Our weekly ‘Hot or Not’ series brings you some of the highs and lows in this week’s travel news headlines.
HOT, HOT, HOT!
1. Virgin Australia’s flight attendants have reason to smile
Next time you see your Virgin Australia flight attendant grinning from ear-to-ear know that it’s not just because she/he loves their job.
It’s because she or he is among the union members set to receive a pay rise of four to 10 percent over a four-year period.
The announcement comes after crew voted in favour of an enterprise agreement designed by the Transport Workers’ Union to improve the airline and make it more sustainable in the long haul.
2. Borghetti’s big bonus
Virgin Australia’s flight attendants aren’t the only ones rolling around in extra dough – CEO John Borghetti just received a very generous bonus for all his hard work last year.
As the airline slowly creeps back into the black, Virgin’s annual report this week revealed Borghetti earned some $2.84 million during the 2014/15 financial year – up from $2.776 million the prior 12 months.
The figure also included a short term incentive payment of $1 million, which was in recognition of Virgin’s slow return to profitability.
3. P&O is making us ‘hangry’
A travel agent needs to book us a ticket for one of P&O‘s new ships ASAP because the cruise line’s two new restaurants’ menus sound legen (wait for it) dary!
The cruise line this week unveiled the treats and cuisine guests can expect to dine on at Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden’s Angelo’s and Dragon Lady.
Joining the cruise line in November this year, the two ships will offer more international flavour with Angelo’s specialising in Italian dishes while Dragon Lady offers passengers a taste of the Orient.
NOT, NOT, NOT!
1. The real-life ‘The Terminal’
Tom Hanks may have brought his humour to the movie ‘The Terminal’, but there’s nothing funny about a mother and daughter living the real life version of the Hollywood flick.
The German pair were discovered to have been living in the car park of Larnaca Airport in Cyprus for the past 15 months.
According to Cyprus Weekly, the German family arrived on the island in August 2014 from Israel. Instead of continuing their journeys onwards to Germany, they decided to stay in Greece.
The German Embassy, police and airport officials are believed to have offered the pair assistance in returning home, however, their offers have been refused.
“The airport has offered to help the Germans on numerous occasions but they have refused any aid and seem somewhat unwilling to change their circumstances.”
Adamos Aspris, Hermes Airports Spokesperson
2. Watch out! It’s a… mobile phone cover
A terminal at a Dutch airport was evacuated this week over a ‘security threat’ that turned out to be an iPhone case shaped like a gun.
According to the Daily Mail, security services mistook the iPhone case for a real firearm, subsequently evacuating all travellers and suspending all flights (eek). Police were even called in to investigate the situation.
Once at the scene, it took police two hours to locate the the woman and boyfriend carrying the unusually designed cover.
Police carried out their inspection while flights remained grounded.
3. Virgin’s close contact
A Virgin Atlantic flight struck a blast fence in NYC as it was being pushed back from the gate http://t.co/jw03iRfhVV pic.twitter.com/18CFBbOyhX
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 19, 2015
A Virgin Atlantic aircraft travelled so close to the fence in New York that it actually clipped it while pulling out of the gate.
None of the 276 passengers onboard the London bound plane were injured, however, they did complain of long waits while the airline organised a new flight out of John F Kennedy Airport.
According to Virgin, the tug ‘made the wrong move’ resulting in it scraping against the fence.