Canadian based Zoom Airlines has announced a couple of new routes to the US from London Gatwick. It has added direct routes to San Diego in California and Fort Lauderdale in Florida and the service is estimated to start as early as May this year.

Currently, Zoom flies to multiple destinations in US and Canada, New York, Toronto and Montreal to name a few.

The direct route to San Diego starts in May this year and will fly twice weekly from Gatwick, and the direct route to Fort Lauderdale will start in June this year and will fly twice weekly from Gatwick.

The flights to San Diego will run on Monday and Friday while the Fort Lauderdale flights will run on Sunday and Thursday.

The prices for these routes are out as well. The direct flight to San Diego costs £449 inclusive of all taxes and the Fort Lauderdale route costs £399 inclusive of taxes.

African Safari Airways (ASA) is all set to resume its charter services between UK and Kenya. The charter flights have restarted as of this week and flies once a week.

ASA had stopped all its charter flights since the outbreak of post-election violence in Kenya earlier this year. The stoppage in services had badly affected the tourism sector in the country. The resumption of services is planned to run until the 26th of April and will fly on Saturdays.

The charter flight will run between London Gatwick and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport. It will run on Airbus A 310 and can carry 233 passengers one way.

ASA will run similar charter services from other European cities like Vienna, Basel, and Frankfurt.

TUI Travel UK has openly criticized airliners for not revealing the carbon emissions caused by each of their planes. The holiday giant plans to label eco-friendly airliners and publish the amount of emission caused by each plane, and this should act as an indicator for consumers to choose an airline based on ideology.

The company lauded the government for introducing air passenger duty (APD) for each flight but was unhappy that the duty would be introduced only in the year 2009. Also, the company wants to levy taxes based on the amount of carbon emissions caused by each plane. So, in essence, cleaner planes should pay minimum APD and planes that emit more carbon should pay more tax.

There is a call to publicly notify consumers on the amount of carbon emitted by each plane. If this practice is followed, then consumers can voluntarily choose planes that emit less carbon. It has been analysed that leisure planes produce less carbon compared to low fare and regular scheduled planes.

While the public outcry is against the airliners, a pro-aviation body, Flying Matters completely disagrees with the accusation. Their point of view is that aviation causes 2% emission globally.

Meanwhile, UK aviation has committed to cutting down carbon emissions by 50% by 2020.

Ryanair’s marketing team seems to be getting the airliner on an untested route and has invited unwanted trouble. Last time, there was controversy over fare prices published on lastminute.com and this time it’s the poster schoolgirl posing erotically for the airliner.

The picture shown above appeared on the company website and three major newspapers last month. The picture shows a schoolgirl wearing skimpy clothes with a headline that read – “Hottest Back to School Fares”. Obviously, the impression created by the model clothed as a schoolgirl was naughty in nature.

"We considered that her appearance and pose, in conjunction with the heading `hottest,' appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behavior and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence," the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated in its ruling.

Ryanair is second time lucky as the warning is verbal and no actions are taken against the Scottish carrier. If the marketing strategy remains the same, ASA will have to hand over penalties and review all ads before they get published.

Problems are not over yet for Ryanair over its ads; this time from the French President, Nicholas Sarkozy. The airliner had published an ad featuring Sarkozy with his then-girlfriend Carla Bruni without seeking prior permission.

My advice to Ryainair: Change the marketing strategy and the team.

Ryanair’s marketing team seems to be getting the airliner on an untested route and has invited unwanted trouble. Last time, there was controversy over fare prices published on lastminute.com and this time it’s the poster schoolgirl posing erotically for the airliner.

The picture shown above appeared on the company website and three major newspapers last month. The picture shows a schoolgirl wearing skimpy clothes with a headline that read – “Hottest Back to School Fares”. Obviously, the impression created by the model clothed as a schoolgirl was naughty in nature.

"We considered that her appearance and pose, in conjunction with the heading `hottest,' appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behavior and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence," the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated in its ruling.

Ryanair is second time lucky as the warning is verbal and no actions are taken against the Scottish carrier. If the marketing strategy remains the same, ASA will have to hand over penalties and review all ads before they get published.

Problems are not over yet for Ryanair over its ads; this time from the French President, Nicholas Sarkozy. The airliner had published an ad featuring Sarkozy with his then-girlfriend Carla Bruni without seeking prior permission.

My advice to Ryainair: Change the marketing strategy and the team.