8 UPDATE


Family properties, free child places, early booking offers


LOCAL operator Travel Solutions has announced exciting new plans for their 2018 summer programme to Bulgaria, with special deals, revised flight times and free child places for early bookers, offering customers even more value for money.


Bulgaria’s largest beach resort, Sunny Beach has grown up around a breath-taking, eight kilometre-long stretch of ‘Blue Flagged’ golden sand on the Black Sea. With plenty of beach bars, shops and restaurants, the resort is also packed with loads of activities and water sports, including windsurfing, paragliding and water-skiing.


In the evenings, there is a great range of busy bars and restaurants and for those that want to party into the early hours, nightclubs are plentiful in the centre of the resort.


Travel Solutions Managing Director, Peter McMinn, stated: “Our Sunny Beach programme is selling well above expectations and for 2018 we will again be using a great range of family friendly properties, free child places for early bookers, and more flexible flights times with afternoon departures from Belfast.”


The Summer 2018 programme is on sale now.


Sydney is new destination


TURKISH Airlines has added Sydney to its list of more than 300 worldwide destinations in some 120 different countries.


Other new destinations available through Istanbul and added recently include Yervan, Armenia and Krasnodar in Russia.


Turkish flies to more destinations and countries than any other airline and is planning to continue to increase its rotations from Dublin to Istanbul. At the moment the airline operates 14 fleets weekly but this figure could go up to 17 next year.


Turkish Airlines has shown interest in beginning an Istanbul flight from Belfast International Airport, but a Belfast service is reportedly not high on its immediate priorities, although it is still a possibility.


A new Istanbul airport is opening in the coming year, called Istanbul Yeni Havalimani, or Third Airport, on the European side of the Bosphorus. The airport is planned to be the biggest in the world starting with an initial capacity of 150 million rising to more than 200 million passengers.


The current number one airport in Istanbul, Ataturk, will be closed down once the new one is operational. The new airport will be inaugurated in late 2018 with preleminary operations due to start shortly afterwards.


Currently almost 80 per cent of the new airport, which will have six runways, is completed. It will also have the world's largest terminal building. The current airport Ataturk is sited too close to the city of Istanbul and its growth has been limited because of this.


Tourist boost for The Maldives


THE Maldives has announced an 18.7 per cetn increase in UK visitor arrivals during November 2017, when compared with the same month in 2016. In total, 9,579 UK visitors travelled to the Maldives during November 2017, compared with 8,073 in Nov 2016. UK visitors represented 7.9 per cent of all visitors to the Maldives in November 2017, with a total of 94,258 UK visitors travelling to the Maldives in the first 11 months of 2017.


. To support the increasing demand for tourism in the Maldives, the country will welcome several new tourism


developments during 2018, including expansion plans at the recently rebranded Velana International Airport and the opening of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge in July 2018. There are also expansion plans of the health services in the Maldives, providing world-class medical care to both the community and the tourism industry for 2018, as well as further developments taking place at the new Youth City, providing accommodation and employment for future generations on Hulhumalé, an island adjacent to the capital city.


Andy wins Icelandair flights A veritable sea of umbrellas at Sunny Beach, Bulgaria


Almost 30m fly out of Dublin Airport


A


RECORD-breaking 29.6 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport last year. A significant increase in long-haul traffic, and a robust performance from continental European routes, were the main elements of a six per cent increase in passenger numbers in 2017, which was the seventh consecutive year of growth at Dublin Airport. About 27.8 million passengers started or ended their journey at Dublin last year, while a further 1.8m passengers used Dublin Airport as a hub. Dublin Airport has flights to 191 destinations in 42 countries operated by 47 airlines and is now the 11th largest airport within the European Union.


Short-haul traffic increased by four per cent to 25.3 million, while long-haul passenger numbers increased by 19 per cent to 4.3 million. Dublin Airport beat its previous passenger record, which was set in 2016, by almost 1.7 million.


“Dublin Airport had another record-breaking year during 2017, with passenger numbers increasing by six per cent to just under 29.6 million,” said Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison. “Increased air connectivity boosts tourism, trade and foreign direct investment. Last year’s record performance for visitor numbers across the island of Ireland was underpinned by the growth in passenger numbers at Dublin.”


