News.Scotland.Org

May, 7

The number of flyers operating in and out of highlands has gone up to a record high last year. This rapid increase in the number of flyers has been remarkable over last year. If we look at the overall figures we can clearly see that about 1270023 passengers used the ten airports which were operated by the Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd. The Dundee airport too experienced a busy year with around 64,639 passengers flying from Dundee with a jump of 22 percent.

According to Inglish Lyon, the MD of HIAL, it was the effective role of the air transport system in the region and also the committed efforts of airlines, that made passengers opting for air transport. Along with this Loganair contributed a lot by giving the far remote areas easy access. The new services being started by Flybe is also eyed to bring in more air traffic in coming months.

There are plans for starting few new air services which will help passengers to travel easily and without hassles. These new routes will give passengers better connectivity and good service. In the same stride Laganair will be launching Belfast and Birmingham service at Dundee which will benefit a large number of flyers. Along with this many more other new plans are in the pipeline which will be taking shape in coming years which will give a great help to the flyers.

Scotland, Feb 1: The change in weather condition is disturbing the normal life of the people in Scotland. Every part of the Scotland is expected to experience snow and frozen rain, with the Highlands is expected to be badly hit. Weather Forecasters have issued a warning regarding the expected climatic changes.

The transporting system will get interrupted and the commuters are given warning to prepare for this. Ferry transport will also get disrupted with many services being cancelled. Police authorities advised people to take extra care when travelling. Snow fall is expected throughout the Scotland in the coming days.

According to Rob Hutchinson, forecaster with Meteo Group, the conditions in the Highlands is expected to get bad. The winds were likely to ease later on Friday this will lead to the decrease in temperature. There is a low pressure area prevailing just to the north of Scotland that will further move to North Sea and strong winds are expected as a result of this.

The worst affected area will be the northern part of Scotland. There will be drifted weather condition that include snow fall; storm and bad weather condition prevail in most part of the Highlands. Due to tree falls the Forth Road Bridge was closed to northbound traffic after a lorry overturned in high winds. Later the road was reopened for cars only. Heavy wind that blew up to 75mph was recorded in Campbeltown in Argyll and the Glasgow Airport experienced strong winds of 55mph.

The disruption of normal life is common in other northern areas in Scotland. The weather condition is expected to improve within few days time.

January, 21

It was a tough day for commuters who have to bear the brunt of the blaze which damaged the overhead power lines causing delay in the railway operation yesterday morning. This incident happened on the Cumbernauld to Lanark rail line in Lanarkshire. The delay affected thousands of travellers who were blocked in between their voyage. Meanwhile it was known that, to get the situation under control about 25 fire-fighters were called to control the blaze. The sky was filled with black smoke caused by the burning of 400 tonnes of tyres.

As per reports it was known that the fire started at around 7pm last night close to the former building yard of waste firm shanks and McEwan. The fire-fighters battled quite hard to bring the fire under control. With the proximity of the railway line and the incident spot, the rail services were paralysed.

With such a massive fire, it is still under doubt whether the train services would get back to normalcy soon. This fire also proved unhealthy for people with the emission of harmful fumes and smoke emerging from the fire. All this made people to stay indoors and keep their doors and windows shut. It was learnt that the winds made the extinguishing work tougher with spreading the fire more.

Along the commuters the near by residents also had to bear the burden of the sudden blaze, with the stoppage of rail service in the Lanark rail line and massive fire fury people seemed to be in a disarray. But works are on to make sure the rail service gets going as normal.

January, 18

Panic prevailed on the Heathrow airport yesterday when the British Airways plane flying from China crash-landed short of the runway at the London airport. The plane was carrying 136 passengers and 16 other crew members, it was confirmed that all the passengers and crew members were safe. The reason behind this sudden landing was said to be that the plane lost its undercarriage which made to this landing.

