JUST six weeks after cross-Channel ferry firm SeaFrance went into liquidation former rivals LD Lines and DFDS are today launching a new service between Calais and Dover. 

More than 100 former SeaFrance workers are among the crew of the ferry Norman Spirit, due to leave Calais at lunchtime. 

Fares for the crossing are today running at £39 return for a car and two passengers travelling Calais-Dover on February 18 and returning Tuesday 21. 

A second ferry, the Norman Voyager, is to be introduced on the route in coming weeks.

AIR workers’ strikes continue today, expected to be the last day of disruption before talks between unions and the government. 

Air France, the firm most affected, expects to be running the same programme as yesterday ie. just 65% of its long-haul flights and 75% of short and medium-term ones. 

Airline pilots’ union SNPL has deplored the “lack of any meeting [with the government] during the strikes” which are set to finish tonight. 

Union officials have been invited to the Transport Ministry tomorrow.

READY-to-use sim cards bought on Ryanair planes could cut the cost of taking a mobile phone abroad. 

The airline has teamed up with the telecoms company Maxroam to offer cheap calls to travellers. The sim enable travellers to receive calls and text for free, and to send texts for nine cents, calls for 29c per minute and 99c for one megabyte of data. 

Maxroam cards will also be available to buy via Ryanair's website and will work in 43 countries in Europe. Passengers will be able to buy €20 cards for just €10.

Temperatures of at least -14° reported with a wind chill of -19°  and some local areas with temperatures of -18° with a wind chill of -23° today. So glad we have central heating and wood burners!

 

THE UMP party is seeking to pass a law intended to lessen disruption to passengers due to air industry strikes. 

It comes after pilots and stewards gave notice of a strike last August (ultimately not carried out), Air France cabin crew went on strike in the autumn, then security staff went on strike at the end of last year. 

While being described in some of the French media as aimed at a “minimum service”, the law, examined in the National Assembly tomorrow, does not in fact force any would-be strikers to work, the sector having no public service obligations apart from in air traffic control.

THE BIGGEST ferry designed for the Dover Strait will enter service in January 2011. 

The 213m, 49,000-tonne 180m€ Spirit of Britain is one of two new ships for P&O. 

The second, Spirit of France, will enter service in September 2011.

You can tour virtual versions of the ships on the company’s website www.POferries.com/newships

EASYJET is to begin selling flexible business tickets that will allow customers to change their flight times up to two hours before departure. 

Rebookings can be made within a four-week window, one week before and three weeks after the original flight time. 

While the tickets will first be available through business booking networks, they will become available to all passengers booking online.

SUMMER might seem some way off, but airlines are already gearing up for the peak season with a number of new France-UK routes announced. 

Jet2 has opened a new base at Glasgow International Airport and is preparing to launch a Nice-Glasgow route from March 2011. New links from Brive (Dordogne Valley) to Manchester, and from Toulouse to Newcastle, will open in May. Another new addition to the schedule is a link from Chambéry to East Midlands airport, which will run through the winter until the end of March.