Day Trip to the Hoverport at Boulogne-sur-Mer

Last year The Tim Traveller created an excellent video about the last remaining Hoverport from the halcyon days of cross channel Hovercraft operations - at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Tim's video spurred the thought - would it be possible to do a day trip from London to Boulogne?

The easiest option would be to drive to Folkestone, take Le Shuttle, and drive straight to Boulogne.

But what about travelling without a car ... going by train to Dover ... and ferry Calais ... and train to Boulogne ... is that feasible?

Train to Dover

In order to make the 10.40am DFDS ferry (see below) you'd need the 7.10am train from Victoria (arriving Dover Priory 9.09am) or the Javelin departing St Pancras at 8.07am (arriving Dover Priory at 9.12am).

In order to make the 11.30am P&O ferry (see below) you'd need the 7.29am train from Victoria (arriving Dover Priory 9.31am) or the Javelin high speed departing St Pancras at 8.07am (arriving Dover Priory at 9.12am).

Ferry to Calais

Unfortunately there's only three P&O ferries a day which take foot passengers - with departures from Dover at 9.45am, 1.40pm and 4.40pm.  P&O also have a 90 minute checkin deadline, so with the port being a 20 minute taxi ride from the station (or 30 minutes walk downhill or a 15 minute cycle), you'd need to get into Dover Priory by 7.45am / 11.40am / 2.40pm to make the checkin cutoff.

However, if you're on a bicycle all the P&O sailings become available, including the 11.30am departure (getting into Calais at 2pm) - and cyclists also benefit from a more civilised 60 minute checkin requirement.

Irish Ferries do not accept foot passengers or cyclists across the Channel. Thankfully DFDS do allow cyclists (but not foot passengers) on their services, including the 10.40am departure which arrives into Calais at 1.20pm with their slightly longer sailing time.

Train to Boulogne

Getting from the Port of Calais to Calais Ville station takes about 15 minutes by taxi, 20 minutes by bus, 15 by bicycle or half an hour walking.

The train from Calais Ville to Boulogne-sur-Mur takes just 27 minutes, with the slower service taking 32 minutes but delivering you into the centre of Boulogne at the Tintelleries station.  The Calais Frethun service (as well as being 10km out of town) uses a TGV trainset.  Trains operate every couple of hours.

Cyclists can bring standard bicycles on regional trains in the Haut France region without a reservation between start of November and the start of May (subject to space).

The Velo A Bord website from SNCF confirms that no reservation is needed until the end of April.

Getting from Boulogne-sur-Mer station to the old Hoverport takes about 45 minute walking, or 12 minutes cycling or 6 minutes in a taxi.

With the two hour gap between trains, on Saturdays the last train back from Boulogne to get to Calais in time for the 8.10pm ferry (see below) departs Boulogne soon after 5pm, arriving into Calais Ville just after 5.30pm.  On weekdays there's departures around 5.27pm and 6.13pm which get into Calais Ville with enough time to catch the 8.10pm ferry.

Back to Blighty

The last P&O ferry which takes foot passengers departs Calais at 7pm arriving into Dover at 7.30pm - so you'd need to be at the port in Calais to check in by 5.30pm.

Cyclists have extra P&O ferry options including the 8.10pm departure (arriving 8.40pm) and the 10.25pm departure (arriving 10.55pm) - with a normal 60 minute checkin time.

Cyclists also have the option of DFDS ferries including their 6.05pm departure (arriving 6.45pm), the 7.35pm departure (arriving 8.15pm) and the 11.10pm departure (arriving 11.50pm) - also with a 1 hour checkin deadline.

London bound

Getting to Dover Priory station from the ferry terminal takes about 10 minutes in a taxi, 15 minutes on a bicycle or something over half an hour on foot.

The last direct train to London Victoria on Saturday departs around 10.15pm (taking just over 2 hours) and the last Javelin high speed train to St Pancras departs around 10.45pm (taking just over an hour).

On Sundays the last departure for London is before 10pm.  On weekdays the last Victoria departure is around 9.45pm with the 10.45pm high speed Javelin departure the last of the day.

