Sofia Echo - Bulgaria: The Age Of $15 Flights

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights - Sofia Echo

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights Sofia Echo, Bulgaria - Aug 22, 2008 ... the UK since their country joined the European Union in January 2007 as well as Bulgaria’s appeal as a holiday and investment destination for Britons. ...

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights - Sofia Echo While the other two main Black Sea airports, in Bourgas and Varna, reported less stellar performances, demand is strong enough for budget carriers to plan and open new routes and increase the frequency of existing ones. The airport announced on August 8 that about 1.54 million passengers passed through Sofia Airport in the first half of this year, an increase of 19 per cent on the same period in 2007. Meanwhile, aircraft movements increased by 3000 to 23 370 and cargo volumes grew by two per cent to 9077 tons. The figure has been considerably boosted by UK-based budget carrier easyJet, which launched flights from Sofia to London’s Gatwick Airport in November, carrying 59 000 passengers on the route by the end of June. This reflected passenger volume growth of 41 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. Vienna is the hub for Austrian Airlines, which is aiming to position itself as the leading airline in Eastern Europe by offering a wider range of destinations than any of its competitors or partners. According to the airline, this represents a 30 per cent growth on 2007.Bulgaria Air has been experiencing particularly strong demand on its flights to the coastal cities of Varna (the de facto second city in economic terms) and Bourgas (the fourth city). Both municipalities include major ports, and lie at the centre of a collection of coastal resorts. This represented significantly lower passenger growth rates than that of Sofia. Bourgas’ figure was up only 0.6 per cent on the year, and Varna’s 2.7 per cent. This is particularly welcome because for several years they mostly avoided Bulgaria, preferring to wait for its accession to the EU. In July, easyJet announced that it will be starting flights between Sofia and Madrid in November and between the Bulgarian capital and Manchester, in the north of England, in December. Both routes will run three times a week.Perhaps more significantly, on July 25, Budapest-based low cost airline Wizz Air, which already serves eight European cities from Sofia, commenced the first internal budget flight in Bulgaria’s history, between Sofia and Varna. With tickets starting at 19.99 leva ($15.10) one way, all charges included (cheaper than most bus tickets), Wizz will be offering sharp competition on the increasingly popular route. While it is too early to tell what the effects on the market will be, and whether other low-cost carriers will follow suit, an intriguing precedent has been set. Flights are regularly sold out or selling for as much as it will cost to fly to the USA! There seems to be some sort of price fixing between Bulgaria Air and British Airways. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site.

- Return Of The Great British Holiday Puts Spain And Greece In The Shade

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade - guardian.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade guardian.co.uk, UK - Aug 15, 2008 The number of Britons visiting Turkey this year has jumped by a fifth to 1.7 million, according to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA). ... Gill Charlton: On the case Telegraph.co.uk all 2 news articles

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade - guardian.co.uk Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty ImagesThe British seaside is proving a popular holiday destination this year, with a weak pound and stretched finances forcing more people to stay in Britain. But many people are still escaping the wet and windy British summer to sunnier climes - outside the increasingly expensive eurozone.The strength of the euro is putting many holidaymakers off traditional European destinations such as Spain and Greece. The pound is now worth €1.27, 20% less than a year ago. Turkey and Egypt have become the new hot spots, seeing the biggest rises in bookings this year. Croatia, Bulgaria and Tunisia are also popular. Outside the eurozone, Bulgaria has emerged as the cheapest European destination.For late summer bookings, Turkey - in particular the Dalaman area which offers sea and mountains - has come out top, according to new figures compiled by Co-operative Travel for The Guardian. The Co-op's Trevor Davis described this as "a seismic shift in holiday bookings, as Spain has been the UK's number one choice since the package holiday began". The number of Britons visiting Turkey this year has jumped by a fifth to 1.7 million, according to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA). Egypt has seen an even bigger increase of 28%, attracting 600,000 holidaymakers. By contrast, Spain and Greece are showing flat growth - though Spain remains by far the biggest destination, with 14 million Britons going there every year. Greece attracts 2.5 million holidaymakers from Britain.Thomas Cook has seen its summer bookings to Turkey and Egypt increase by 15% from last year. A family of four will pay £1,516 for a week in a self catering apartment in Dalaman with Thomson (owned by TUI) - or £2,141 for the same deal at Alykanas village apartments in Zante, Greece. The British seaside is seeing record numbers of bookings: Brighton is up 70%, Bournemouth 20% and Eastbourne 66%."The Brits are taking another look at holidaying at home because of the economic climate," said Sian Brenchley at Visit Britain. Customers are booking more add-ons with their hotels - theme parks, theatre and music tickets. The trend has continued despite the rather poor summer we've had this year."Asda reported this week that its stores in seaside towns, were trading "phenomenally well".More people are cutting the length of their summer holidays abroad to enjoy several breaks at home. Since the mergers of travel groups TUI and First Choice and Thomas Cook and MyTravel, last year, they have cut the number of low-cost late deals to western Mediterranean resorts such as mainland Spain and the Balearics. The surge to the turquoise coast may continue. Searches on Teletext Holidays between June and August for holidays to Turkey soared by 72% compared with last year. Ash Makkar, marketing director, said: "The credit crunch has affected our customers' priorities in terms of booking a summer break, as they now demand greater value than ever before. It was last updated at 01:45 on August 16 2008. Printable versionSend to a friendShare ClipContact us larger| smaller Share Close Digg reddit Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Share Close Digg reddit Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Travel insuranceMulti-trip annual holiday insurance from £38 and single trip travel insurance from £6. Share travel tips about your favourite places on Been there, our interactive travel guide to the world.

