Ed Zeppelin...

...OK, got to contain my excitement but just got confirmation of my trip in the Star Over London in a week or so's time. I'll be getting a flavour of what it's like to float sedately over London suspended in a wee gondola beneath the vast bulk of a giant 75m long helium balloon. Mental. I'll be writing a piece about airship travel for the Observer following the flight and can't wait!

Airship joy?

Wow. Following this blog I wrote on Futerra's website the other week I've since found out through my good buddy Jamie at www.loco2travel.com about the forthcoming airship that's a coming to good old London town this summer. Sponsored by Belgian superbrew Stella Artois, as the beer ad goes the trips through the skies above London will be reassuringly expensive starting at £185 a pop (though that's still a little cheaper than Branson's space twanging flights in his new rocket that will rob you of around £100,000). That said there's a huge visible message that will be sent by the very presence of the swollen blimp above our heads. Salience (the conspicuous or obvious nature of something) is key to changing environmental attitudes and behaviours (as we found whilst researching our 'New Rules' of communicating climate change) and hopefully seeing an airship floating sedately above our city will trigger a few moments of curiosity and intrigue...the first tentative steps in generating demand. The official website for the airship 'Star Over London' is here. I am now frantically trying to blag my way onto a flight!

Tears for Ryanair?

Don't you just love him? That cuddly Oirish fella with the airline whose pockets we so gleefully fill with our money for the dubious privilege of being twanged around Europe like so many veal cattle in a flying crate, whacked repeatedly with hidden charges (airport tax, luggage fee, meals, drinks...even wheelchairs if you have the commercial liability of being mobility challenged) and all wrapped up in a customer service package that makes even Woolworths in Brixton resemble a world class example of corporate best practice. Ahhh, Michael O'Leary where would we be without you eh?

Following news that rising oil prices threatened doom for the budget aviation industry, O'Leary's response whilst presenting the airline's annual results yesterday was 'bullshit!'. He then called the airports regulator 'haplessly stupid and incompetent' and suggested green protestors to 'get over it'. Nice. Claiming that high fuel costs will help Ryannair's business model he then predicted a bounce-back for the airline once oil costs drop again. During this year Ryannair carried 51 million passengers (a 20% increase) and opened 201 new routes. We're obsessed with aviation and numpties like O'Leary are profiting from it...

Read the full article in the Guardian here