Mobile phone service suspended on board of Ryanair

Mobile phone service has been suspended on board of Ryanair’s aircrafts. OnAir, the service provider, has decided to cancel the contract after a trial period of 13 months. Ryanair had expressed to the company the intention to extend the OnAir service to the entire fleet, but at the moment OnAir is not inclined to commit itself in this expansion, and exercised the right to terminate the contract at the end of the probationary period of 13 months. The carrier still intends to invite other providers of mobile services to take part at the call for tender in order to restore the service.

Transport - Jamaica, yes to airline surcharge

In order to help the state’s coffer but also the companies, Jamaica has said yes to a tax on airline tickets. It consists in supplementary $8 on round trip flights, and it is established by the Government of the Caribbean island to deal with budget problems. The fee will be levied by the airlines through the ticket but then will be turned to the Exchequer. The revenue should also lead, in the intentions of the Government of Jamaica, to remove part of the taxes owed by carriers to the State for airport operations, so to help airlines in future crises and allow a reduction of tariffs (thereby offsetting price increases due to the tax on pax).

Source: Il Sole 24 ore

Transportation - British Airways, ongoing strike

Homever, the company estimates that will be able to ensure the flight to 75% of the booked seats. The new strike organized by the crew of British Airways, that started Saturday and will last until tomorrow included, is ongoing.
The company said it still plans to assure the flight to more than 75% of passengers booked, in practice 180 thousand to 240 thousand. The 18% of passengers, in each case, were transferred to flights of other carriers.

Source: Il Sole 24 ore

Paris à bon marché

The French capital has always been the pagan temple of shopping. But my wallet is suffering. Unless you follow some simple tips and tricks.
A trip to Paris can mean many things: a full immersion splendid monuments and museums (although soon to the Louvre will spread the "perfume" of MacDonald's hamburgers), walking along the streets or in parks, excursions to discover the diverse neighborhoods, romantic dinners in the bistro or in luxurious restaurant, boat trips on the Seine. But there is an event that rarely travelers miss the one with shopping in world capital of good taste and chic.

Read all

A Social Network for unusual trip

There are hundreds if not thousands of social networks dedicated to travel and travellers. They are virtual meeting places where people can share experiences, photos, tips, reviews of cities, hotels and restaurants.
But there are also people that are not seeking for an ideal vacation, who do not want to spend their two weeks of holiday in a five stars hotel, lying under the sun on a Caribbean beach in front of a crystal sea.
When some people think about a trip don’t get satisfied by the things that everyone else usually likes or wants.
Well, for all these people there is an appropriate social network: Atlas Obscura.
To explain what it is I directly report the words of presentation found in the website: “The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, strange and out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist.”
Atlas Obscura is therefore a guide to all the unusual and mysterious places on earth. It is produced entirely by users and divided into geographical areas and categories.
If this summer you do not have a clue about where to spend your vacation, what waiting for? Add another social network to those of your list.

Malpensa is ready to welcome Frecciarossa

For the first time, yesterday, the high-speed train arrived at Malpensa. It was a "test" trip to prove the "commercial relations" which will start this year in some months. From June, in fact, every day a Frecciarossa will run the Florence-Bologna-Milan-Malpensa airport line (round trip), utilizing the line on which currently travels the Malpensa Express. All this has been achieved thanks to the opening of the tunnel of Castellanza which has reduced to 28 minutes the Malpensa Express running time. This summer will be much easier to reach the airport in Milan, a big advantage for everyone.

High-speed Beijing-Shanghai quote in Stock exchange.

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is ready to go on the stock exchange. The group builder of the high speed railroad Beijing-Shanghai, whose majority shareholder is the Chinese Ministry of Railways, will conclude the operation, that will be between 30 and 50 billion yuan (between 3.23 and 5.39 billion euros), by the end of the year. Works on the 1300 kilometres of line between the two metropolises will instead be completed by 2012.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore

A new way to experience the resort.

There are many ways to travel without spending exorbitant amounts. Just being a little more careful, perhaps setting to organize the holiday and having a slight spirit of adaptation.
The latest trend with regard to this subject comes from America and has become fashionable thanks to the famous film by Nancy Myers “The Holiday” with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet: it is the "Home Exchange", an alternative holiday do-it-yourself.
In practice, instead of booking a hotel or rent an apartment, we will make contact, through specialized sites, with other people interested in this type of holiday and we will agree to exchange the houses. You just have to put online some photos of your home and pay a small fee. After that, you don’t need to do nothing more that look for the solution that convinces us the most.
Travelling this way you can not only save up to 60%, but you will discover new places and you will get the chance to live them as a local.
Obviously education and respect for other people’s things is the first condition required, also because you must always remember that what happens to the houses of others, could potentially happen to yours.

Morocco: high-speed by solar power

The 350 kilometres that ran from Tangier to Casablanca will be cover by the first high-speed rail line in an African country by 2014.
Works are planned to begin next June and will be financed by France and European Union, besides by Morocco.
Works have been entrusted to the French transport industry Alstom. The company have committed itself to build power generation plants up on the Moroccan territory, in order to use the energy so produced for the rail network. Some of these plants will be made of solar panels.
The new Moroccan railway is going to be the first clean energy train track.

Trenitalia announces broadband on Frecciarossa.

In few months, even on the trains, we will be able to turn our laptops on and connect to Internet for free, using a WiFi connection. Italian State Railways and Telecom Italy have announced the agreement, reached a few days ago, to provide access to the web on the convoys of the transport company.
The change concerns only the high speed routes and falls within the general plan of restructuring rates.
It will eliminate the distinction between "old" first and second class: seats and fittings will be equal in all the carriages. Differences will concern the on board services and the chance to use cell phones and surf the web which will be just a few of the strong points.
Obviously criticisms from consumer groups haven’t lacked. They accuse the company of worrying about a means of transporting accessed only by a small minority of Italians, while trains carrying commuters have been left in a situation of degradation that sets them apart.