Security gets tight on Spain flights

British holidaymakers flying to Spain nd her islands will have to supply their date of birth and passport numbers when booking their tickets because of tighter Spanish border control regulations.

Airlines are still deciding the best way to collect the Advanced Passenger Information (API). British Airways is prompting travellers to fill in the relevant details – which includes full name and nationality – when buying tickets online.

A BA spokesman said: “Staff at check-in desks will also be able to collect API, but passengers are strongly advised to supply the data prior to arrival at the airport, or at a self service kiosk where available, to avoid unnecessary delays.”

easyJet’s online booking system now automatically requests the API for all passengers, including children and infants. There’ll be no chance at check-in – “to ensure there will be no delays at check-in desks this summer,” reads the company’s website. Ryanair, another of the budget carriers serving Spain, is doing exactly the same.

The regulation applies to the UK because it is not one of the 15 European signatories to the Schengen treaty, which allows free travel between member countries without showing a passport.

Harry Potter park

The magic of family holidays in Florida is about to be ramped up another few notches as Harry Potter prepares to cast his spell over Universal Studios in Orlando.

A £130 million attraction based on JK Rowling’s schoolboy wizard is planned for the end of 2009. ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ will fill a quarter of the 85-acre Islands of Adventure park – a “theme park within a theme park,” says Universal’s chairman Tom Williams.

Visitors will be able to explore Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade Village and other iconic locations.
There will be rides and interactive attractions, shops and restaurants.

“The plans I’ve seen look incredibly exciting,” says JK Rowling. “I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed.”

And according to Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc, in Cincinnati: “This story line absolutely has the potential to be one of the all-time biggest hits in the theme park industry.”

Perhaps the only surprise is that it’s taken so long to secure rights for the park. Since the first book was published in 1997, Harry Potter has become a worldwide phenomenon. Translated into 63 different languages, the series has sold so well you’d think there was magic involved – 325 million copies and counting. Blockbuster films and videogames followed, and the author – a penniless single mum when she began writing the first drafts in Edinburgh tea shops – has become the wealthiest writer in literary history.

Cheaper calls incoming

Holidaymakers are set to make big savings on mobile phone calls after the European parliament voted by a huge majority to slash the cost of notoriously high ‘roaming’ charges within EU countries.

British mobile users currently pay up to £1 per minute to call home from Spain and other European countries. Under the new regulations – expected to be rubber-stamped by governments so that they come into force in August – calls would be capped at 33p per minute, falling to 30p by 2009. Receiving calls will fall from around £2 per minute to 17p, dropping to 13p in two years.

“Action at EU level has come to the rescue of consumers who had been exploited and manipulated by the mobile phone companies for far too long,” says Liberal Democrat MEP, Fiona Hall.

She also warned that text messages and data services – such as internet browsing on your phone – are not covered by the new law, and that “charges for these services are still excessive”.

Only calls made and received within the EU will be covered by the new rules, so if you’re going elsewhere it could pay to check tariffs before your trip. And the phone companies are muttering that one effect of these caps could be higher domestic call charges to offset the loss of profits made from roaming charges – currently £5.8 billion a year.

Passport price

The Great British Passport Price Hike continues. In October, the cost of a new or renewed passport goes up from £66 to £72. That’s the third rise in less than two years – in December 2005 an adult passport cost £42, since when the price has risen by more than 70 per cent. And if you’re in a hurry, the ‘fast track’ service, which processes applications in a week, will cost £97.

The Home Office says the extra cash is to pay for biometric ‘e-passports’ and the 65 offices where mandatory face-to-face interviews will take place for all applicants by 2009, while the Foreign Office reckons it’s to help pay for the increasing demand on consular services to Britons in trouble abroad. Sceptics say that it’s to pay for the identity card scheme.

Flybe goes eco-friendly

Flybe gives passengers green guides when they book flights, so they know the plane’s carbon emissions and can offset these if they want to.

The carrier has joined with PURE, the Clean Planet Trust, to provide two offset options – trading carbon credits on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, or making donations to small-scale eco-projects such as the installation of renewable energy in schools.

“Our eco-label initiative is designed to help consumers identify which type of aircraft or which type of route is the most sensitive choice for the environment,” says the carrier’s chairman, Jim French.

He says airlines should invest in more environmentally sensitive aircraft, and “find the balance between the economic needs of the business and the environmental needs of society.”

Each of Flybe’s 70-strong fleet has been green-graded from A to F.

New at Disney

Disneyland Paris has two new attractions based on its film collaborations with animation studio Pixar – a rollercoaster inspired by Finding Nemo, and a rally race based on Cars. Both in the Toon Studio zone.