Pricing

Taking Le Shuttle for a day trip can cost around £100 for a car and up to nine passengers if booked in advance.  If you wanted to travel tomorrow it would cost £148 plus fuel costs.

Taking the ferry, either as a foot passenger or on a bicycle, costs around £50 for the return journey.  The return train from London to Dover is around £30 with a Network Railcard.  And the return train from Calais to Boulogne about £17.50 giving a total of nearly £100 per person.

Conclusion

Since there aren't any trains from London that get into Dover in time for the 8.15am morning sailing checkin deadline - it is not possible to do this daytrip as a foot passenger.

Taking a bicycle opens up more ferries, with 8.07am Javelin from St Pancras connecting nicely with the 10.40 DFDS ferry, arriving at 1.20pm into Calais.

Taking the 2.34pm train from Calais Ville you would have a couple of hours in Boulogne before getting the 5.08pm service from Boulogne back to Calais.

Departing Calais on the 8.10pm P&O or the 7.35pm DFDS ferry would get into Dover in plenty of time to catch a train back to London.

Fred Olsen Express - Web Plus

Booking a ferry from El Hierro to Tenerife the morning before flying out of TFS seemed a little risky, so I opted to spend some extra euros on a Fred Olsen Web+ fare in case the weather looked dicey and I needed to change to the previous day.

The Web+ fare came with "1 Free Consumption" ... but despite searching high and low I couldn't find any information about this free consumption that they spoke of!

Having successfully obtained my freebies, I'm sharing how it works.

My first advice is do what the locals do and queue early at the cafe.  The ferry does roll significantly even in calm waters, so it's much easier to get your consumptions in before things get too sporty!  I even saw one passenger being escorted / dragged around by a crew member as she was too unsure on her feet.

Secondly you need to decide what you want - your One Consumption means a Main Option (mostly sandwiches) + Drink + Snack (mostly crisps).  You will hear the staff telling the people in front of you what the sandwiches options are long before you reach the front of the queue!

Once it's your turn you simply give them your name, and they find you on a list on their till, and then you place your order.  No scanning your ticket or anything complicated.

For our party of three I ordered coffees, sandwiches and fruit.  The lovely lady kept offering me crisps, and seemed to have so much fruit that we got double helpings!

Then the challenge is to get back to your seat without spilling your consumptions!

Comfort

If you choose to upgrade further you can pay for a Comfort fare.

This includes a more spacious lounge, but is probably only worth it in the height of Summer as the main cabin wasn't that busy when we travelled just after Christmas.

Here's what the Oro cabin looks like - take from the door as I was passing by!

Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental

Back in September 2003 I flew on Concorde from Heathrow to JFK just a month before the iconic aircraft ceased commercial service.

And whilst I've flown on Boeing 747-400s over half a dozen times, I've never had the pleasure of flying on the final version of the Queen of the Skies!

Sadly there's only a handful of airlines which fly the Boeing 747 (either 400 or 8i) with the number gradually reducing year by year.  Many of the B747s are flown by cargo airlines.  And most of the remaining passenger aircraft are exclusively flown on long haul routes.

Air China's fleet of four B747-400 and five B747-8s do still get used on short haul flights.

So last year I booked a ticket on CA1557 from PEK to SHA in the hopes of getting a ride on the scheduled B787-8i, well aware that aircraft swaps regularly happen.  Sadly an aircraft swap did indeed happen, and I ended up on an old Airbus A330.

Chastened by the the experience, I started to build a spreadsheet of when the B747-8i did actually operate CA1557 to see if I could establish any patterns.

With 15 months of data, the headline is that you have less than a 1 in 3 chance of riding a Queen if you book a random CA1557.

For those lucky enough to travel on the week commencing 14th April 2025 they had a 5 in 7 chance of a B747-8i, otherwise the best weeks had a 4 in 7 chance.

Sunday was the best day of the week with more than a 1 in 2 chance last year, with Wednesday having just under a 1 in 2 chance.

Spring and Summer Sundays

Between the end of March and the end of August, 20 out of 23 Sundays saw a B747-8i operating the flight.  Of the three Sundays where a smaller plane operated, two of the following Monday saw the Queen in service.

