Union Pearson Express Train Pearson Airport Station (Image Credit: Union Pearson Express)
One of the many things that are often lacking at airports in North America is a direct rail link from the airport to downtown.
Toronto is one city to gain such a link with the launch of the Union Pearson Express on Saturday 6 June 2015.
The new service will link Terminal 1 of Toronto’s main international airport, Toronto Pearson, with its main downtown railway station (Union Station), every 15 minutes with a journey time of 25 minutes on an elevated rail track. A return fare for an adult is CAD$53 (roughly £28).
From a London perspective, it is noteworthy that the design of the service’s brand identity, livery, uniforms and station fit out is the work of London based branding agency Winkreative.
One of the many things that are often lacking at airports in North America is a direct rail link from the airport to downtown.
Toronto is one city to gain such a link with the launch of the Union Pearson Express on Saturday 6 June 2015.
The new service will link Terminal 1 of Toronto’s main international airport, Toronto Pearson, with its main downtown railway station (Union Station), every 15 minutes with a journey time of 25 minutes on an elevated rail track. A return fare for an adult is CAD$53 (roughly £28).
The forthcoming Easter weekend marks one of the busiest travel periods of the year. As is now commonplace, there are extensive engineering works taking place on the London Underground and the UK’s national rail network which may affect travel times to London’s airports.
We recently browsed the archives of BBC Radio 4’s long running series “Desert Island Discs” and found two recordings from over 20 years ago, featuring two giants of aviation.
The first is Lord King, the former Chairman of British Airways who, together with Colin Marshall, oversaw the transition of BA from a nationalised industry to the “World’s Favourite Airline”. The second is Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic.
The interview with Lord King was first broadcast on 19 April 1991. The interview with Sir Richard Branson was first broadcast 9 June 1989. Both were interviewed by Sue Lawley.
Whilst the interview Lord King covers much of his time at British Airways, the interview with Sir Richard Branson barely touches on Virgin Atlantic – the main focus being Virgin Records which at the time was owned by Virgin. At the time Virgin Atlantic was just five years’ old. Interestingly, the relationship between the two airlines, which was to later sour significantly, isn’t mentioned in either interview.
The contrasting styles of Lord King and Sir Richard Branson are very much evident in the interviews.
That said, whilst Lord King does come across as a little cold at first he does warm up later into the interview. Furthermore, whilst Lord King’s style is seen as very much from a different era of business, so much so that Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway once wrote of his “bombastic rudeness” (legend has it that Lord King personally ordered the removal of BA advertising from the Financial Times after he took exception to a profile of him written by the paper), it is clear he has a genuine passion for business.
Furthermore, there is little Lord King says in the interview that many current aviation CEOs of today (Willie Walsh of International Airlines Group or Richard Anderson of Delta) would disagree with, particularly the references to the need for rational decision making and that sometimes painful decisions have to be made in the long term interests of the company.
Lord King also complains about government regulation and the barriers to true consolidation in the industry – two issues which are very much alive today.
As far as music choices go, neither interviews yield little surprises. The Flower Duet from Lakmé, famous for its use in many BA ads, features in Lord King’s choices. Many famous tracks from the Virgin Records back catalogue feature in Sir Richard Branson’s choices.
You can listen to the Lord King interview here and the Sir Richard Branson here.
Sadly, there was one other programme we would have loved to have covered here. That is an interview with the late Alan Whicker from 1967 but, alas, there is no audio online.
British Airways Concorde
We recently browsed the archives of BBC Radio 4’s long running series “Desert Island Discs” and found two recordings from over 20 years ago, featuring two giants of aviation.
The first is Lord King, the former Chairman of British Airways who, together with Colin Marshall, oversaw the transition of BA from a nationalised industry to the “World’s Favourite Airline”. The second is Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic.
The interview with Lord King was first broadcast on 19 April 1991. The interview with Sir Richard Branson was first broadcast 9 June 1989. Both were interviewed by Sue Lawley.
Whilst the interview Lord King covers much of his time at British Airways, the interview with Sir Richard Branson barely touches on Virgin Atlantic – the main focus being Virgin Records which at the time was owned by Virgin. At the time Virgin Atlantic was just five years’ old. Interestingly, the relationship between the two airlines, which was to later sour significantly, isn’t mentioned in either interview.
The contrasting styles of Lord King and Sir Richard Branson are very much evident in the interviews.
That said, whilst Lord King does come across as a little cold at first he does warm up later into the interview. Furthermore, whilst Lord King’s style is seen as very much from a different era of business, so much so that Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway once wrote of his “bombastic rudeness” (legend has it that Lord King personally ordered the removal of BA advertising from the Financial Times after he took exception to a profile of him written by the paper), it is clear he has a genuine passion for business.
