Travel Wires

Uber black spots not just in London Now London has suspended Uber’s licence, it might be time to update the app. Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy and Hungary have outlawed Uber; it faces suspension in Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Barcelona. Uber has quit Austin, Texas, and Alaska, and been outlawed in Vancouver. It sold its Chinese operation and Taiwan has made life impossible. Australia’s notoriously protective taxi industry is doing its best to run Uber out of town but only the Northern Territory has banned it. Cunard expands its fleet Cunard will launch a new 3000-passenger ship in 2022, joining the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. Its parent, Carnival, says it has ambitious plans for the famous line. Cunard has spent $225m to update the QM2 and Queen Victoria. Ship stats for cruise aficionados OK, cruise junkies, we know these things float your boat. The world's biggest cruise ships are … By passenger capacity: Symphony of the Seas, due in 2018, 6870; four unnamed MSC ships: 6850; Harmony of the Seas: 6780. By length: Harmony, two Royal Caribbean ships due in 2018 and 2021: 1888ft. By gross tonnage: Symphony of the Seas and another Oasis ship, due in 2021: 230,000GT; Harmony: 226,963GT. Harmony of the Seas is the current record-holder. TranzAlpine makes the grade Cheers to the TranzAlpine, named by National Geographic as one of the world’s most scenic train journeys, sharing tracks with Russia’s Trans-Siberian, South Africa’s Blue Train and Australia’s Ghan. Travel Agents reap the awards Billy Ballantine of House of Travel Lakers, Invercargill has won the best retail consultant category at the Travel Agents Association NZ awards. HOT also took the best travel agency brand. Best corporate consultant was Paul Johnson of Orbit World Travel Hamilton. Best brand retail single location was You Travel Ferrymead and top brand retail multi-location was helloworld Blenheim. Helloworld North Harbour’s Michelle Malcolm was best retail agency manager and Grant Avis from Gilpin Travel was best corporate agency manager. Avalon Waterways took the award for best river cruise operator and Carnival NZ was top ocean cruise operator. Lufthansa was best offline airline and Air NZ took best online airline at the award ceremony attended by 700 people in Auckland on Saturday night. — travel@nzherald.co.nz