British Airports Authority (BAA) reported a rise of 3.4% in total passenger traffic for the month of October, thanks to upturn in the business travel segment.

UKs largest airports operator, BAA announced that its six airports together handled 9.75 million passengers in October, which is an increase of 318,000 air travellers. The surge in the passenger traffic can also be credited to the 1.2% increase in the number of flights in the region.

UKs major getaway, the London Heathrow Airport posted an increase of 6% in its flight traffic along with a rise of 7.2% in passenger figures which is up by 410,000 to 6.1 million. According to BAA, 10.6% increase in Heathrows European travel is an indicator that the European continent is recovering from one of the historys biggest economic depressions. Number of continental travellers from the London Heathrow Airport has swelled by 221,000 to 2.28 million passengers with Geneva, Milan, Moscow and Berlin as the biggest gainers.

Long-haul flights between London Heathrow and China-Hong Kong rose by 16.1%, up by 23,000 to 173,000. Given the fact that the hub serves only two Chinese destinations it is indeed a big development. Long-haul journeys between various BAA airports and North America augmented by 7.5%, while long-haul flights to other regions spiralled by 3.2% to 1.84 million.

Although, it must be noted that increased air passenger duty can impact traffic on such routes. Air travellers who use long-haul flights from UK would like to use other European hubs to avoid the tax.

BAAs Chief Executive, Colin Matthews stated in a press release that Passenger growth is good for the economy with thousands of people across the country employed in aviation, international trade and tourism. We are continuing with our 5 billion Heathrow investment programme the biggest private investment project in the UK providing thousands of jobs as we modernise facilities to improve everyone’s experience of the airport.

“The continued strength of Heathrow reflects an upturn in global economic activity. Low sterling and interest rates make the UK a competitive place to do business. However, government spending cuts, a sharp increase in air passenger duty and an imminent VAT rise are weakening the prospects for in-bound tourism and British leisure travel. Mr Matthews further added.

As of other BAA airports, Edinburgh posted an increase of 3.5% to 854,000 while Southampton mounted up by 1.0% to 157,000.

Passenger traffic in Stansted saw a fall of 3.1% signifying a slump in leisure travel. Glasgow and Aberdeen also experienced a declining passenger traffic with Glasgow down by 7.4% whereas Aberdeen plummeted by 5%.

If you were building a time machine, you need only find a way of travelling back two years to find a land of plenty. Remembering how good it was almost brings tears to your eyes. Every week a bank, credit card company or finance company would mail you their latest offers. Cheap overdrafts, reduced interest with expanding credit limits or yet another way of converting that positive housing equity into cash for spending. There seemed no possibility of this coming to an end. Yet suddenly the price of gas was up to $4 and more a gallon. That proved just a passing straw in the wind. A month or so later came the bank failures, the credit crunch and a full recession with major problems of unemployment. Comfortable lives disappeared. Family budgets suddenly had to pay for debt reduction. Everyone was looking for ways to save money.

Lives must go on but the problem was how to stay mobile. During the good times, towns and cities had exploded. Gone where the high density housing developments close to workplaces. In their place came suburbs and then exurbs. People were organizing their lives around private transport and expecting to commute further and further to get anything done. What do you do when you find you cannot afford to replace your current vehicles but live too far away from work, schools and convenient shops? There is no private transport so, as a first response, you are looking at constantly patching up your old vehicles to keep them moving. But small repairs become major repairs, particularly if your mileage is high or you get into a traffic accident. You look around the neighborhood for carpools. This can work for routine journeys, but it ties you to other people’s timetables. That leaves renting.

