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Holidaymakers in Essex can sample the pistes of Eastern Europe this winter, after budget airline, Ryanair, announced a new route from Stansted to the city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

The route, which begins on November 2 2010, will operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays for the duration of the winter season.

Despite Plovdiv’s position as the second largest city in Bulgaria, the airport is only served by a handful of airlines, offering routes to local favourites such as Yemelyanovo, Vnukovo, and Domodedovo airports in Russia, and the comparatively exotic, Dublin.

A new route to Belfast, due to begin in December, and Ryanair’s Stansted route make up the entirety of Plovdiv’s flights to Western Europe – unusual, given the city’s location within Bulgaria: Plovdiv is 54 miles from the ski resort of Pamporovo, and two hours from the slopes at Bansko.

Ryanair’s Laura McCormack explained the lure of Plovdiv – “the city has a rich and varied history dating back 8000 years." Laura claims that the airline is 'delighted' with its first ever route to the Bulgarian city.

The carrier will also boost the frequency of flights from Rome Ciampino Airport to London Stansted. The change, which comes into effect in November 2010, coincides with a new route from Gatwick to the Italian capital.

Known locally as the ‘City of the Seven Hills,’ Plovdiv has an impressive array of Roman architecture, including an aqueduct, an amphitheatre and odeon, and a stadium that would have held 30,000 people. The city is also the birthplace of World Footballer of the Year, Hristo Stoichkov.

Tickets for Plovdiv went on sale on August 5 at £32.99 for a single journey, taxes included.

Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary, claims that an £11 duty on passengers flying out of the UK is an ‘insanely stupid’ measure that amounts to ‘tourism suicide.’ The levy, known as the Air Passenger Duty (APD), is enforced in the UK, but not in parts of Europe, leading airline bosses to consider moves to the continent.

O'Leary plans to reduce Ryanair’s base at Stansted Airport, resulting in the loss of seven routes, and the diversion of two planes to foreign airports. Unfortunately, the cull could have resounding consequences for the local economy, as up to 2,500 jobs could be lost from every airport department, from retail to security.

The Irishman claims that a rise in passenger duty in Ireland had earned the government €80m (£66m) in taxes, but cost the aviation industry €300m (£248m). The executive noted that a gesture in the opposite direction, i.e. the reduction of APD, prompts a huge rise in the number of people choosing to travel by plane.

APD has fallen significantly in Spain and the Canary Islands, helping Ryanair’s Spanish arm grow by 6% over the past year. O’Leary claims that moving aircraft to France, Spain, or Italy could save the airline £8m a year in taxes.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, has also announced plans to move the airline’s operations to Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain, in protest at the government’s decision to scrap all runway expansions at Heathrow. The news could prove dire for the UK economy, especially if more airlines choose to follow Willie’s example.

In similar news, Phillip Hammond, the new transport secretary, was singled out for attack by O'Leary, after the MP announced an end to domestic flying within the next few years.

‘This is the sort of badly thought out nonsense we had from the last transport secretary,’ O’Leary said. ‘Try explaining that to the people of Belfast. Is he planning to build a tunnel under the Irish Sea?’ The coalition government is currently pursuing a revamp of British railways, reducing the need for short-haul flights.

An ‘airport task force’ might sound like a group of heroes in a substandard children’s TV program, but that is exactly what the government has christened a new scheme aimed at improving customer experience at Britain’s airports. The task force will help the UK produce ‘better not bigger’ airports, reducing the need for terminal expansions.

British Airways (BA) and BAA have both had their plans scuppered by the new Prime Minister, David Cameron. BA had hoped to expand at Heathrow until the airport’s third runway was axed, whilst BAA has been forbidden from building anything new at Stansted Airport.

Willie Walsh, the owner of BA, is now planning to move to Spain, taking his airline and the majority of its business operations with him. The move bodes ill for the economy, but Mr Cameron is unlikely to be swayed from his environmental campaigns, which means that the UK’s airports are being forced to find other ways to make their terminals more attractive to customers and investors.

The task force will initially focus on airports in the southeast, addressing concerns that airport shops are encroaching on waiting areas, leading to overcrowding. Representatives from Ryanair, EasyJet and Virgin will help develop the scheme, but authorities in the southeast want the government to allow local councillors onto the panel.

Last week, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond explained his ‘clear vision’ for Britain’s airports, stating that the task force will "create better services for passengers", and that it is "absolutely crucial that we get this right as aviation is vital to our national economy". Mr Hammond hopes to reduce queues and make aeroplanes more punctual.

The coalition government will not permit any further runway expansions at the London airports. The news was naturally welcomed by eco-warriors, but UK airlines and BAA have expressed concern about the move.

