The writing's on My Bathroom Wall - travel news 23rd May 2018

33 Surge in new routes from Manchester

Passenger traffic through Manchester Airport grew by 17% to April 2018, helped by a string of new route announcents - there are now over 220 detinations reachable nonstop from the airport. While growth in the South East of England is constrained by a lack of runways, Manchester has been cashing in on its gateway to the North location and available capacity.

Recent new routes have seen Loganair introduce summer services to Stornoway, Sumburgh and Kirkwall, BA launch flights to Florence, and VLM to Antwerp and Ostend. Still to commence is Jet Airways to Mumbai from November 5th and Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa from December 1st.

For an article on the city of Manchester a year on from the 2017 Arena attack, see My Bathroom Wall
33 DFDS makes a bigger ship yes
The oft touted busiest shipping area in the world is about to get its biggest vessel. European ferry operator DFDS has ordered a new ship to ply its cross-channel routes from Dover to Calais and Dunkirk  from 2021. It is being made in China and will be able to carry around a thousand pasengers and have 3,100 metres of cargo/car lanes.
33
 		 An approaching swarm of low costs!

The growth of the low cost airline continues apace, with aggressive moves into long haul flights. In a state of flux, BA is bidding for LCC rival Norwegian, Singapore is consolidating its low cost airlines into the Scoot brand, and and Air France has dreamt up an airline aimed at milenials, Joon. 

Meanwhile Premier Air is busy forging routes to the USA from Stansted and Birmingham, Iceland's Wow is launching new flights to Delhi later this year. Also look out for new low cost carriers Jetlines, Flair and Swoop in Canada, and Level in Europe.
33 Trendy new terrace anyone?

As Global Warming inches the UK's weather towards being sunnier and warmer, a slew of great new places to eat and drink al fresco have sprouted in London and beyond. Roof East has gone to the Circus this season, then there's Bar Elba at Waterloo, the rooftop of the Culpepper in Whitechapel, Netil 360 in Hackney, and early adopter Frank's Cafe in Deptford is still going strong and filling it's large rooftop after 10 years. And check out London's Rooftop Film Club, which has rooftop screrenings in Peckham, Shoreditch and Stratford.

And hats off to the new 54m seaside terrace just opened at L'Horizon Beach Hotel & Spa at St Brelade on Jersey.
34 A plane crashes in Cuba...
A Boeing 737-200 operating as Cubana flight CU972 crashed outside of Havana on May 18th. The death toll - all but three of the passengers and crew - stands at 111, and questions are already being asked about the age of the plane. It was on lease from a Mexican carrier called Global Air, though the plane was delivered new to Piedmont Airlines back in 1979, making it 39 years old.