Conclusions

For the best chance of catching a ride on a B747-8i you really need a flexible ticket, so that once an aircraft has been allocated a couple of days in advance, you can swap your flight if needed.

Book a seat on CA1557 on a Spring or Summer Sunday to give yourself the best chance of success.

Let me know if you find any other short haul flights with a decent chance of a B747-8i.

Total Solar Eclipse - 12th August 2026

Back in 1999 instead of heading to Cornwall like normal people did, I took a trip to Compiègne in Northern France to see the Total Solar Eclipse.  It was a stunning experience - my biggest memories are of the animals freaking out in the complete darkness ... and the packed train afterward going back to Paris with people crying trying to get to the toilets!

So with the first mainland European TSE since 1999 crossing Spain this August, it's time to plan a trip ... and hopefully avoid trains with people crying!

With the north coast of Spain typically having considerable cloud cover in August, my first thought was to fly to Valencia, hire a car, and head into the zone of totality.  But then I saw that Spain's Mediterranean coast typically has some cloud cover in August as well.

So my next thought was to fly to Madrid, and either hire a car or even better take a train north to head deep into the zone!

With plenty of train lines north of Madrid, there are a good few choices that wouldn't need a car.

The three places with high speed links from Madrid that jump out are Calatayud (on the Zaragoza line), Burgos and Palencia.

Five months in advance, all the train services may not yet be available for purchase, so using Wednesday 10th June as a proxy, timings from Madrid are:

Calatayud - just over 2 hours, with a direct bus or three metros taking 40 minutes to get to Atocha station, and the high speed train taking 75 minutes non stop to Calatayud.  There's a 2.30pm and 3.30pm departures from Atocha that gets in at 3.40pm and 4.40pm which cost around 30 euro.

Burgos - just under 2.5 hours, with two metros to get from the airport to Chamartín station, and then 100 minutes on the high speed train costing around 30 euro.  There should be a 2.45pm departure that gets into Rosa Manzano station in Burgos around 4.30pm and a 5.40pm train that should get into Burgos by 7.30pm - but recollections vary!

Palencia - a bit over 2 hours, with two metros to get from the airport to Chamartín station, and then about 1.5 hours on the high speed train costing around 40 euro.  There's a 3pm departure that gets into Palancia before 4.30pm and a 5pm train that would also get there in time.

Valladolid - about 1.75 hours, with two metros to get from the airport to Chamartín station, and then under an hour on the high speed train costing upwards of 10 euro. From 1pm there are seven trains that would get to Valladolid in time for the TSE.

Sleeping

With the TSE happening around 8.30pm it's too late to make the last flight back to London from Madrid.  So where to lay your hat for the night?

Calatayud - virtually no accommodation available

Burgos - not much accommodation left, and crazy expensive

Palencia - virtually no accommodation available

Valladolid - 1 reasonably price place available on Booking.com

Segovia - a few reasonable places available

Zaragoza - virtually no accommodation available

Madrid - plenty of reasonably prices accommodation available

Trains back to Madrid

Extra trains may be scheduled closer to the time, but currently the last trains back to Madrid are:

Calatayud - there's normally a 9.35pm departure, but it's not currently available

Burgos - normally no Madrid departures after TSE time

Palencia - there's usually a 9pm and a 9,30p departure for Madrid

Valladolid - departures at 9.06pm and 9.23pm for 60 euro and 50 euro respectively

Segovia - departures at 9.44pm and 9.58pm for 40 euro and 60 euro respectively

Realistic Options

With the challenge of accommodation and trains back to Madrid, it seems like Valladolid (87 seconds of totality) or Segovia (56 seconds of totality) are the best options.  Whilst it would be great to head deeper into the zone with Burgos experiencing 104 seconds of totality - it seems like it wouldn't be worth the extra 17 seconds of total darkness.

Times below are in GMT, so add 2 hours for CEST.

Flights

The cheapest option starts at £116 for return flights on Ryanair from Stansted.

More pleasantly timed flights are likely to be closer to £200 for the return trip.

There is even the odd Avios reward seat still available, but I never find London - Madrid a particularly good use of points.

Conclusion

With the challenge of accommodation and trains, it seems like Valladolid or Segovia are probably the more resilient options.