This incident forced many other short haul flights to be cancelled making a huge problem for the passengers. It was known that including seven outbound BA flights six other inbound flights were also cancelled. It was a misery day for the passengers with such a huge impact on the flight operation making a chaotic situation at the airport.

To make sure what was the reason for this emergency landing the south runway was closed and investigation were on. Meanwhile the passengers of the BA flight which made this emergency landing were glad that they escaped a huge accident, and some of the eye witness said that the pilot did a great job by making sure the plane settles down well without any untoward incident.

Though this was a major escape for those 136 passengers, but the other travellers faced a tough day waiting for flights to regain the momentum and begin the work as normal.

Scotland, Jan 11: The worse climatic condition is drastically affecting the normal life in Scotland. As predicted by the meteorologists high powered winds and heavy rain hit the southern, central and western part of Scotland. The power supply and the transporting system are completely out of order. Winds blew up to 80mph, uprooted several trees and toppled many vehicles

According to Scottish and Southern Energy thousands of homes in and around Argyll still face power failure. Educational institutions were closed and the fire and rescue operators have attended 144 incidents in a single night. At least five Lorries were overturned on the M74, ferry and rail services were also interrupted.

The university hall in Dundee is damaged in the extreme wind. Seven schools and one elderly day care centre were closed in Fife. Bank Street in Falkirk was closed due to threat of brick work collapse. While in Stirling 42 year old man was rushed to hospital following injury caused when a lorry blew over on the M9 at Pirnhall.

While commenting on this Tayside Police said that they are working tirelessly to clear the fallen trees across the several roads to facilitate the smooth flow of vehicles.

The climatic condition is expected to settle down to normal within few days time.

January, 8

After the month long festivity and celebration it was a terrifying return at the office, with heavy snowfall and inundated conditions of the roads it was a tough time for many office goers and commuters yesterday. The roads were jammed and transportation was put to stand still on major junctions like Edinburgh and other busy routes. It was told that heavy snowfall made road traffic and railway operation to be paralysed on five main routes.

As per reports it was learnt that about four inch of snowfall was experienced in several parts of Scotland, and it was Midlothian which was worst affected with the snowfall. Excessive snowfall made dangerous conditions for drivers and other vehicle riders to drive along these hazardous conditions. Long queues of vehicles were spotted in all major routes, causing trouble to people to make through their destinations. Few accidents were also reported due to snowfall in various parts of the country.

Police and other work force were put to task to make the situation back to normalcy. From road transport to rail routes all were put to halt with this snow mayhem. Several people were stranded on the way while some were blocked by the traffic jam.

This weather worry is expected to continue with chances of snowfall and weather to be drop down with cold winds. Works are on to put the situation under control and to make sure transportation is not suffered.

January, 4

Scotland wore a thick blanket of snow yesterday with huge snowfall hitting almost all part of the country. Due to such a heavy snowfall commuters were put to difficulties with transportation been paralysed and many cases of accidents reported in past 24 hours. In one of such untoward accident a car slipped off the road and fell 30ft down into an embankment. Apart from this many more such cases of accidents were reported in different places. The weather department officials have informed that about eight inches of snowfall has been experienced till now.

It has made the temperature to drop with snow shower freezing temperature around Scotland. Many people were facing tough times to travel due to snow and poor visibility. Many fatal accidents were also reported in different places around Scotland. Reports suggested that about four people were injured in three such collisions which involve one police vehicle too.

There are reports for more snowfall in next 24 hours and met department officials have predicted up to 12 inch of snow in Scotland. The areas which were worst affected by snowfall include Grampian, the Borders, the Highlands, Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Fife, West Lothian. And with prediction of more snowfall it seems the situation would become more adverse.

The climatic change may have increased the trouble for people but on the other hand it has come as a blessing in disguise for the Scotland ski centres. This snowfall has made them happy and provided a wide scope for all snow activities.

This first snowfall of the year seems to have captured a mixed reaction among Scottish people, but whatever the case may be, cold waves are blowing around this hot destination.