Furthermore, there is little Lord King says in the interview that many current aviation CEOs of today (Willie Walsh of International Airlines Group or Richard Anderson of Delta) would disagree with, particularly the references to the need for rational decision making and that sometimes painful decisions have to be made in the long term interests of the company.
Lord King also complains about government regulation and the barriers to true consolidation in the industry – two issues which are very much alive today.
As far as music choices go, neither interviews yield little surprises. The Flower Duet from Lakmé, famous for its use in many BA ads, features in Lord King’s choices. Many famous tracks from the Virgin Records back catalogue feature in Sir Richard Branson’s choices.
You can listen to the Lord King interview here and the Sir Richard Branson here.
Sadly, there was one other programme we would have loved to have covered here. That is an interview with the late Alan Whicker from 1967 but, alas, there is no audio online.
In recent weeks we’ve received e-mails from two major frequent guest programmes (Hilton Honors and Starwood Preferred Guest) advising us to change our account passwords.
We’ve also seen anecdotal claims online regarding Avios frequent flyer miles having been stolen from British Airways Executive Club accounts, with BA also temporarily freezing accounts following suspected unauthorised access. The Mandarin Oriental hotel group was also recently the subject of a data theft.
This is a timely reminder that frequent flyer miles and hotel reward currencies do have a substantial monetary value (in redemption terms) and accounts should be treated as you would an account for any other financial instrument.
Given how big the frequent guest and flyer industry has become with many travellers having accounts across a range of hotels and airlines, it’s often difficult to keep track of every account and fraudulent activity can easily go un-noticed.
Some of the methods we have heard fraudsters adopt to access accounts have bordered on the ingenious and there can be no immunity against the risk of fraud – particularly when it is airlines and hotels that are compromised. However, there are some simple steps that can be followed to improve account security:
1. Use the e-mail address with which you have registered your accounts sparingly. Use it only for registering with established and reputable websites. Keep a separate e-mail address for registrations on websites that may not be reputable. Your password for your e-mail account should always be unique. Never use the same password for any other account.
2. As you would with online banking, avoid accessing your accounts on public computers or through networks where you cannot be confident of their security. Always make sure you log out after accessing your account.
3. It is advisable not to use the same password across all of your frequent guest and flyer accounts as fraudulent access to one account is likely to prompt attempts to access other frequent guest and flyer programmes.
4. Your password should be a “strong” password with a combination of capitalised and lower case letters, numbers and characters that could not be easily guessed. Also change passwords regularly. Ditto for e-mail and online banking accounts.
5. It’s worth checking accounts regularly for any suspicious activity. Always review periodic e-mail statements from airlines and hotels.
6. Also, be aware of “phishing e-mails”. Like banks, airlines and hotels will never e-mail you requesting your personal details. Also be aware of e-mails in respect of bookings that you do not recognise. Or e-mails containing attachments (airlines and hotels do not send booking details via attachment). If any doubt, go directly to the airline website via your browser, rather than following the link in the e-mail.
In today’s Autumn statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has announced the abolition of Air Passenger Duty for children under 12 flying in economy class from 1 May 2015.
The measure will be extended to children under 16 from 1 March 2016.
The rate of duty is currently £13 for flights up to 2,000 miles, £69 for flights between 2,001 and 4,000 miles, £85 for flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles and £97 for flights over 6,000 miles.
Whilst airlines are still lobbying for the abolition of APD entirely, the measure will be good news particularly for “holiday” leisure routes to Florida.
For the avoidance of doubt, the reduction does not apply to children in premium economy, business class and first class.
More to follow, including the response from airlines and refund arrangements for flights already booked, shortly.
Update: British Airways has confirmed it is to refund APD to affected customers and will confirm administrative arrangements in due course .
In today’s Autumn statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has announced the abolition of Air Passenger Duty for children under 12 flying in economy class from 1 May 2015.
The measure will be extended to children under 16 from 1 March 2016.
The rate of duty is currently £13 for flights up to 2,000 miles, £69 for flights between 2,001 and 4,000 miles, £85 for flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles and £97 for flights over 6,000 miles.
Whilst airlines are still lobbying for the abolition of APD entirely, the measure will be good news particularly for “holiday” leisure routes to Florida.
For the avoidance of doubt, the reduction does not apply to children in premium economy, business class and first class.
More to follow, including the response from airlines and refund arrangements for flights already booked, shortly.
Update: British Airways has confirmed it is to refund APD to affected customers and will confirm administrative arrangements in due course.