Litters - Times Online - A New Chapter For Flit

A new chapter for flit-litters - Times Online

Times Online

A new chapter for flit-litters Times Online, UK - Aug 30, 2008 ... in Bulgaria or Downhill in Dubai: Skiing in the Desert. Also, the literary output from North America, the third most popular destination for Britons, ...

A new chapter for flit-litters - Times Online Free DVD collection starting this SundayNavigation - link to other main sections from hereSkip Navigation Half-time stoning to death of adulterers? And now, somewhat to our surprise, we had done it . We hadbought a house, taken French lessons, said our goodbyes, shipped over ourdogs and become foreigners.”It all happened because of a property. Mayle, a professional adman, and hiswife, Jennie, “saw it one afternoon and had mentally moved in by dinner”. Itdidn’t just mark the beginning of their new life in the Provençal hills – italso kick-started the British invasion of France and a whole new literarygenre: flit lit. IsabellaDusi went off to Montalcino, a medieval hilltop village in Tuscany, for hertwo-book deal, as did the American author Frances Mayes, whose Under theTuscan Sun was taken up by Hollywood and made into a film in 2003. ChrisStewart decamped to Andalusia, Anna Nicholas went from Mayfair to Mallorca(A Lizard in My Luggage) and Alex Browning went Shooting Caterpillars inSpain. Such escapism was perfect poolside reading and sucked in commuterswho fantasised about leaving behind the daily grind.A Year in Provence became an international sensation after serialisation inThe Sunday Times. It was translated into 17 languages and went on to sellmore than 1.5m copies – not bad considering it had an initial print run of3,000.So, what will it cost to follow in Mayle’s footsteps now? Head down to thesun-baked terraces and lavender fields of Provence and you’ll be lucky topick up a ruined farmhouse with some land. But almost everything has beenrenovated. Today, you have to pick something that was renovated, say, 20 or30 years ago, and redo it.”Prices for a 300-square-metre property, says Janssens, range from £1.2m up to£2.5m. He is selling a renovated 18th-century mas near Goult with a view ofthe Vaucluse mountains. The fourbed house with pool, staff flat and largegardens is for sale for £2m (020 8576 5582, www.winkworth.co.uk). Janssens picks the Drôme Provençal, known for its olive trees, where valuesare 30% less than southern Provence, as the next destination on the Mayletrail. A milder climate may costyou 20% more, but then you can grow lemons, avocados and olives.”Finding wrecks to do up in central Italy is altogether more difficult. After10 years in Italy, she went to Morocco and Algeria, where she ended up on adate farm in an oasis, and the resulting book, A Handful of Honey, has justbeen published.The shelves may be groaning with flit lit, but there are a few gaps. There’syet to be A Year in Bulgaria or Downhill in Dubai: Skiing in the Desert.Also, the literary output from North America, the third most populardestination for Britons, has yet to take off. Perhaps the commonlanguage doesn’t allow for comic misunderstanding; then there’s the lack ofold stone houses to do up. Or perhaps, dare I say it, Florida doesn’t appealto the budding man of letters.Rural France, it seems, still exerts the greatest pull. Among the latesttitles is The Field by the River by Ken Burnett, which combines an interestin natural history with the “let’s move to France” genre, recording thewildlife in the field adjoining his 350-year-old house in Brit-tany. Andthis week sees the publication of Chateau Monty: A Corking Wine Adventure byMonty Waldin, the enfant terrible of the organic wine world. Needless tosay, at the start of his new career abroad, he is hurtling towards 40. He now lives in a 1930s semi in Tuscany with an allotmentand a garage-cum-office built of straw bales. I’m sureMayle will raise a glass of vino.Flit lit: the rules1. Buy a property – it can be a maison-de-maître, chateau, cortijoor finca, whatever you like or the locals call it, but it must be awreck2. Choose a location or business proposal that hasn’t yet been written about:a brothel in Bulgaria? Make one stunningly rude and hilarious faux pas4. A team of workers must down tools in a Mediterranean-style huff, leavingyou stranded. You will then be saved by a local hero with a ruddy face androbust language who will initiate you into the secrets of village life5. Take up a hobby: boules, cooking, flamenco or truffle-hunting. Never suggest it is lonely or that you miss anything more than marmaladeand baked beans. The holiday spirit must reign supreme, but be rude aboutEnglish tourists who dream of moving abroad7. Take a hard look at the market with our indispensable guideThe ten most common pitfalls when buying abroad... Globrix Property Search - find property for sale and rent in the UK.Visit our classified services and find jobs, used cars, property or holidays. Use our dating service, read our births, marriages and deaths announcements, or place your advertisement.Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701.

