Once upon a time, in a world far far away, travelling by air was actually enjoyable. Airlines had personalised service, legroom was bountiful and they couldn’t give away enough food and drink during your flight! How things in the airline industry have changed.

For most people travelling by air now involves more stress than a bad week at the office: additional charges for baggage and checkin, fuel surcharges, rigourous security checks, queues - and that’s before you even get onboard! At least the airlines treat their paying customers well, I hear you questionably say. Wrong. If you are unfortunate enough to book with one of these airlines then you’re troubles, my good friend, may have only just begun!

So here, in all their glory, are ten airlines plagued by a litany of overbooking, delays, cancellations and failed safety inspections.

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In what one could term as a bit of oddity, a hole has emerged in the middle of the primary runway at Edinburgh Airport. This caused the runway to be closed for close for three hours yesterday.

As the officials say, the hole is a resultant of bad weather during resurfacing work. New surface gets laid on the runway post midnight and unfriendly weather has eroded certain parts of the runway which was discovered at around 1500 BST.

Eleven inbound flights were diverted to other airports. Plenty of arrivals and departures were postponed by a few hours.

A secondary runway was used momentarily to land some planes but foggy conditions deterred further arriving flights.

History will be created with the advent of the world’s largest airline, a merger making it a possibility. Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines are expected to merge under the flag of Delta. The estimated price of the deal is around 3.1 billion US dollars. Delta CEO Richard H Anderson will head the world biggest airline.

It is widely speculated that the deal was brought about to fight the intense competition in Europe and the steep recession being faced worldwide. The merger also helps the airline to tackle rising fuel costs and reduce operational costs.

Another merger is expected in the US, it is widely speculated. United Airlines and Continental Airlines could come together to counter similar hindrances to that of Delta-Northwest combine.

With the reduction of players in the airline market, the customer could be eventually hit. With less competition, prices tend to be on a higher scale and killing competition will give way to semi-monopoly. Maybe this is just the beginning and the path of the future.

Thousands and thousands of baggage went missing or delayed since the beginning of T5 and British Airways sent it to Milan to be sorted out and united with its owner. Onboard Express, the company responsible for sorting baggage has stated that around 5000 pieces of luggage have not found any claimers and BA might set them on fire if unclaimed in the next few days.

The Milan based company is sending the unclaimed luggage back to BA’s London warehouse where the airliner would eventually incinerate them.

Giovanni Tinelli, chief of OE said - “All our BA bags that are untraceable are sent back to BA and then they are destroyed in an incinerator.”

A spokesman of BA has contradicted the claims of incinerating baggage; instead he has stated that the bags would be put out for auction if the owner doesn’t claim his/her luggage in the next six months.

I just don’t seem to understand the mindset of a traveller who wouldn’t claim his baggage. Maybe he has a bad memory or doesn’t care about his luggage too much. Either way, it amazes me.

Speculations are rife that travellers would move away from airlines as the wait times are getting astonishingly large due to security and other logistical reasons. Coventry airport is set to negate the effect by offering the best (shortest) wait times.

According to an online poll conducted by Travel Counsellors, passengers have highly rated the airport for its wait times.

According to the poll, on an average, the security checks are completed within 2 minutes; and upon arrival, there is no waiting need for immigration checks.

Any poll would reflect the best and worst of the item under scrutiny. While Coventry won accolades for short wait times, Manchester Airport was found staring at the other end of the line. It was voted as the airport with the longest wait times.

On an average, Manchester Airport ate 23 minutes for security checks and further 44 minutes for passport clearance.

British Airways has postponed its transfer of long haul services to Heathrow T5 from T4 by a couple months. Originally scheduled to be moved at the end of April, it looks like the targetted date is pushed to mid June.

Terminal 5 is plagued by an assortment of problems initiated by baggage handling issues. Several flights were canceled and had thousands of passengers stranded at all corners of Heathrow.

Head of BA, Willie Walsh said - “It is only sensible to ensure that Terminal 5 is operating consistently at a high standard before the move begins.”

The non-movement to T5 from T4 has a knock-on effect on other carriers who are expected to take BA’s place in T4. The airlines scheduled to move include BMI, Air France-KLM, Delta and Continental Airlines.

Budget airliner Ryanair has announced the introduction of a new route between Glasgow Prestwick Airport and Barcelona Reus. The new route comes as a part of its expansion programme.

With the introduction of the new route to the latest Spanish destination, Ryanair runs 26 routes from Glasgow. Other routes from the Scottish capital include Cork, Stockholm, Derry and Milan.

Ryanair is pursuing an expansion programme from its various hubs including the Birmingham Airport. New destinations include Pisa, Oslo, Marseille and Shannon.

Ashley Casey, sales and marketing executive of Ryanair said - “We are delighted to launch this service from Glasgow Prestwick today to Barcelona Reus, a popular city break destination. A fantastic destination for all holidaymakers, rich in the culture of Catalonia along with years of history.”

British Airways might be under flak for a combined mismanagement at T5 with BAA, but it hopes to revamp customer satisfaction across UK by offering free wireless internet in all its lounges. This move should ideally attract business passengers who prefer to work on the move.

Offering free Wi-Fi service started on the 1st of April in its 25 lounges across UK. Lounges are located in Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Jersey. The all-new Galleries lounge complex at Heathrow’s terminal 5 which opened a fortnight ago is included in the list of free Wi-Fi zones as well.

The wireless internet service is provided through BT Openzone, a leading wireless internet provider in the UK. BA has reportedly signed a 3 year deal with the provider.

The lounges development manager BA, Emily Clark said - “An integral part of the travel experience for our premium customers is the lounges and their ability to work or relax as they choose there. For business customers, free wireless will enable them to be connected to the office, right up until they fly.”

It’s been a week of chaos at Heathrow and nothing less than a national embarrassment. Many flights were cancelled at Terminal 5 since its opening and news is spreading that all passengers would be serviced on Saturday; hopefully on time.

British Airways’ statement states that all flights will take off from T5 on Saturday. The reason for 100% service is not based on process improvement or improved efficiency of equipments and staff, but due to sheer low strength of flights on weekends.

So, the bad news is that cancellations will continue come Monday.

So far, over 300 flights stand cancelled and more to come tomorrow. Around 14,000 pieces of luggage are lying around Heathrow and they are being sent out of UK to unite bags with its owners.

A week since the opening of Terminal 5 in Heathrow, customer’s bags from British Airways is overloading different sections of the airport. The airline has sought the help of a Milan to firm to sort out baggage and courier it over to its respective owners.

It is speculated that around 19,000 bags are lying at the Heathrow airport and BA has decided to fly it to Milan through Terminal 5 to restore some pride. The Milan courier firm will sort the baggage and fly (or drive) it to its owners.

A BA representative said – “It is quicker for bags with European mainland addresses to go to Milan for sorting and onward transport than waiting for space to appear on flights leaving Heathrow.”

Around 400 volunteers working day and night at T5 to manually screen the baggage before sending it over to Milan. The delay is expected to be arising from the security front where enhanced levels of screening is consuming a big chunk of time.

BA expects around 92% of the flights to take off from T5 this Thursday which is a big improvement since the opening.