No more Zoom Since we have been here a lot of our friends have shown interest in coming to visit us, which is fantastic of course. The bad news is that the trip may just have gotten more expensive as the only alternative to British Airways filed for bankruptcy this afternoon leaving many passengers stranded at both Glasgow and Cardiff airports.

Zoom Airlines is or was a UK and Canadian operation founded by two brothers, Scottish travel industry gurus' Hugh and John Boyle in 2004. Their business model involved eliminating third parties from the booking process but with the fierce competiton and the even fiercer price of fuel, the budget airline struggled in their services to Canada, Trinidad, Guyana and Bermuda.

Certainly Zoom offered some cheaper deals if you were not choosy on dates but the flight time from Gatwick was a good hour longer than the BA flight as it flew further north over the Atlantic and according to some people I have spoken to often made unannounced stop-overs in New York for refuelling.

With Zoom owing money to air traffic controllers and aircraft owners, passengers sat on an plane at Glasgow waiting to go to Calgary but meanwhile one of the girls in our office was happily telling everyone this morning that her parents were on the Gatwick flight and were due to land at 1.45pm. It had taken off because she had checked. Well they may have problems getting home, but a better problem I would think than those poor sods stuck in Glasgow and Gatwick.  ¶ 16:51