T's Intransigence - - Zimbabwe: Hidden Hand Behind MDC

Zimbabwe: Hidden Hand Behind MDC-T's Intransigence - AllAfrica.com

Zimbabwe: Hidden Hand Behind MDC-T's Intransigence AllAfrica.com, Washington - 19 hours ago For it is only the few unreconstructed and defiant former Rhodesians and Britons who have so lost is because, by refusing to be resettled, they have refused ...

Zimbabwe: Hidden Hand Behind MDC-T's Intransigence - AllAfrica.com

Overseas Property And Investment News - More Britons Purchasing Bulgarian Currency

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency - Overseas Property and Investment News

Overseas Property and Investment News

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency Overseas Property and Investment News, UK - Aug 22, 2008 Investors in the Bulgarian market can be in line to benefit from growth in the country's tourism sector. According to the Post Office, ...

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency - Overseas Property and Investment News

Value Holidays - - Britons Look Beyond Eurozone For Better

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays - Telegraph.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Aug 20, 2008 ... while sales of Malaysian ringgit, Slovakian koruna and Bulgarian lev have also risen sharply. The figures provide further evidence that though Britons ...

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays - Telegraph.co.uk

Holidaymakers are being forced to spend more sterling to get the same amount of euro, which explains this increase in sales. Post Office fastest growing currencies (June/July 2008)1. The Call of AntarcticaWhat’s it like to get close to penguins, sea lions and all Antarctic wildlife in its natural habitat?Summer sportIt's time to sit back and enjoy the best of summer sports. But men should remember to protect their skin too. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertiser Links YOUR MONEYRankin on fame and fortuneCrime writer spills the beans on his personal finances.TRAVEL10 reasons to travelWith the summer crowds gone, now is a great time for a break. Royal FamilyLooking for a new career?Thousands of senior UK and Worldwide jobs available now.Royal FamilyThe Queen - A life in FilmFree DVD collection from the Telegraph all this week.

Independent - Dental Costs – Brits Who Put Less Money Where Their Mouth Is

Dental costs – Brits who put less money where their mouth is - Independent

Dental costs – Brits who put less money where their mouth is Independent, UK - Sep 6, 2008 Nevertheless, the waiting room at the Vital Europe clinic is chock-full of Britons eager to save perhaps thousands of pounds on their dental work. ...

