expansion

A MULTI-MILLION upgrade is set to transform a popular Center Parcs resort.

The family-favourite holiday park has announced it is building brand-new lodges as well as adding thrilling activities to its roster – including an aerial ride.

The Center Parcs in Co. Longford is set in 400 acres of forest with over 100 attractions – and it’s undergoing a €100million expansion (£87million).

The holiday park has announced that it is adding even more activities to its site including an aerial zipline.

It will be called the Forest Glider which is expected to open in autumn – and it’s described as “a continuous-loop, gravity-fed ride”.

It was also announced in August 2025, that it would be adding a lakeside restaurant to its site.

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And even more guests will be able to book a stay there too as it is constructing a further 83 new lodges.

In the planning phase are treehouses which will be a top of the range stay across two storeys with hot tubs and gaming dens.

Currently, there are 466 lodges, but the expansion will bring that number up to 693 and the capacity of guests up to 3,500.

Some other lodges are already being built with bookings available to make between December 2026 and April 2027.

These were announced last year, it said “we’re introducing new Forest Lodges with Hot Tubs for the ultimate relaxing break and spacious 6-Bedroom Woodland Lodges for larger groups“.

The Forest Lodges with hot tubs are the ones you’ll want to book for the ultimate “relaxing break”.

Each bedroom has an additional en-suite bathroom – and inside the main lodge is also a wine cooler, hydrobath and even a private sauna in some three-bedroom Forest Lodges.

Most of its four-bedroom Forest Lodges have games rooms with pool tables.

Meanwhile, six-bedroom Woodland Lodges are also being built which are ideal for larger groups as they sleep up to 12.

Inside are spacious bedrooms, family bathrooms, shower rooms and a generous open plan living space along with a fully-fitted kitchen.

The Irish Independent reported that one of the new six-bedroom lodges for up to 12 was priced from €1,899 (£1,660.58) for a four-night midweek stay early next year.

The price rises to €5,099 (£4,458.82) for the same period over the February midterm.

The Irish Center Parcs site officially opened on July 29, 2019 and since then has welcomed over one million guests.

It’s built around a man-made lake which is used for watersports like canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, and even sessions on an inflatable obstacle course.

All Center Parcs sites come with a Subtropical Swimming Paradise, and this one is Ireland‘s largest indoor water park.

It’s included in the price for guests who can take advantage of its indoor and outdoor pools, along with kids’ splash zones and whirlpools, along with its Canopy Café.

Some of the most popular activities are its adventure golf, aerial adventure and laser combat.

A recent addition at the site are two escape rooms, The Plant Room and Forest Laboratory.

For more on Center Parcs, here’s the latest on the new holiday park set to open in Scotland.

And here are the nine most popular Hols From £9.50 holiday parks of last year.

WITH Heathrow Airport set to add a third runway, there are growing fears that it could increase the price of flights.

Airlines warn that the planned expansion could result in a £250 price increase for passengers on a family fare.

With the expansion set to cost £33billion, The Times has reported that airlines are “seriously worried” that Heathrow’s landing charge will increase to pay back the cost of the project for investors.

Their landing fees are already the highest in the world.

In July 2025, Heathrow Airport proposed to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to increase airport charges to fund the expansion.

The average charge over the next five years could increase to around £33.26 per passenger, up from the current average of £28.46 per passenger.

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Now, The Times added that airline bosses have pointed out that the cost of the project would add “at least” £60-£65 to average ticket prices.

This means that the additional cost for a family of four could be as much as £250.

Officials from IAG – the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus – raised their concerns to Downing Street.

Another group called ‘Heathrow Reimagined’ have written to Rachel Reeves about the expansion.

The letter raised points that going ahead with the current model will “deliver a scheme which negatively impacts connectivity, competitiveness and the wider UK economy“.

It added that increased charges that are “already the highest in the world” would undermine the “government’s commitment to reduce the cost of living.”

The letter was signed by the boss of IAG, the chief of Virgin Atlantic and the director-general of the airline trade body International Air Transport Association (Iata).

However, a Heathrow spokeswoman told The Times: “Expansion provides a rare opportunity to drive real economic growth for the UK and deliver value for future generations of passengers.

“With demand consistently outpacing supply, incumbent airlines currently compete to charge a premium and the evidence speaks for itself: airfares at Heathrow have risen by 30 per cent in real terms since 2014, whilst the airport passenger charge has decreased by 19 per cent.”

They added that the analysis has “shown fares will be lower with expansion than without it” and said that they did not “recognise those numbers nor have we seen calculations that would support them.”

The huge expansion for the UK’s busiest airport was given the green light in November 2025.