Since 2011, annual passenger numbers at Dublin Airport have increased by 58 per cent from 18.7 million to 29.6 million. The vast bulk of the growth has occurred in the past four years with passenger traffic increasing by 47 per cent between 2014 and 2017. The growth in traffic in 2017 came from a combination of 14 new services introduced during the year, and extra capacity on 39 existing routes. “We saw growth from all of our major airline customers during the year,” according to Mr Harrison. “We are focused on attracting new airlines to Dublin and also on helping our existing airlines to grow their business here.”


The European market delivered the largest growth in volume terms during 2017. Passenger traffic to and from continental Europe, which is Dublin Airport’s largest market segment, increased by seven per cent to a record 15.2 million in 2017. About 940,000 additional people took flights between Dublin and continental European destinations last year.


Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, KLM, Norwegian and Ryanair all increased capacity on existing European routes, and there were also new services to destinations such as Munich, Naples, Split, Stuttgart and Stockholm. Traffic between Dublin and British airports increased by one per cent to just under 10 million last year, which was also a new record. Transatlantic traffic was the fastest-growing segment of the market for the second year in a row. Transatlantic passenger numbers increased by 20 per cent last year to almost 3.5 million - the first time that more than three million passengers have taken transatlantic flights to and from Dublin Airport in a single year.


Belfast reader Andy Elliuott was the winner of the two flights from George Best Belfast City Airport to Iceland with Icelandair. Andy, left, is pictured receiving his flight vouchers from Northern Ireland Travel News Editor Brian Ogle


Last year Dublin Airport welcomed new transatlantic services from Aer Lingus (Miami), Delta (Boston), and Norwegian (Stewart New York and Boston Providence). There was also increased capacity on flights to and from Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto and Washington DC.


Vincent Harrison added: “We’re expecting further transatlantic growth this year with new Aer Lingus routes to Philadelphia and Seattle, a new Air Canada


service to Montreal, and expansions to some existing North American routes.”


Passenger traffic to other international destinations, including the Middle East and Africa, increased by 14 per cent to almost 850,000 last year. Qatar Airways launched a new Dublin-Doha service last June, while Etihad returned to double-daily on its Abu Dhabi service, and Ethiopian expanded its Dublin-Addis Ababa route.


This year will see Dublin Airport welcome its first direct service to Asia Pacific as Cathay Pacific launches its new Dublin-Hong Kong service in June. The number of passengers transferring at Dublin Airport increased by 35 per cent last year to a record 1.6 million. And a further 200,000 passengers transited through Dublin Airport – ie passed through Dublin but didn’t change flights - on services between the US and Africa.


Holiday survey


NEW research reveals exactly the kind of breaks that holidaymakers will be taking this year.


The research shows that almost three quarters of us (73 per cent) plan to get away at least twice in 2018, with more than one in 10 (13 per cent) hoping to take five or more breaks away this year. Also, nearly half of us (40 per cent) are in favour of hopping on long-haul flights and travelling further for a holiday of two weeks or more.


Check out TUI’s holiday hotspots for year ahead


LEFT:


TUI Family Life Avenida Suites, see story below


February 2018 Travel News


WITH Christmas almost a distant memory already it seems and the New Year upon us, leading tour operators TUI & First Choice are experiencing a busy start to the New Year.


TUI & First Choice Holidays say their products are crafted around personal expert service, tailor made experiences, and hand-picked quality hotels, all-inclusive cruising and an award-winning airline.


The ultimate aim is to enable customers to have a holiday that is designed exactly around their specific needs.


"Why not take yourself to the likes of Rhodes, Mexico or Gran Canaria for summer sunshine or check out Lake Garda – just added to the TUI summer ’18 line-up", is the advice.


Charlotte Brenner, Marketing Manager at TUI & First Choice comments: "As thoughts quickly shift to summer holidays over the festive season,


we are anticipating a brisk start to the New Year and what is deemed the traditional holiday booking period. "We are delighted to offer a wider range of TUI and First Choice exclusive properties for 2018 and we encourage Northern Ireland holidaymakers to plan and book now to secure their top choice holiday as well as avail of the early booking savings and free child offers out now".


The companies urge would be holidaymakers to check out TUI's highly recommended hot spots for 2018. These are:


Best for kids –Costa Dorada Best for foodies – Majorca Best for romance - Lake Garda Best adventure - Gran Canaria Best activity/families with teenagers – TUI Family Life


New destinations – Cyprus Best cruises – Marella Explorer Best long-haul – Mexico


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