But prices / availability are likely to only go in one direction in the coming months!

  

British Airways CEO fireside chat

In April 2019 the then British Airways chief executive Alex Cruz gave a talk at the Royal Aeronautical Society's Heathrow Branch, and yesterday it was the turn of the current CEO Sean Doyle to give us his views.

In 2019 I left BA's hq with the impression that Cruz's primary mission was to tell you how great he was - that he deserved "both parachutes" in Father Ted terms!

I left the Waterside building yesterday with the impression that Sean Doyle is pretty much the opposite of Alex Cruz on that front.  Sean even talked about the need to be yourself and that anything else would be seen as "fake" (high viz jacket reference?).  He also talked about the need to avoid obsessing over networking, and just get on and do your job well.

Fireside Chat

Whereas Alex Cruz gave a structured talk, Sean Doyle chatted to Jonathon Counsell (an IAG director) so unfortunately a lot of the evening was spent listening to Counsell's views rather than Sean's.  It almost seemed like Jonathon thought that he should be running British Airways!

Fleet News

After an initial run through the BA financials (very healthy), we got to hear about some of the upcoming aircraft changes.  New First Class cabins on the A380 will be coming "later this year".  At the same time the A380s will get the Club Suite during their D-Checks starting from mid Summer.  Doyle did admit that BA left the old ying-yang seats without all aisle access on planes "probably too long".  Sean thinks that the current fleet of 12 A380s is probably about right, and has no plans to buy any extra.

He pointed to the B777-9 order as sort of replacing the retired B747s.  And the ordered A350-1000s with higher gross take off weight as replacing the older B777s in the current fleet.

Sean highlighted that the higher efficiencies of modern engines come with trade offs - and that the lower "time on wing" of the B787 engines illustrates this.  He pointed out that B787 engine problems had plagued the type for around half of their operational lives!

Doyle doesn't think the A321XLR is right for BA's business.  Neither did he sound optimistic about a future supersonic aircraft in the BA fleet.  He did talk about the BA fleet shifting towards more long haul aircraft with the suggestion that the current fleet is too heavily weighted towards short haul.

And whilst British Airways will continue to launch the odd new US route, it sounded like he thinks they've almost maxed out on the USA.  He specifically stated that he expected to open up "a bit more rest of the world and Asia" routes as the fleet rebalanced towards long haul.

He is also excited about the introduction of Starlink across the fleet which will mostly happen in the second half of this year and early next year.  He wouldn't give an exact date but said he expected the first BA aircraft with Starlink (which he described as a "game changer") imminently.

BA Operations

Doyle repeatedly used the phrase "Culture eats Strategy for breakfast" as he emphasised the need for people to work together and to focus on execution.  He explained the dramatic improvement in on time departures (up 20 percentage points in two years from a historic low) as partly being due to organising staff into "zone" teams and making sure everybody knew who their manager was.

He admitted that coming out of the pandemic the airline didn't have enough staff and didn't have enough experience and that their IT systems were "fragile".  He repeated a journalist's report that he had been apologising even more than Boris Johnson for pandemic woes.  But he pointed out that the day after the Heathrow fire shutdown in March 2025, the airline ran 94% of their schedule operation and achieved an 88% punctuality rate - despite planes and people being in the wrong places.

Frequent Flyers

Despite receiving 60 questions from the audience in advance of the event, Counsell only asked a handful, including just one on the changes to BA's frequent flyer scheme.  Doyle defended the changes claiming that rewarding spend rather than flying was how airlines would have setup their schemes if they had the technology originally.  And he insisted this is the way that the airline industry is moving, pointing out that all three big US carriers have already made the change.

Doyle also claimed that high spending, but low frequency travellers, not getting top tier status was "starting to be a problem", and claimed that the changes were only fair.  He also outlined the additional opportunities to earn status points through holiday purchases, credit card spend etc.  He expects to see Gold member numbers increase, and a reduction in Silver and Bronze - but admitted there would be "churn" across all tiers.

Sean also stated that the swap to awarding Avios points based on revenue spend had resulted in additional Avios being issued.