The Heathrow proposals involve building a 3,500-metre runway which will require a new M25 tunnel and bridges to be built 130 metres west of the existing motorway.

The expansion is estimated to cost £33billion which includes building a 3,500 metre runway.

It will see Heathrow’s capacity increase to 756,000 flights and 150 million passengers per year.

The project has received government backing and is moving forward, but it has not yet received final planning approval or development consent.

Heathrow Airport is making other big changes this year…

London Heathrow will undergo a series of developments this year starting with Terminal 2 and 4…

The airport will improve the passenger experience by using AI-technology and has plans to make flights more punctual along with better baggage facilities.

 Heathrow Airport revealed it will start upgrading Terminal 4 next year costing £1.3billion.

The first step will be building a new multi-storey car park and upgrading its check-in area.

The works will be phased to ensure that there’s no disruption to the running of Terminal 4 – and these are expected to be completed in 2031.

Over in Terminal 2, Heathrow has announced that work will also begin on a new baggage system that will be able to handle 31,000 bags each day.

In order to speed up flights and improve punctuality, it will install AI-powered turnaround tech. This will involve a network of cameras being installed across Heathrow.

Using AI to analyse data, the airport will speed up turnaround times between flights, which will make journeys more punctual.

Coverage is expected to be across all terminals by the end of 2026.

A MAJOR regional airport in the UK has launched its largest ever flight schedule as it prepares for its busiest year yet.

Newcastle Airport is expecting to see six million passengers this year, as it adds 19 new routes.

New destinations include Lisbon and Porto in Portugal; Nice in France; Palermo in Italy and Preveza in Greece.

A number of flight routes are also returning to the airport including Berlin in Germany; Copenhagen in Denmark and Enfidha in Tunisia.

And there will be services to:

• Malta
• Antalya
• Malaga
• Alicante
• Gran Canaria
• Tenerife
• Paris
• Faro
• Geneva
• Paphos

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Of the new routes, easyJet will start flights to Nice, France in March 2026 and Malta this summer.

The airline will also start flights to Faro in Portugal between March and October and to Enfidha, Tunisia, flights will begin in time for summer.

Jet2 will start operating flights to Preveza, Greece in May 2026, for the summer season and flights to Palermo, Sicily from May too, with weekly flights until November.

The airline will also launch its first flights to Porto in Portugal in May, running for the summer season until October.

The airport also recently announced that easyJet is launching new routes to Lisbon and Rome Fiumicino.

The two routes will launch this summer with the Newcastle to Rome route starting on March 30 and the Newcastle to Lisbon route starting on June 22.

Both new routes will operate on Mondays and Fridays.

Leon McQuaid, director of Aviation Development at Newcastle Airport, said: “Lisbon is a brand-new destination from Newcastle Airport and one we’ve been keen to deliver for the region on the back of strong customer demand and feedback, so it’s fantastic to see flights and package holidays now on sale, alongside easyJet’s new route to Rome.”

“With just two months to go until easyJet opens its new base, this investment is not only delivering exciting new routes but will also bring significant economic benefits to the North East, including creating 130 direct jobs and supporting around 1200 UK jobs in total as well as attracting more visitors to the region.”

The new routes come as the airport expects 120,000 passengers this half-term, which is a 10 per cent increase compared to last year.

In total, over 750 flights will arrive and depart the airport, with popular destinations including Alicante, Antalya, Dubai and Tenerife.

Ski trips are also expected to be popular, with families heading to Chambery, Grenoble and Geneva.

The new routes are part of a wider £60million investment plan at the airport, which will see facilities updated as well as a larger departure lounge and international arrivals baggage hall.

In the departures lounge, there will be more seating areas, toilets and additional food and drink spots.

The three-storey terminal expansion will also have a new security search area with extra check-in desks and new self-service bag drop counters.

By 2040, the airport hopes to welcome nine million passengers a year.

In other aviation news, the 37 new flights launching from a major UK airport this year, including budget routes to Asia and Jet2’s first ever.

Plus, four-hour airport queues set to cause chaos for Brits this summer.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes teams are tanking more aggressively than in recent years and is considering many possible remedies to ensure real competition, from taking away draft picks to making wholesale changes to the draft and the lottery.

Silver immediately addressed the hottest topic in NBA circles Saturday in his annual address during All-Star Weekend at Intuit Dome, making it clear the NBA will do almost anything to make sure its teams earnestly compete.

Last Thursday, the league issued a $500,000 fine to the Utah Jazz and a $100,000 penalty to the Indiana Pacers for sitting healthy players, believing their apparent tanking actions compromised the league’s competitive integrity.