Scotland, Jan 1: As an attempt to monitor the terrorist activity in the airports after the terrorist threat in 2006 air passengers are restricted to carry one bag that restriction is going to be relaxed from next week onwards. But the passengers are left with confusion as selective airlines and airports will allow carrying more than one bag on board. The prominent British airports were given permission for hand baggage change after getting the sanctions from the Department of Transport officials on the basis of their ability to tackle the extra workload along with ensuring security.

While some airlines including the British Airways complained that the one bag rule was unique to British and is developing as a headache for the passengers who transfer to UK flights from abroad. Passengers are asked to check their airline and their baggage restriction before packing their bags. The airport officials also hinted that there will be no relaxation for carrying liquids in hand bags.

Meanwhile Edinburgh and Glasgow are included in the list of 21 airports that will be set free from the one bag restriction from 7 January onwards. The other airports are Heathrow, London City, Stansted, Aberdeen, Manchester, Prestwick and Inverness. While Gatwick, the second largest airport in Britain is one of the airport that will still be under one bag restriction along with East Midlands, Luton, Bradford, Leeds and Liverpool. To add fuel to more confusion some airlines allow passengers to carry two bags on board.

While commenting on this the spokesman of the Department of Transport said: “Some airports readily accepted the changes and they implemented that already, few other airports have to improve.” He accepted that the passengers will be confused about the different rules carried out at different airports. It is the responsibility of the respective airline company or airport to inform the passengers about details of the restrictions.

December, 28

The licence structure will soon get a new look according to that the actual driving age will become 18 years though the provisional licences will be issued from 17 years of age. This would mean that the drivers have to be 18 in order to drive in roads. Also the new rule will make the practical test a bit harder. This new structure will help young drivers to improve the approach toward driving and road safety.

It is known that the driving test will become tougher in this new structure and also there are plans to include the knowledge on road safety in the school syllabus. This new format of test is an innovative way to make sure the driver is capable to drive in all conditions. The previous 40 minutes driving test is now expanded to two stages and also included many new additions like driving at night and on motorways. All this will help to encourage the driver to drive safely.

As it is evident that these days many accidents are occurring mainly involving young drivers who are losing their lives for driving recklessly. This new structure will help to control the hazardous driving to some extent. Now to make sure young drivers have more driving experience and confidence, the young licence aspirants have to complete 500 hours of driving before getting the final nod.

Hope this new plan will help to reduce the reckless driving and will bring out more confident drivers. Now time will tell how far this new structure prepared by department of transport will succeed.

December, 26

Travellers are facing severe problems this winter with fog making it really hard for flights to carry their operation. Due to poor visibility several flights were cancelled causing flyers to wait desperately to reach their destination. With the festive season on cards the problem has worsen as more and more people are looking for a Christmas getaway. It is known that many flights were delayed and even called off due to the foggy conditions continuing, meanwhile several flights has to be cancelled from Heathrow and Gatwick airports with poor flying conditions.

With flights unable to operate, people are resorting to road ways to reach their destination. All major airports were flooded with passengers waiting for their flights to operate; it was chaos all over the place and passengers facing tough time to fly. Many travellers reported were going for celebrating Christmas abroad, but fog ruined their plans and preparations. The British Airways informed that it will refund the airfare for its passengers whose flights were cancelled and will also offer them with rebook facility. But many travellers opted for other means of transportation to reach their destination.

It is expected that if this situation continues, then roads would be busy with travellers going to different places. But the weather forecaster has suggested that the present foggy condition will clear soon making the situation back to normal. It was noticed that about 84 flights were cancelled yesterday from Heathrow airport, and 15 flights were cancelled from Gatwick airport. Amidst all this confusion airport was buzzing with speculation and chaotic situation all waiting for the condition to get favourable for flying.

This severe problem has resulted as a nightmare for many travellers and to some extent has spoiled the festive mood of many. Also with the severe cold conditions in UK, people are heading towards other destination to beat the chill and enjoy a great season of festivals.