Mexico’s biggest airline has stopped flying after the failure of a last-ditch bid to rescue it.

Mexicana suspended all operations almost a month after filing for US bankruptcy protection. It had been bought last week for a nominal fee by a group of local investors, who planned to make all cabin crew redundant and then rehire about a quarter of them. However, the cost-cutting plan couldn’t be agreed with the unions.

The group operated 69 aircraft under the Mexicana brand and 35 under the low-cost MexicanaClick, which it started in 2005. MexicanaLink, a separate unit which opened last year, had 15 planes.

Mexicana served more than a dozen routes to the United States, as well as flights to Latin America and Europe. Over the past couple of years, it’s lost market share to budget airlines, and the whole industry suffered when tourism dropped last year in the wake of the swine flu outbreak and the economic crisis. Reports about violence in Mexico have also continued to discourage travel.

by Andy Moreton

Plenty of other airlines have flights to Mexico’s resorts, and Luxique can help you book the best luxury hotels.

I’ve featured a few quirky hotels in these posts, and here’s another: the V8 in Germany, which offers guests the chance to sleep in beds made from cars.

The luxury hotel is based in Stuttgart’s Meilenwerk – an international hub for car dealers – and guests can choose to sleep in anything from a small family saloon to a large limousine.

Built inside the city’s old Boblingen Airport, the hotel also has rooms on three levels within the building’s former control tower. For around £312 ($488) a night, visitors can stay in the spacious Zeppelin Suite featuring a sauna, terrace and landscape views over the old airport grounds.


The four-star hotel incorporates 34 rooms, all themed around the car, so you can rest your head in an old Cadillac at a drive-in cinema, a Mercedes at a car-wash or a Morris Minor at a service station. The motoring motif extends to the reception and the restaurant.

Barcelona City Council has described it as a ‘plague’ that’s causing damage to the city’s monuments through the corrosive droppings. It’s ordered the extermination of 65,000 birds during the next 18 months.

The technique involves luring unsuspecting birds into a small area to feed. A large net is then ejected from a catapult, which traps dozens of the pigeons in one shot. They are then taken away and asphyxiated.

The head of the council’s pest control unit, Victor Peracho, said the insistence by some people on feeding the birds, coupled with the warm climate, had caused the population to become uncontrollable.

The decision has upset some animal rights groups. The President of the Association for the Defence of Animals, Carmen Mendez, said: “It’s cruel and in the end it will do nothing to curb the pigeon population.” She argued that extermination methods only resulted in the pigeons laying more eggs to compensate.

Meanwhile, London – which has long had a pigeon problem – is suffering a new urban menace: seagulls. Many more birds have been attracted inland by rubbish on the streets and in landfill sites.

Seagulls have been known to dive-bomb pedestrians if they feel threatened or are protecting their young. However, a spokesman for the Royal Society for The Protection of Birds, Tim Webb, commented: “They’d much rather poo on people than peck them.” Charming.

by Andy Moreton

Have a flutter and book your luxury hotels in Barcelona and London through Luxique – we have an unrivalled selection.

Scotland’s only year-round passenger ferry service to mainland Europe is to be scrapped.

The operator, DFDS, said the Rosyth to Zeebrugge (Belgium) sailings would end in December after failing to attract enough passengers. Travellers who have booked later trips will be offered a full refund.

The 489-passenger ferry Scottish Viking was purpose-built for the three-times-a-week service, which was launched in a blaze of publicity in May last year.

Despite a busy summer and heavy promotion, the company said it had managed to achieve only 60 per cent of its expected passenger numbers for the year.

DFDS Vice-President, Andreas Teschl, said: “We are aware that the ferry service has provided an important link between Scotland and the continent so it is a matter of deep regret that we have had to take the decision to no longer operate passenger services on the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route.” He said he believed the route had a future as a freight-only service.

Several people who posted messages on the website of the Scottish Daily Record complained that the passenger ferry service had simply been too expensive.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a range of luxury hotels in Edinburgh, Glasgow and many other cities in Scotland.

There was something of a shock for 135 passengers heading for Milan in Italy on an overnight sleeper train. They woke up in Zurich, Switzerland.

Travellers boarded the carriages of two trains on Sunday night in the Spanish city of Barcelona – one was destined for Zurich and the other for Milan. They travelled in convoy to Lyon in France where, in the early hours, technicians were to split them and send them their separate ways. But they confused the destinations.

The staff on one train realised the mistake at the Italian border and the train was sent back, finally arriving at its destination three hours late. However, the Salvador Dali travelled all the way to Zurich before the error was realised.

Still confused? Let a spokesman for Renfe, the Spanish rail company, explain: “Signallers made a mistake during the points switch in Lyon. The drivers of the two locomotives went the right way but they left Lyon with the wrong set of carriages.”

This ‘train hotel’ service called Elipsos is particularly popular with British students who spend the summer inter-railing around Europe. Its slogan? Wake Up To A New Skyline.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can help you find a luxury hotel in Barcelona, Milan or Zurich … whether you’re there by accident or design.