Prior to the election, it was easy to believe that David Cameron was just trying to win votes by plotting against a third runway at Heathrow, especially as the ex-Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was such a vocal proponent of the plan. Now that Mr Cameron is firmly entrenched in Downing Street, however, it is clear that the new PM is as good as his word.

Heathrow’s third runway has been axed indefinitely, and can now only be built if the Tory government gets the boot during the next election. Expansions at Gatwick and Stansted airports have also been stopped, regardless of whether the two airports had any designs on a new runway.

It seems like an odd decision, especially for a party that waxed lyrical about the state of the economy in its manifesto. The British Chambers of Commerce noted that Mr Cameron’s decision would reduce London’s appeal as an investment zone and deprive the economy of more than £22bn a year – hardly a good way to clear the UK’s budget deficit.

Of course, a lack of investment in UK airports will necessitate an overhaul of the country’s railway network, which could prove to be just as lucrative in the end. The Tories plan to build a new high-speed rail service from London to Edinburgh, and an airport-to-airport link between Heathrow and Birmingham.

Birmingham Airport has long petitioned to become a ‘second Heathrow;’ or at least a pressure valve for the London airport, helping reduce the need for a third runway or a sixth terminal at the site.

Whether the PM will permit expansion at other airports is unknown, but it will be interesting to see how the likes of Manchester and Bristol fare against Tory scrutiny. Manchester’s expansion plans have been branded ‘shocking,’ whilst Bristol Airport appears to be expanding against the wishes of the public.

Britons stranded abroad have been granted a reprieve from some of their worries, after the British Airports Authority (BAA) promised to waive all overstay fees for passengers parked at its six airports. The guarantee applies to customers who have had their travel plans disrupted by the Eyjafjoll volcano, if they can provide their original receipts.

The Association of British Travel Agents hopes to have all stranded passengers home by the end of this week, meaning that many people will have spent two weeks away from their homes, jobs, or even their families. It might sound delightful, having an extra few days off work, but the financial cost of an extended holiday is likely to be enormous.

Passengers who parked their car at Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Aberdeen airports will not be charged a penny beyond their original fee. The offer applies to long- and short-stay customers, and those holding SuperSaver passes, which are usually exempt from compassionate gestures.

Gatwick and Luton airports have also pledged to be lenient with regard to parking fees, but Liverpool intends to keep its overstay charge, albeit at a much-reduced price of £7, down from £27. Robin Tudor, a spokesperson for the airport, pointed to the costs of running the car park as an incentive to keep prices high.

“We still have to pay for things like heating, lighting and staff in the car parks, and we cannot do that for nothing.” Merseyside passengers who have been stranded since flight restrictions began on the 15th April could face a penalty fee of up to £100, depending on the day that they return to the northwest.

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Aviation giant, the British Airports Authority (BAA), has released its passenger statistics for March 2010, highlighting more ‘challenging conditions’ for the industry.

The figures, which became the first to quantify the effects of the British Airways (BA) cabin crew strike, consider the BAA’s six UK airports – Stansted, Southampton, Heathrow, and those in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen).

When compared to the same period last year, Stansted airport managed to lose 4.2% of its March flyers, despite being one of only two BAA-owned airports to avoid the recent British Airways strike.

Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports lost 3.3% and 4.4% of their passengers, respectively, whilst Glasgow continued to implode, losing almost 10% of its regular visitors. The BAA blamed the British Airways strike for the loss of around 200,000 of its customers.

On the plus side, Southampton airport successfully avoided BA’s picket lines, and enjoyed a 5.3% boost in customers as a result. Heathrow also achieved growth of 0.4%, a figure that would have been closer to 3.8% if BA and Unite had settled their differences in February.

The figures did not come as a surprise to many people. Glasgow and Stansted are slowly becoming a liability on the BAA’s books, as the pair struggles to compete with their larger and more successful neighbours, namely, Edinburgh and Heathrow.

Stansted was stealing up to 5% of Heathrow’s business passengers as recently as November 2009, but the new figures suggest that the Essex site is now losing customers itself.

BAA chief, Colin Matthews, had an ominous message for the press – ‘There is no doubt that the market remains difficult.’

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Hundreds of football fans have asked Ryanair to provide an extra flight from Stansted to Barcelona on the 6th April, or so the airline claims. The airline has promised Arsenal supporters a one-time ‘Champions League’ route to Girona Airport on the morning of the Gunner’s quarter-final match against Barcelona.

Ryanair expects enormous demand for the 189-seat aircraft, which will depart Stansted on the morning of the sixth, and return at midday on the seventh. Girona Airport is, rather unsurprisingly, located in the city of Girona in the Costa Brava region of Spain, some 63 miles from Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium.

Despite its grandiose name, the Champions League route is not a tour package, and only includes a simple plane ride from Stansted to Barcelona. Ryanair has nonetheless given supporters an alternative to flying with beleaguered airline British Airways, which is expected to suffer another strike on the preceding weekend.