Dental costs – Brits who put less money where their mouth is - Independent It's light years away from any dentist's waiting room I have ever been in. There's an espresso coffee machine, soft leather designer furniture and big LED screens. The only familiar item is a well-thumbed copy of Reader's Digest, but there's something different about this too: it's this month's issue and not years out of date. So just where is this distinctly modern dentist's waiting room? Just off the fashionable Kings Road in Chelsea? No, it's in a sleepy suburb of Hungary's capital, Budapest. Nevertheless, the waiting room at the Vital Europe clinic is chock-full of Britons eager to save perhaps thousands of pounds on their dental work. The last available figures, for 2006, show that around 35,000 Brits travelled abroad to get dental work done, from braces and crowns to multiple implants. The main destinations of choice were in Eastern Europe – Hungary, Poland, Croatia and Bulgaria. But countries such as Thailand also featured. This is against the backdrop of an NHS dental care system that is patchy at best and downright poor at worst. An estimated two million British people can't find an NHS dentist and are forced to go private. And going private can be expensive: check-ups cost around £50 a time, a porcelain crown will set you back some £700 and something more complex, such as an implant, can cost upwards of £2,000 a tooth. No wonder that research from the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (BACD) reveals that less than half of the UK population visit their dentists regularly. Even when someone can find an NHS dentist, the service they receive may not be of a high standard. A more legitimate comparison will be looking at the treatment between private practice in the UK and Eastern Europe." I met Susan Wenden, 60, from Lyne in Surrey, in the Budapest waiting room of Vital Europe, which also offers consultation and treatment in London. Ms Wenden has done the maths on where she should have her teeth looked at. I needed one doing after having an emergency extraction," she explains. That is when I researched going overseas."I had a consultation with Vital Europe in London and agreed to fly out to Hungary. I was seen all the way through by the same dentist. I was a little unsure but my husband came too and we made a week of it. Vital Europe reckons it is treating around 200 patients a month from the UK and is considering opening another consultation room in Manchester. For those who don't want to fly abroad just for the sake of their teeth, there is the option of having the treatment done in London by Hungarian dentists, who are registered to work with the UK's General Dental Council (GDC). That will cost around 20 per cent more than going to Budapest, but the total savings on UK treatment can still be considerable. The key difference is in staff expenses. We have offices in the UK so we know how much practitioners charge and it's way over the odds, but the cost of living is so high," says Paula Szorfi, marketing manager at Vital Europe. This keeps overheads down." But for complex treatments such as implants, Ms Szorfi advises people to make the trip out to Hungary. Coming here reduces any unnecessary delays." And this is a bustling industry, with 14 dentists and 11 hygienists, as well as a dozen or so laboratory workers producing the casts and enamelling behind the scenes. What's more, they have to spend three years as a junior in a practice – a little like the period spent being a junior doctor in a hospital." "The truth is, the UK is just plain expensive. The reverse is true," says Mr Qureshi at the BACD. Teaching and training are now so advanced that we are a centre of excellence – we have people from America come over to learn our techniques." Mr Qureshi has concerns about patients going abroad. What will you do in Poland, Bulgaria or Hungary?" Insurers seem to share some of his misgivings. Generally they won't finance treatment abroad. But such issues do not worry Ms Wenden as she sits in the waiting room at Vital Europe. But then my husband went over after he was quoted £5,500 in the UK for just two implants, and he had a good experience. So I thought, why not?"Lynne has been out to Budapest twice for treatment and has had work done on a grand total of 17 teeth. We have toured all around the city and we are off to Vienna for a few days before my final treatment. It will be good if they can open an office in Scotland to make it more convenient." Interesting?

- Britons Work Almost Two Hours More Per Week Than The Average European

Britons work almost two hours more per week than the average European - Telegraph.co.uk

Metro

Britons work almost two hours more per week than the average European Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Sep 3, 2008 Only workers in Romania and Bulgaria work longer at an average of 41.7 hours a week. By comparison, the French spend an average of just 37.7 hours a week at ... Britons work longest hours in Europe Metro all 3 news articles

Britons work almost two hours more per week than the average European - Telegraph.co.uk Only workers in Romania and Bulgaria work longer at an average of 41.7 hours a week.By comparison, the French spend an average of just 37.7 hours a week at work, effectively giving them an entire afternoon off compared with British workers. In the UK, the average "agreed" working week is just 37.3 hours, suggesting that workers in this country are giving their employers more than four hours of extra time. That gap is bigger than in any other country in the EU, where the average length of extra work above the agreed amount is 1.4 hours.Nor do the British make up the gap in extra holidays. FASHIONM&S meets SATC Patricia Field shows her new collection at NYFW for M&S.ARTSHirst-brandedDamien Hirst's new masterstroke fails to impress.

Sofia Echo - Don’Ts And Do's

Don’ts and Do's - Sofia Echo

Don’ts and Do's Sofia Echo, Bulgaria - Sep 4, 2008 In July, JJ arrived in Bulgaria, ready to move in. This time it was other Britons who killed his enthusiasm, he said. Some compatriots, living near JJ’s new ...

Don’ts and Do's - Sofia Echo