Travel Business Pages » Travel Law

No more avoiding full body scanner at airports

Alan — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:21:28 +0000

Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, has recently announced that passengers travelling at airports will not be able to opt out of going through a full body scanner. She has however said that in the future the machines will not be watched by human security staff and instead images will be analysed by machines. She has recently written a statement to Parliament saying that the machines should be introduced at UK airports nationwide.

Many people have commented that the idea of having their body image scanned for analysis is unpleasant and most have said that if it was possible to opt out they would. Ms Greening has commented about this, “I know that it might be a discomfort for some people but security concerns are more important than people’s privacy in this case.

“Giving people the option to opt out would mean that the devices become effectively useless. People are able to refuse the body scanner but if they do so they will not be able to board a flight, they are going to have to accept that body scanners are a part of airport security just as much as a metal detector is. We are looking at software that will replace the need for a human operator.”

Airports will finally move forward with security In the future security checkpoints will help travellers to avoid...

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Should EU take no visa Russian Tourists?

Alan — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:48:10 +0000

President Dmitry Medvedev believes that Russians should be able to travel throughout the European Union without a Visa, which European business leaders’ claim will benefit both sides. However, Brussels is opposing the proposal.

At the moment, Russians are able to pick up a visa at Turkey’s airports allowing them easy entry, which resulted in the country receiving over two million visitors from Russia last year. On the other hand, in order to receive a European Schengen visa, Russians must fill out long foreign forms and wait over a month to receive an appointment at the embassy. When they arrive for their meeting, they must bring with them proof of hotel, salary, return travel, and many other documents.

Given the fact that there are millions of shoppers in Russia willing to go through this process to get a visa, shop owners are positive that if visa entry was simpler millions more would travel to their stores.

EU business owners are asking Brussels to rethink their stance on visa requirements in an effort to gain new customers after the financial fallout.

President Medvedev now says that he is ready to sign into a visa-free deal and warns that if Brussels does not agree it will be hard to build a strong relationship between the EU and Russia.

The EU-Russia summit was supposed to map out how to get to free-visa travel, but instead deputy of delegation for the EU, Michael Webb, warned that it may take years for such plans to be realized given there are several countries that are not willing to compromise on a variety of issues.

Top worries are that Eastern criminals will flee across the borders, and migrants will begin taking EU jobs, and the worry of racism.

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OFT looks into airline price fixing allegations

Alan — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:17:04 +0000

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently issued a statement of objections regarding the conduct of Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic airlines. The charge is that both companies may have been guilty of breaking the laws against price fixing, specifically on flights between London and Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific brought the situation to the attention of the OFT under the protection of the leniency policy, which basically says that the first company to report its participation in wrongdoing will probably suffer no penalties. The allegation is that employees of both companies shared information in order to coordinate the airlines’ pricing strategies – in other words, cartel activity. According to the allegations, this practice has been going on for years.

The intent of the OFT is to insure that companies act independently in their pricing and other commercial strategies, so that fair market trade is established and no monopoly can fix prices or standards to the detriment of smaller competitors.

A spokesperson from Virgin Atlantic said that the airline’s practices have never been contrary to consumer interests, and that they will defend themselves with vigour against any such allegation. Ali Nikpay, a senior director at OFT, said that no decision has been made at present. Both companies will be given the opportunity to respond to any findings and present their arguments before any final decision is announced.

It has been noted that in a previous case involving Cathay Pacific and British Airways,

Cathay avoided penalties under the same leniency law, with British Airways receiving a fine totalling £270m.

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