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British Airways to increase fuel surcharges
David Millward, UK Telegraph
BA Announces increased fuel surcharges for second successive month.
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Passengers on long-haul flights over nine hours will face the biggest ever fuel surcharge increase in British Airways history, with £60 being added to the cost of a return ticket.
This will bring the overall surcharge on a round trip to destinations such as Los Angeles up to £218.
The increases will add £6 to the cost of a short-haul return flight, taking the total to £32, while passengers on longer flights, such as those to New York, will see the cost of a return trip rise by £30 with a new surcharge of £156.
(29 May 2008)
Goodbye cheap flights, welcome back real travel…
Mark Smith, Guardian
Last week, British Airways’ Willie Walsh suggested that rising fuel costs could signal the end of the decade-long cheap flights bonanza. Personally, this comes as no great surprise – the emails I receive via my website seat61.com suggest that we’re already falling out of love with flying. It’s not as cheap as it once was, as budget carriers have added baggage fees and booking fees to shore up their profits. Any glamour associated with flying is long gone, thanks to security hassles, two-hour check-ins and frequent delays. And last but not least, the environmental impact of short haul flights is prompting many of us to think before we fly.
So will we be forced to swap Geneva or Grenoble for Bognor or Blackpool? Far from it. Europe’s high-speed train operators now offer “budget” fares of their own, and the less stressful, more environmentally sound overland option is often a more practical alternative than the average short-haul flier imagines
(28 May 2008)
Plug-In Hybrids Power the Grid (video and audio)
Peak Moment via Global Public Media
Professor Andy Frank, Director of the UC Davis Hybrid Vehicle Research Center, has a plan to power more than just our cars. In his vision, plug-in hybrid vehicles can be used as mobile batteries, contributing solar power to the grid, and helping to “load balance” the demand. Roofs built over our parking lots contain solar panels that charge the cars’ batteries in daytime. At home, the same batteries can help power a house, or feed energy back to the grid. The result: fewer power plants. (www.team-fate.net)
(24 April 2008)
How Toyota Plans to Survive $4–Make That $5–Gas
Rick Newman, US News & World Report via Yahoo!News
… Toyota isn’t betting that Americans will give up horsepower or comfort en masse. True, the Prius, designed for mileage rather than performance, has been a huge hit, with U.S. sales of 181,000 in 2007. Yet it appeals to a committed subset of green-minded drivers. While more buyers will clearly trade down, Toyota thinks many others will make different adjustments. Families, for instance, could make more efficient use of the two or three vehicles in the household fleet, with a smaller car dedicated to everyday errands and a bigger “freedom car” that transports the gang to the soccer field or the beach on weekends.
The energy bill passed last year adds other demands, forcing automakers to raise the gas mileage of their cars 25 percent by 2015. Toyota is closer to those targets than most of its competitors, and nearly a decade of experience with hybrids provides a timely advantage. Toyota plans to triple its hybrid sales in the United States, to 700,000 or more within five years. That will include a redesigned Prius and a new Lexus hybrid, both expected next year.
As hybrids become mainstream, however, consumer attitudes toward them are changing. More people are buying hybrids–but not to be environmental trendsetters.
(28 May 2008)