If you decide to drive other people around and take payment, you need to check whether your existing policy covers you. The majority of insurers believe taking money makes you a taxi business and they want a higher premium. As with all insurance, use the online search engines to find affordable cover. But, in some parts of the US, it’s now economic to give up ownership. There are new rental systems allowing you to take a vehicle from a local pick-up point as and when you need it. Booking online, you only pay for the vehicle for the hours you use it. Economists have calculated the average yearly spend on car ownership is about $8,000. The average hourly rental rate is $15. That’s 533 hours a year in a rental car before you pay more than an owner. But here comes the warning. The rental car always comes with cheap auto insurance, but the companies are only interested in protecting their capital. You are usually asked to pay more to top up on cover against medical expenses for your own injuries. But even with this extra premium, it’s often significantly cheaper to rent as needed. Even better, you do not pick up from local offices where sales agents pitch extra options. Pick-ups and drop-offs are in local garages with no formalities. Check out what services are on offer in your area. If the cheap auto insurance terms are right, you will save to go down this road.

Urban sprawl never used to be an issue. Even though the latest development might be miles from where you work or the nearest shops, this was never a problem. Most families owned two vehicles. Some three or more. No-one walked. Everyone just jumped in the nearest vehicle and off they went without a second thought until the price of gas rocketed up. Now we have the credit crunch and a recession just bottoming out. Car ownership has become an expensive proposition. Too expensive for some who have been reborn as a one-car family to cut their losses. The first step in crisis management is to find out which of your vehicles is the cheapest make and model to insure. Now balance that against the likely costs of maintenance and repair over the next twelve months. And which will sell for the highest price? When you know which vehicle you are keeping, maximize the number of discounts on the policy, including bundling auto and home together with the same insurer. Except, one vehicle for a busy family may not be practical. What are the options?

Many families talk to their neighbors and work out a carpool. This is reasonably easy to organize for routine journeys. But there is one slight problem. If you are going to carry passengers, you should have insurance to pay their medical costs should they be injured in an accident. It is not safe to drive your neighbors around on the state’s minimum liability cover. Then we come to the always difficult question of sharing the costs of the gas. If the passengers always pay something towards the cost of the journey, many insurers treat this as a business arrangement and require the vehicle owner to take out a commercial policy as a taxi. Needless to say, this turns a friendly social service into an expensive excuse to argue with your neighbors over prices. Of course, you could all agree to lie about the arrangement. But the stories can change rapidly if everyone ends up in a hospital and big bills are presented.

The second option is the new rental plans which site vehicles for rent by the hour in local garages. You book what you want over the internet, travel to the garage for the pick-up and drop it off at the same garage when your time is up. The cost per hour on the standard plans are attractive and, assuming you do not want a vehicle more than an average of one hour every day, you will save money on car ownership. But you do need to look carefully at the insurance offered in the standard plans. Some have poor cover of medical expenses for you as the driver and passengers. Others do not include the loss of use charge if the vehicle is off the road being repaired. Always read the small print. Summing up, finding insurance for a single vehicle means getting multiple auto insurance quotes and finding the one that works for you. If you are going to use your car to drive neighbors around, you also need to get auto insurance quotes to cover the additional liabilities. If you use one of the new rental plans, consider paying extra for LDW which gives more comprehensive protection against loss.

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We are all guilty of being a bit lax on our car maintenance at times, aren’t we? But an eye opening thirteen point six million motorists in the UK admit to not checking their car batteries in the last six months, according to new research produced by a car repair specialist. A further nine point six million car owners have not had their brakes checked in this period.

This could have problematic affects for drivers, with as many as one in six drivers could break down this autumn due to dodgy batteries, and these breakdowns could be avoided by proper car maintenance.

No one wants to break down in their vehicle, but with the nights are drawing in and the weather getting cold, it’s not a great time to do so.

The survey found that the age range most likely to not worry about their car maintenance are the under twenty four year olds, who are least likely to check their tyres, screen wash, lights or wiper blades.

This is a problem for breakdowns, but also for having your MOT, as these things are likely to fail you, costing you more money. Unfortunately, this is more proof for Car Insurance providers that this age range are the most troublesome, and therefore need to be charged larger premiums on a yearly basis.

Car owners over the age of sixty five are far more likely to be concerned with vehicle safety, making the right checks to ensure that their cars are safe for their journeys.