IT

Doyle admitted that the British Airways app had fallen behind expected industry levels.  And he revealed that the brand new app is currently on it's 11th trial version.  He stated it will (finally) be released "by the Summer" and expects the user experience to be much better very quickly once it's released.  In contrast Virgin Atlantic has released their app with initially very limited improvements. 

Sean said that last September he turned off the power to the old servers in BA's Cranebank building, and that all their data in now in the Cloud.  He also mentioned that British Airways IT services are now back in house, and praised their IT director.

Heathrow 3rd Runway

Doyle emphasised that UK based airlines employ eight times the number of staff on home soil than foreign airlines operating out of UK airports.  He is making a pitch for a "fair share" of additional slots that a third runway at Heathrow would bring.

He also pointed to the project risks involved in rerouting the M25 and the phenomenal costs, highlighting how much cheaper a second runway at Gatwick will be, and talked about passenger fees approaching £60 per person.

Sean also made the point that additional flights from Heathrow would mean chasing after connecting and more price conscious flyers - which would make an increase in passenger fees after a £49bn new runway even more of a problem.

Why Ireland?

As a closing question Counsell asked Doyle why so many Irish people lead airlines!  Sean pointed to Irish people needing / loving to travel and how Willie Walsh and Alan Joyce had broken the glass ceiling.  He even sounded positive about Michael O'Leary and respected his obsession with cost control. Earlier in the evening Doyle recounted that his first interview at British Airways in 1998 included a flight from Ireland to Stansted ... on Ryanair!

British Airways Avios needed per Mile Flown - Business Class

Late last year British Airways increased the number of Avios required for redemption flights.

Sydney went from 145,000 Avios to 159,500 Avios

Santiago, Buenos Aires & Singapore went from 110,000 Avios to 121,000 Avios

Tokyo, Mauritius, HK, Brazil & Shanghai went from 100,000 Avios to 110,000 Avios

India, most of the Americas, South Africa & Nairobi went from 90,000 Avios to 99,000 Avios

Pakistan, East Americas, Middle East, Lagos & Accra went from 80,000 Avios to 88,000 Avios

Abuja & Jeddah went from 70,000 Avios to 77,000 Avios

Head for Points today updated their table of Avios needed per Mile flown in Business Class - so it was a good reminder to update the graph!

With the increase being roughly 10% across the board, the relative Avios per Mile required for different destinations hasn't changed.  It is a useful reminder that generally the further you fly, the better the use of Avios.  And that Riyadh & Lagos are poor redemptions in terms of miles flown.

Of course, the real value is comparing Avios redemptions with cash fares!

Heathrow - West Drayton or Hayes & Harlington hack

A few years ago Transport for London hit Heathrow travellers with price rises - which spawned the Hatton Cross hack.

As well as the tube charging a premium for airport travel, the Elizabeth Line also whacks on a hefty surcharge for venturing into the airport grounds.

A trip from Bond Street to Heathrow T5 will set you back an eye watering £13.90 with no discount for travelling off peak.  At this price even the ludicrously expensive Heathrow Express starts to look reasonable!

But if you alight at West Drayton instead - which has up to 7 trains per hour in peak - you benefit from a massive discount!  A whopping £10.10 off peak.

From West Drayton or Hayes & Harlington stations it's around 20 minutes on the bus into the Central Bus station for Terminals 2 or 3 - which uses up £1.75 of your saving.

If you just miss the bus at West Drayton, and if you don't have heavy bags, you may be able to canter down the road and jump on your bus at the end stop if there's a decent amount of traffic!

From West Drayton it's also easy to get to hotels or venues around the Bath Road - but to get to T5 it gets a bit more complicated with an extra bus or (free) tube / train required.

With the Heathrow premium applying to all Liz Line trips, this hack also works from other stations.  So for example Ealing Broadway to Heathrow will set you back £8.40 or £7.50 off peak.  But going to West Drayton costs just £3.20 or £2.30 off peak.

West Drayton is on the main Slough / Reading route rather than Heathrow spur - so if you're taking advantage of this saving, make sure you board the correct train!

There's also the 278 and SL9 buses from Hayes & Harlington to the Central Bus station - so you can take a Heathrow train and take a bus from H&H if that works better.