Stephen McNamara noted that Ryanair’s reservation centre had been "swamped with calls from Arsenal fans" over the weekend leading up to Monday’s announcement. However, the carrier has not mentioned if Champions League flights will become a regular occurrence.

Ryanair recently published its customer-service statistics for February 2010, complete with a wonderful jibe at rival airline EasyJet. It stated that "we publish our customer service statistics each month, unlike EasyJet which refuses to publish theirs". Ryanair recorded a 4% increase in flight punctuality over the same period last year, but complaints per 1,000 passengers increased from 0.86 to 1.39.

Stansted has teamed up with Ryanair to offer the first ever route from London to Ciudad Real, a city in the Castile-La Mancha region of central Spain. The route will open on the 24th May, in time for the summer holiday season, and will operate three times a week.

Ryanair has come to favour unusual, or hitherto unknown, destinations in recent months, starting with routes to Bydgoszcz and Szczecin in Poland, Tampere in Finland, Kaunas in Lithuania and now the little-known Ciudad Real in central Spain. The carrier has all its bases covered, anticipating a hectic summer season.

Last year, the infamous ‘staycation’ cost the aviation industry millions of pounds after 60% of Britons shunned the Alps and the Mediterranean for a quick roll in the Skegness sludge. Since then, budget airlines have been announcing new routes on an almost weekly basis in a bid to lure travellers away from their sofas and onto an aeroplane.

Ryanair’s new route is the sixteenth on Ciudad Real’s books, joining flights to Germany, Italy, France and Denmark. The carrier, which recently celebrated its four-millionth passenger, claimed unreserved delight at the development, before extending its everlasting sale into April and May.

Tickets to Ciudad Real have been available on Ryanair’s website since 13th March, starting at £19.99 each way. The city has some interesting landmarks, including a museum dedicated to Don Quixote, a landmark novel in Spanish literature.

Ryanair's latest routes are available in list form at the airline's official website.

The falling value of the pound against the euro has fostered a pronounced boom in the value of goods being purchased by travellers, the British Airports Authority (BAA) claims. Tourists waiting for their flights inside Stansted and Heathrow airports are spending an average of 5% more than they were last year.

At first glance, these single-digit percentages don’t seem very impressive, but in 2009 the BAA earned a massive £352m from retail sales alone. Stansted Airport experienced a 2% rise in friendly shoppers, equating to £7m in profit, whereas Heathrow earned £27m (7%) more from its cafés and bookstores.

In other words, the average passenger is spending £4 per trip at Stansted, and £4.93 at Heathrow.

BAA chief, Colin Matthews, cited fewer aircraft movements as instrumental in ‘relaxing’ travellers, and that ‘passengers who are confident and relaxed are more inclined to spend money than those who are stressed or delayed.’ Mr Matthews also noted that airport design and the attitude of staff members play key roles in improving retail sales.

Continental passengers are taking advantage of the strong euro, and buying more alcohol and cigarettes at Stansted in particular. Experts have warned that the euro could face some uncertainty in the future, however, as some Mediterranean countries battle against eleven-figure debts.

Despite the retail boom, overall the BAA went on to make a heavy loss last year, as the cold December weather forced a 1.9% fall in passenger numbers. The aviation firm posted a £822m pre-tax loss at the end of February 2010.

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BAA has posted a pre-tax loss of £822m, an impressive 154% rise over 2008 figures.

Bosses have blamed a combination of factors for the plunge, including a reduction in passenger numbers at its UK airports, and a £218 million hole in the firm’s pension scheme.

In December, and due in part to the frosty weather, BAA recorded a 1.9% slump in travellers using its airports.

London Heathrow, the firm’s biggest asset, was the only BAA-owned site to see an increase in passenger numbers – a meagre 1.2%. Aberdeen and Glasgow lost 9.4% and 8.8% of their 2008 passengers respectively.

Over the whole year, the figures were equally concerning, with Stansted and Glasgow posting losses in double figures.

The sale of Gatwick at the end of 2009 did little to stem the flow of cash out of BAA’s collective pockets.

Overheads and delivery costs tore £277 million from the £1.5 billion price tag, leaving the firm with just over £1 billion to play with, a figure that has since been earmarked for developments at its UK airports.

BAA executive Colin Matthews was optimistic about the future, claiming that the financial performance "remains resilient, especially at Heathrow", and confirming that they "remain focused on improving our efficiency and the service we offer customers”.

Mr Matthews noted that improved passenger spending had been a boon to the company bank account.

Not all is as rosy as it seems, however. BAA’s lawyers are currently embroiled in a battle to save Stansted from the saleroom, after the Competition Commission ruled to dismantle the firm’s monopoly over British aviation.