Ryanair have increased the cost of checking in luggage at the airport from £10 to £12 per item. They have also increased the online fee for placing luggage in the planes hold from £5 to £6 and passengers who check in online will now have to pay £3 rather than £2. Ryanair are trying to encourage their passengers to travel with carry on luggage only, to try and cut airport and handling costs.

Britain’s worst performing train company, First Great Western has announced it will double the amount of compensation it gives to passengers affected by delays and disruption. The company carries around 60,000 people a day on its routes which link London, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and the West Country. The increased amount of compensation comes because FGW have recognised their customers are not receiving the service they deserve. Under the move season ticket holders will effectively receive their compensation when they renew their season ticket, as they will only pay last years prices. Up to 10 to 20% of the season ticket value will be refunded meaning a customer with a standard class season ticket from Bristol to Paddington will get £867 in compensation. Weekly season ticket holders and day ticket holders will also be able to claim compensation if there are significant delays to their journeys.

British Airways pilots will vote on whether to strike over the airlines plans to launch a subsidiary business. The British Pilots Association (Balpa) believes that the launch of OpenSkies will mean a two tier system of quality. The union also believes that the launch which will offer luxury flights from continental Europe to America at lower operating costs than BA will lead to pay and conditions being challenged. Balpa say that the new company will have weaker safety standards and that pilots would be required to take further courses to transfer to BA. BA however, claims that safety standards would be the same across both airlines and that OpenSkies will not be detrimental to BA pilots.

Despite the crash landing at Heathrow a few days ago aviation experts still regard the Boeing 777 as one of the world’s safest jets. There are currently 667 of the jets in service carrying millions of passengers every year. To date there has only been one fatality involving a 777, in September 2001. This was caused by a hose leading to the aircraft becoming detached and an aircraft refueller being engulfed in flames. It is still not clear what caused the most recent incident.

British train passengers are now paying the most expensive rail fares in Europe according to new research from the Liberal Democrats. In fact British train passengers are charged up to 14 times more than passengers on the Continent. £10 would take a British passenger 27 miles compared with 58 miles in France and 383 miles in Latvia. The situation is likely to get worse with more fare increases planned for the future. As prices continue to rise I think a lot of people will return to the often cheaper option of using their own car, at least that way you know you will get a seat.

This weeks PC2Paper travel blog of the week is Conor's Mildly Thrilling Tales. Its author Conor Grennan travel stories, have been featured in well known travel publications such as Traveler's Tales and  Lonely Planet. He is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Next Generation Nepal, setup to to reunite trafficked and conflict-displaced children with their families. Conor lives in Nepal where he started a home for trafficked children.

Conor's blog focuses a lot on the great work he does helping these children in Nepal. My favourite article was "Searching for families in Nuwakot" a fascinating story on how Conor managed to find the parents of 17 out of 18 children on a trip through the mountains. How he went on the trip on a beaten up bus and was encouraged to try a local fruit which ended up giving him food poisoning. If that wasn't enough he was unable to sleep on the bumpy bus journey, the buses suspension so bad he had to sit on a fleece to protect his hind quarters. At times he and the other passengers had to get out of the bus to help guide it along steep cliff ledges. But in the end it was all worth it when they got to their destination finding the parents of these children. read the full article >>

The manager of the City of Derry Airport has been removed from his post. He will return to work at the airport as an air traffic controller. He was demoted after an investigation into a four closure of the airport last May. The closure was due to a number of safety concerns including poor runway drainage and a lack of a bird control plan. A report later showed a number of shortfall in safety procedure which led to Seamus Devine being removed from his post.

An international passenger plane crash landed at Heathrow Airport today. The plane took the runway too low on its approach before crashing just short of it. All 136 passengers were evacuated down the emergency chutes. There are reports that four people have suffered minor injuries as a result of the crash. The knock on effect is that the south runway has been closed and many flights from the airport have been delayed with some flights being diverted to Stansted and Luton.

A planned strike by rail guards at First Great Western has been suspended. Guards had planned to strike for 48 hours from the 20th of January. However, talks between the company and the union have now resumed and the RMT have said that progress has been made. Negotiations are to continue on a number of other issues but there are hopes that the dispute can now be resolved.

It has been announced that another 25 post offices will close across in Newport and Gwent Valley. The proposals will also establish three new outreach post offices two in Chepstow and one in Caldicot. The latest list of closures includes the following:

Abertillery: Cwm Celyn; Princess Street
Tredegar: Dukestown, Georgetown
Ebbw Vale: Rassau, Winchestown
Hengoed: Caerphilly Rd, Penpedairheol, Penybryn
Bargoed: Gilfach
Blackwood: Argoed, Wyllie
Newport: West End, Wattsville, Christchurch Road, Malpas Road, West Park
Abergavenny: Govilon, Llanellen
Chepstow: Mathern
Caldicot: Sudbrook
Pontypool: Pentwyn, Penygarn, Pontnewynydd, Penygraig Terrace