Midlands and South West, which have traditionally been focused on business and short break destinations.

“We felt it appropriate to begin operating this sunshine route from these airports, both of which have excellent catchment areas and strong markets for leisure traffic.”

Ticket prices for flights from Nottingham East Midlands and Bristol start at £49 one-way if booked before July 31, after this date one-way tickets will rise to £69 from Nottingham and £59 from Bristol International Airport.

The BA Connect flights are the only scheduled service to Tenerife from both airports and passengers will have a choice of two service levels

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport commissioned a long-awaited fifth runway May 16 with two ceremonial flights and will open it fully for commercial operations May 27 -- an addition it expects will substantially reduce delays at the world’s busiest airport and justify the $1.3 billion cost.

Delta, the airport’s largest carrier with more than 40% of its customers flying to, from or through the airport, said it expects the runway to immediately improve the airports’ arrival and departure rates by 25% to 35%. Delta also expects the additional capacity to significantly reduce delays for its customers using the airport during severe weather and peak travel periods.

The airport had an on-time arrival rate of 76.5% and an on-time departure rate of 77.6% in March, according to the most recently released Dept. of Transportation statistics.

AirTran is the airport’s second largest carrier.

Caribbean Star Airlines will launch a daily nonstop roundtrip flight between Trinidad and Curacao on July 13, bringing to 20 the number of Caribbean destinations served by Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun, its sister airline.

Flight 868 will depart Trinidad at 10:30 a.m. with a 12:30 p.m. arrival in Curacao. On the return leg, flight 869 departs Curacao at 1:30 p.m. and arrives in Trinidad at 3:30 p.m.

William “Skip” Barnett, president and CEO of both carriers, hinted at further expansion beyond Trinidad when he said that “we see the potential for broadening our presence in Trinidad in the near future to serve a larger portion of the southern Caribbean and perhaps beyond.”

JetBlue increases capacity at Kennedy Airport (06/02/2006)

JetBlue opened seven new gates at New York’s Kennedy Airport June 1, which, combined with its existing 14 gates there, will give it enough additional space to operate up to 185 daily flights at its home base, the airline said.

JetBlue currently operates about 125 daily flights at Kennedy.

The airline said the additional capacity will help it grow into its new home at Terminal 5 once its construction is complete in 2009. The new terminal will offer 26 gates capable of supporting 250 daily flights.

IATA, the global airline industry body, said today that airlines will lose $3 billion in 2006, just slightly below the outturn for 2005.

"We are starting to see some light at the end of a five year tunnel—some cautious optimism" said Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association at the opening of the World Air Transport Summit and IATA Annual General Meeting in Paris.

AIR FRANCE-KLM: EUROPE's LARGEST AIRLINE

Bisignani noted tremendous progress in airlines since crisis struck the industry in 2001. "Labour productivity improved 33%. Sales and distribution costs dropped 10% and non-fuel unit costs reduced 13%," said Bisignani.

"Oil remains the wild card. The break-even fuel price increased from US$14 per barrel to US$50 since 2001. But in just one year, the fuel bill ballooned US$21 billion and is expected to top US$112 billion this year," said Bisgnani.

"While the fuel price continues to race ahead of efficiency gains, it is truly amazing that profitability has not deteriorated from last year. Losses for 2006 will be US$3 billion, slightly less than the US$3.2 billion recorded for last year," said Bisignani.

"We must remember that the strong revenue environment—10% annual growth over the last three years—is also fragile. A weaker global economy could change our prospects dramatically. Change is more important than ever," said Bisignani