Please note that we are due to withdraw our service between London and Nairobi from 23 September 2012.
The decision to withdraw this service is due to external factors, including increasing costs and a challenging economic environment in both Kenya and Europe during the past five years.

“These are still challenging times for the airline industry and we have to deploy our aircraft to routes with the right levels of customer demand to be financially viable,” Julie Southern, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic.

The last service from London Heathrow to Nairobi (VS671) will operate on 23 September 2012 and the last service from Nairobi to London Heathrow (VS672) will operate 24 September 2012.

London: Three Britons in their 20s have undertaken a record-breaking trip around the world in a cab, travelling over 43,000 miles (over 69,000 km) and putting 80,000 pounds (about $128,600) on the meter. The three friends — Paul Archer, 25, Leigh Purnell, 24, and Johno Ellison, 28 — drove across four continents and 50 different countries in their trusty diesel motor, affectionately called Hannah, the Daily Express reported.

Source

What an interesting story!

One of the judges on the show, Benny Masekwameng is also the Executive Chef at Tsogo Sun, MondoVino Restaurant. Truly a South African homegrown treasure, Benny was lured into the art of preparing and cooking food by his mother, who supplied meals to construction workers in Alexandra Township as an additional income. Benny believes it is this early start in his mom’s kitchen that set him off on his impressive culinary journey. After graduating in Catering Management at the Natal Technikon, Benny held various positions throughout South Africa and joined Tsogo Sun in 2006.

“Chefs are the lifeblood of Tsogo Sun. They delight, inspire and motivate us. We are proud to be the natural home of so many South African homegrown chefs, who with the natural flair of South Africans continues to amaze and enchant our guests with their world class culinary flair. The Wednesday Night Dinners are proving to be very successful with the front office staff setting the scene wearing chefs’ attire and the chef’s really rising to the challenge”. Says Graham Wood, Managing Director at Tsogo Sun – Hotels.”

Patrons can now experience Wednesday Night Dinners at any participating Southern Sun Hotel in the premier brand and be the judge of the dishes prepared the previous evening on the MasterChef SA television show.
Tsogo Sun recently played a part in redefining reality television competition partnership, escalating it to a complete different level, one we have not seen in South Africa before. The winner of the MasterChef SA reality show will become the biggest reality television prize winner in the history of South African television and will receive his or her very own restaurant!

The winner will receive the ‘right of use’ of the Tsogo Sun, MondoVino Restaurant for a period of two years. The restaurant, located at the Piazza at Montecasino, is equipped to the value of R7million. Furthermore, the lucky winner will benefit from all profits made by the restaurant.

In Gauteng patrons can enjoy Wednesday Night Dinners at Southern Sun Hyde Park Sandton, Southern Sun Montecasino, Southern Sun OR Tambo International Airport Hotel, Southern Sun Pretoria and at the SunSquare Montecasino Hotel.

KwaZulu Natal, Wednesday Night Dinner guests can join us at the Southern Sun Elangeni and if you are in the lowveld, join us at the Southern Sun Emnotweni hotel in Mpumalanga.
Southern Sun Cape Sun, Southern Sun The Cullinan and Southern Sun Waterfront Cape Town are ready to impress you with their fine culinary flair at the Wednesday Night Dinners!
Join us and you be the judge!

Jet Airways  announced that as a part of its ongoing network evaluation with a clear focus on profitability, it will be redeploying its assets on its existing route network. This has hence necessitated the temporary suspension of the airline’s A330 Mumbai – Johannesburg flights effective June 12th, 2012.

Source

Hopes dimmed Tuesday of finding more survivors after an overcrowded ferry split in two and sank in northeast India, leaving more than 100 dead and around 100 missing.

Full story / source

2. I got a call from a Kansas Congressman’s (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ”I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts …”

Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, ”Cape Cod is in Massachusetts , Cape Town is in South Africa …”
His response — click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman (Bernie Sanders) called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando . He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that’s not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.

He replied, ‘Don’t lie to me! I looked on the map, and Florida is a very THIN state!!” (OMG)

4. I got a call from a lawmaker’s wife (Landra Reid) who asked, ”Is it possible to see England from Canada ?”

I said, ”No.”

She said, ”But they look so close on the map” (OMG, again!)

5. An aide for a cabinet member (Janet Napolitano) once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas . I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas . When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ”I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.” (Aghhhh)

6. An Illinois Congresswoman (Jan Schakowsky) called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m. and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.

I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn’t understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that. (Must be blonde.)

7. A New York lawmaker, (Jerrold Nadler) called and asked, ”Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?” I said, ‘No, why do you ask?’

He replied, ”Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I’m overweight. I think that’s very rude!”

After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it, (I was dying laughing), I came back and explained the city code for Fresno , Ca. is (FAT – Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage.

8. A Senator John Kerry aide (Lindsay Ross) called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ”Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii ?”

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, Bobby Bright from Ala. who asked, ”How do I know which plane to get on?”

I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ”I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.”

10. Senator Dianne Feinstein called and said, ”I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida . Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?”

I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola and fly on a commuter plane. She said, ”Yeah, whatever, smarty!”

11. Mary Landrieu , La. Senator, called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. “Oh, no I don’t. I’ve been to China many times and never had to have one of those.”

I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa. When I told her this she said, ”Look, I’ve been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!”

12. A New Jersey Congressman (John Adler) called to make reservations, ”I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .”

I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ”Are you sure that’s the name of the town?”

”Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the man.

After some searching, I came back with, ”I’m sorry, sir, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a Rhino anywhere.”

The man retorted, ”Oh, don’t be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!”

So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ”You don’t mean Buffalo , do you?”

The reply? ”Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.”

Now you know why the Government is in the shape it’s in!

Could ANYONE be this DUMB?

YES, THEY WALK AMONG US, ARE IN POLITICS, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BREED.

I don’t write it, I just offer it for your consideration. Like manure, you just gotta spread it around.

Air Botswana will introduce daily flights between Cape Town and Maun effective June 1st 2012. The flights come just ahead of the tourism peak season, giving travelers the opportunity to enjoy a sea and delta holiday experience.
“Introduction of the Maun-Cape Town route is a very exciting development for us at Air Botswana. It is part of our airline’s growth strategy which will see the introduction of several other regional routes”, Joe Motse, Air Botswana Commercial Director said.
Air Botswana currently operates flights from Johannesburg to Maun, Gaborone, Francistown and Kasane.

A Pakistani airliner with 131 people on board crashed in bad weather near Islamabad’s international airport on Friday, a civil aviation official said.

The civilian plane, which was traveling from Pakistan’s biggest city and commercial hub Karachi to the capital Islamabad, crashed about five nautical miles from the airport, said the official, Pervez George, without mentioning casualties.

Source