New flights to Barcelona

Monarch Airlines is to launch flights from Gatwick to Barcelona on October 21. with fares from £57 return including all taxes and charges. It will start with a daily service, increasing it to 11 round trips a week from October 30. Monarch recently scrapped fees for passengers booking with debit cards and introduced a fixed charge for credit cards bookings, regardless of the transaction value or the number of people travelling.

Another operator launches Burma tours

Voyages Jules Verne is the latest tour operator to launch tours to Burma following the lifting of a call for tourists to boycott travel there by pro democracy campaigner Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Its programme includes a twop week trip incorporating a cruise on the Irrawaddy from £1995. Last week another firm, Explore, announced it was returning to the country after an absence of 16 years.

Tag your own bags trial at Gatwick

A self service system allowing passengers to tag their own bags has been carried out successfully at Gatwick Airport. News of the test, which appear to have slipped under the publicity radar, emerged today in the final report by the Government's South East Airports task force. The report said Gatwick had been working with Norwegian Air Shuttle but further details of the system and a timetable for its permanent introduction were not immediately available. Two years ago transport communications and information technology specialist company SITA launched a self service check in kiosk which are able to print tags and allow passengers to check on the status of delayed bags and file reports if their luggage doesn't turn up without queuing to talk to an agent. Self check in is already widespread. The advantage of enabling passengers to tag their hold baggage is that it allows them to avoid the check in desk altogether.

Welsh tempter

Peak summer deals continue to emerge. The Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and Spa in mid-Wales is offering a free cream tea and a bottle of pink cava to guests booking two night breaks. Available between Sunday and Friday until September 7 the breaks cost £191 a head based on two sharing and include full Welsh breakfast and a five course dinner. Must be booked by phone – 01691 870692.

Ryanair flexes muscles at Manchester

Ryanair has announced huge expansion at Manchester. The controversial low cost airline will up the number of routes it operates from the city's airport from six to 17 in October, and to 26 by summer next year. They will include Barcelona (Girona), Biarritz, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Rome, Oslo and Valencia.

Air Asia quits Stansted for Gatwick

Air Asia X will switch its flights from Stansted to Gatwick on October 24. It currently operates six round trips a week to Kuala Lumpur. The airline, long haul arm of low cost carrier Air Asia, wants to take advantage of Gatwick's bigger European network, which it thinks will attract more passengers to its services. It says it will notify individually any passengers already booked to fly from Stansted.

Holiday rents - big price cuts

As the travel industry battles to attract customers a leading holiday rental firm has launched its first summer sale. A total of 1140 properties listed by Holidaylettings.co.uk are now available until October 31 at discounts of at least 20%. Among them are homes in France, Spain and the UK. A glance at the site reveals some deep price cuts, such as reduction of £1450 in the rental cost of a 5 bedroom house in the Dordogne (was £2200) and £850 off the price of a bungalow in Devon (originally £1395).

Travel industry woes

A big shake out could be on the way in the UK tour operating business. Gloom pervades. Some firms may be bucking the trend but equally, there may be a certain amount of whistling to keep up the spirits. The latest manifestation comes in the shape of a profits warning from Thomas Cook, in which it says the effect of political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa will be greater than was estimated earlier – particularly on its French operations – and the profitability of its UK business continues to be impacted by the difficult trading conditions, mainly as a result of the continued squeeze on consumers' disposable income. Across the travel industry soaring oil prices, political upheavals and job insecurity are making every booking a triumph. So far the economic maelstrom has claimed relatively few scalps. Nobody's expecting big internationally based operators to go to the wall but there's a feeling in the industry that some smaller ones, feeling that events are ganging up against them, may just decide to fold their tents and walk away.

New hotel in Porto

Porto has a new luxury hotel. The InterContinental Porto-Palacio das Cardosas, which has just opened, is housed in a 200 years old palace on the city's main Liberdade square. It incorporates the Cafe Astoria – replicating the cafe which was part of the palace's ground floor at the start of the last century – with an outdoor terrace where guests can drink coffee and eat pastries. The hotel has 105 bedrooms, 16 suites, a gym and a “wellness centre”. Porto, Portgual's second city, lies on the Douro. Among its attractions are tours and tastings in the great Port lodges such as Sandeman, Cockburn and Taylor's.

Lufthansa to launch Gatwick - Frankkfurt flights

Lufthansa is to launch flights to Frankfurt from Gatwick. The German airline will start flying from the airport daily when it switches to its winter timetable on October 30. It already operates to Frankfurt from other UK airports including Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Major tour firm offers skiing in Russia

Britain's biggest ski holiday operator, Crystal, is to offer packages to Sochi in Russia, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics for the coming season. Skiing there is on the slopes of three nearby resorts: Gazprom - as in the oil giant - Rosa Khutor and Mountain Carousel. Watch out for details in Crystal's new brochure, due to be published later this month