We take a look through the Travel Weekly archives in our 50th year to find out what was making the headlines 10, 25 and 45 years ago.
Travel Weekly, October 30, 2009
• Holidaybreak appointed Eamonn Ferrin as managing director of Superbreak, while Marie Moore joined forces with Angus Chisholm to set up executive search recruitment company Chisholm and Moore Executive Recruitment.
• British Airways said it would restructure its cabin crew from mid-November despite a strike ballot. Unite announced a ballot of 14,000 BA cabin crew staff on October 26 in a dispute that threatened industrial action over Christmas. BA had announced a cut of 1,700 jobs and a two-year pay freeze.
• In this week’s letters page, there was a mixture of views on Travel Weekly’s recent Green-themed issue. Harold Burke, of Grand UK Holidays, was pleased to see sustainable travel being covered but surprised there was no mention of coach breaks. Kevin Griffin, of The Cruise People, said a poll which showed only one in 10 people would change their travel habits to be green “confirms how totally uncompelling this subject is”.
Travel Weekly, October 26, 1994
• Club 18-30 revealed it could be floated. Non‑executive director Barrie Moore said the operator was on target to generate the profits required to join the Stock Exchange by 1996. It was set to take 69,000 passengers in 1994 and make a pre-tax profit of £950,000.
• Hayes & Jarvis ensured holidaymakers received Foreign Office advice to take only organised excursions in Egypt after one of its clients was shot dead by Islamist militants on a privately arranged tour.
• The trade got its first opportunity to sell the Channel Tunnel as Eurostar tickets went on sale.
• On the letters page, Bill Paisley, general manager of the Glasgow Hilton, asked readers for an effective hangover cure as Christmas approached. “Any helpful remedy for the next morning will surely be judged a five-star service. The best six suggestions will earn a good bottle of Scotch,” he wrote.
Travelnews, October 24, 1974
• Well-known trade personalities Sydney Perez and Eric Sutherland secured top-level posts at Thomas Cook. Perez became operations director and Sutherland managing director.
• A row broke out between Warner Holidays and Laker Holidays over the right to send clients to Hotel Kontiki in Majorca in 1975. Warner owned the one-star unit and had exclusive use through the UK market. But Laker secured a contract for beds through Warner’s Spanish hotel management agency, which appeared to have overlooked the fact it could only give beds for use by non-British nationals.
• Cunard split the QE2’s 1975 world cruise into three sections and offered eight port-to-port cruises within it so passengers could book part of the cruise. Fares started at £570 while the full 25-day cruise from Southampton to Cape Town cost £2,360.