Pierre Jeanniot (DG of IATA) stated on 16 November 1999 "There is no question that the air transport industry will continue to liberalise. Our main concern is that liberalisation proceeds in a manner which produces the best balance of benefits to consumers, airlines and the public interest". IATA has issued ...

IATA Director General presented the Eagle Award to Airservices Australia. The award is made annually to airports and air navigation services which provide good value and good services to airlines. Last year's recipients were the Irish Aviation authority for air navigation services and the British Airports Authority for the airport ...

The three judges that will hear the Lockerbie Trial, according to Scots Law, in the Netherlands have been named as Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean. Lord Abernethy will also participate and will act as a substitute if necessary. There will be a preliminary hearing of the case at the High ...

13 people were killed and nearly 50 injured after a bomb exploded on the Pooja Express which had left Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital, bound for Delhi. the train was carrying Hindu pilgrims who had been visiting the Vaishno Devi Temple near Jammu. Indian police officials were also on board.

The search for the voice cockpit recorder continues. The plane crashed into the Atlantic soon after taking off from JFK Airport in New York on October 31. All 217 passengers and crew were killed. The US National Transportation Safety Board has made a preliminary report on the flight data recorder. ...

The Air Agreement between the Philippines and Taiwan collapsed in July when the Philippines accused Taiwanese carriers of failing to stick to the agreed 3000 passengers per week. Philippines Airlines (PAL) has announced that it is cancelling scheduled flights to and from Taiwan on Friday 1 October unless agreement is ...

The EU Commission rejected the proposed takeover because it would leave the three largest tour operators in the UK with 80% share of the package holiday market (Airtours, Thomson and Thomas Cook). These companies are also vertically integrated and the Commission believed that the proposed merger would restrict competition in ...

The Vatican has created a new website to provide advice for the estimated 30 million pilgrims expected to visit the Holy See in 2000. The site is available in Italian, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Latin and Polish. Russian, Chinese and Arabic are expected to be added. It has also ...

The Devolution of power in the UK means that new bodies are now responsible for travel and tourism matters. The UK Parliament has power to make laws governing all matters relating to travel and tourism in England and Wales. It also enacts legislation on the British Tourist Authority, the English ...

The legendary singer, Diana Ross was arrested at Heathrow Airport and detained for 5 hours after an alleged assault on a female security officer. The officer claimed that Miss Ross assaulted her after she had carried out a routine security check at the airport. Miss Ross objected to the intrusive ...

The South African Transport Ministry has announced new measures to combat the country's high road deaths rate. 26 British tourists were killed on Monday 27 September 1999 when the tour bus on which they were travelling left the road and tumbled down a mountainside. Another 9 people travelling on the ...

235 Welsh passengers walked free when their holiday aircraft from Cardiff broke into three pieces as it lurched off the runway at Gerona Airport on Tuesday 14 September 1999. One 83 year old passenger died three days later at his hotel. The Gerona Action Group has been established by a ...

The English Tourism Council, the RACT and AA have collaborated to produce a new rating system for hotels in England. There is no statutory system currently in operation in the UK but the new system is expected to replace the plethora of grades and symbols that currently exist and cause ...

Amendments have been made to a proposed EU Directive on E-Commerce which aims to establish a coherent legal framework for e-commerce within the single market. The amendments clarify some of the definitions used and clarifies the link between this Directive and existing Directives on Data Protection. It also clarifies when ...

In August, the Turkish government approved new arbitration regulations which amend existing regulations and which provide for international arbitration to take place for the first time. The new regulations are expected to come into force in October.

Tourism continued to boom in 1998. Receipts from tourism in the EU grew by 6.5% to 155.6 bn (£101.9 bn / $163.04 bn) in 1998. France and Spain remain the most popular destinations in the EU but Greece had the biggest increse in travel (37.2%) and expenditure (33.4%).

EU Commissioner Mario Monti welcomed the abolition of duty-free sales as excellent news for EU taxpayers. This ends the massive subsidies of Euro 2 bn (£1.3 bn / $2.08 bn) which were paid to air and sea travel in the EU. [IP/99/432)

The new Commission President, Romano Prodi, announced his nominations for the new Commission in July. These include: Loyola de Palacio (Spain) - Transport and Energy; David Byrne (Ireland) - Health and Consumer Protection; Mario Monti (Italy) - Competition; and Antonio Vitorino (Portugal) - Justice and Home Affairs.

The Japanese parliament has approved a new law to prohibit the sexual exploitation of children. It prohibits commercial sexual relations with persons under 18 years of age and prevents Japanese tour operators from organising sex tours abroad. The unanimous vote of the parliament on 18 May addresses the criticism which ...

Swissair and Boeing have offered compensation to relatives of the 229 people who died after their flight was lost off the coast of Nova Scotia (Canada) in September 1998. The offer was made in a pre-trial meeting in a Philadelphia federal court. As part of the deal, the relatives would ...

Libya provided FF 200m ($31m/£50m) to compensate families of those killed in the bombing of a UTA DC-10 over Niger on a flight from Brazzaville (Congo) to Paris on 19 September 1989. 170 people were killed. A Paris court sentence 6 Libyans in absentia in March for placing the bomb ...

Philip Williams from Edinburgh has been charged with having sex or perfomring sexual acts with under age children whilst working as a school teacher in Cambodia. The case has been raised under a law introduced in 1992 which enables the Scots courts to hear cases of child sex abuse committed ...

The trial of the two men accused of the Lockerbie bombing is now scheduled to take place on 4 February 2000. Permission has been given to extend the 110 day rule whereby the accused must be brought before a Scottish court within 110 days of being charged. The extension was ...

John Arthur Lee has become the first person to be sentence in Australia for sexual abuse of children abroad. His conviction was secured under a law passed in 1994 which enabled authorities to prosecute for sex abuse crimes committed abroad. Lee was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on one count ...

On 22 April 1999 Mr Justice Howitt in the English High Court ruled that the EC Regulation on Passenger Liability is in conflict with the Warsaw Convention obligations of the UK and thus concluded that the Regulation was "in suspense". The Regulation imposed stricter obligations on air carriers than those ...

The Package Travel (Amendment) Regulations 1998 were introduced to deal with the anomaly in the UK's implementation fo the Package Travel Directive. Article 4 of the Directive requires the organiser to provide the consumer, before the contract is made, with, inter alia, general information on passports and visa requirements applicable ...

British Airways has been fined Euro 6.8m (£4.45m / $7.12m) by the EU for breach of EU competition rules. British Airways offered extra commission to travel agents who promoted its tickets over those of its rivals. This created an illegal barrier to airlines wishing to compete with BA's dominant position.

This Order increses the limit of liability of UK sea carriers to 300 units of account per passenger.

A report by the Consumers' Association, following tests of 240 travel agents throughout the UK, found that more than 2/3 failed to find the chapest fare available for a flight between London and Paris. They also failed to give advice on safety in Jamaica despite the information being available from ...

A Commission report (The European airline industry: from single market to worldwide challenges) issued on 21 May states that European airlines have improved their financial performance in response to market liberalisation. It also states that fares have been brought down by 10-24% as a result of competition. The Commission says ...