“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,” Silver said. “Which was what led to those those fines, and not just those fines, but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”

Silver knows strong words and six-figure fines might not be nearly enough to compel struggling teams to commit to real competition instead of improving their odds in what’s expected to be one of the deepest drafts in recent history — and that’s why the NBA is looking at stronger solutions.

“The league is 80 years old, it’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it,” Silver said of draft process. “Ultimately, we need a system to fairly distribute players. It’s in the players’ interest as well as the teams’ that you have a level of parity around the league. There’s only so many jobs and so many cities, but we’ve got to look at some fresh thinking here. I mean, what we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now, is not working.”

The NBA’s competition committee is reexamining the structure of the draft lottery for ways to minimize the upside of tanking, Silver said. The commissioner also acknowledged the fines could be followed by the revocation of draft picks from tanking teams.

“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” Silver said.

Yet Silver also acknowledged the essential dilemma at the heart of this problem, one that has bedeviled the league since the 1960s: A team’s draft position is significantly tied to its chances of building a winner.

“It’s so clear that the incentives are misaligned,” Silver said. “My caveat is, and this is where teams are in a difficult place … that the worst place to be, for example, is a middle-of-the-road team. Either be great or be bad, because then [being bad] will help you with the draft. In many cases, you have fans of those teams, it’s not what they want to pay for, to see poor performance on the floor, but they’re actually rooting for their teams, in some cases, to be bad to improve their draft chances.”

But Silver intends to remind every team that tanking is a betrayal of its relationship with fans, both in their home cities and around the world.

In other topics covered by Silver on Saturday:

Expansion grows closer

The NBA still expects to make decisions on expansion this year, starting with more discussions at the Board of Governors meeting next month. The league won’t vote on expansion then, but Silver expects to know whether the league will move on to talk with potential owners.

Silver acknowledged Seattle and Las Vegas are the obvious candidates for expansion and said the league wants to make a decision soon: “I don’t want to tease cities or mislead anyone.”

Clippers investigation

Silver said he has been told the Clippers have been cooperative with the external investigation into their possible circumvention of the salary cap through a suspicious endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard with a now-bankrupt company.

Silver firmly stated that the investigation and its findings were not purposely delayed while the Clippers host All-Star weekend. Wachtell Lipton, the Manhattan law firm conducting the investigation, has no deadline to produce its findings.

Prediction markets

The NBA is “paying an enormous amount of attention” to the rise of prediction markets, particularly after Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo sparked concern with his investment in Kalshi. Silver didn’t find fault with Antetokounmpo — whose shares are a “minuscule” position, according to Silver — but acknowledged the looming specter of the gambling industry without suggesting a solution.

“It concerns me in the totality of all this betting that we need a better handle, no pun intended, on all the different activity that’s happening out there,” Silver said.

Silver also acknowledged the overwhelming size of this task, given that roughly 80 countries allow betting on the NBA while billions more are wagered illegally.

Europe calling

The NBA’s desire to open a European league in partnership with FIBA remains strong, and it still would love to start in October 2027, but Silver acknowledged many hurdles remain.

The league still is working with the players union to determine whether active players will be allowed to invest in NBA Europe franchises — something that would be welcomed by many top players, including Antetokounmpo.

“If there’s an opportunity that comes across my desk to be an owner in sports, I would consider it 100%,” the Greek star said Saturday. “In the real NBA, I don’t know if I have that type of money … but I love basketball, and anywhere that I can be involved with it, I would love it.”

A MASSIVE expansion of the UK’s biggest train station has finally been given the green light after years of controversy.

London Liverpool Street Station welcomes nearly as many as 100million passengers a year.

However, for years there have been plans to upgrade some of the station’s dated features as well as make it larger after record passenger numbers.

And the City of London Corporation has now approved plans for the redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station.

It confirmed that it would “improve central London’s connectivity to the rest of the country [and] make the local area a much more enjoyable place to visit, work in and travel through.”

The new plans – predicted to cost £1.2billion – include more shops and cafes, as well as better pedestrian and cycle paths and parks.

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More office spaces will be part of a new 318ft tower block being built over the main concourse.

Upgraded facilities such as more ticket barriers, lifts, escalators and toilets, and wider train platforms, are also part of the plans.

It hopes it will eventually double in capacity, with up to 200million passengers.

It won’t be anytime soon, however – works could start by 2029, and be finished by 2036.

Chairman of the City of London Corporation Planning and Transportation Committee, Tom Sleigh, said: “Everyone likes an upgrade, and this astonishing improvement to Britain’s busiest train station is just that; a major improvement by every measure.

“The soaring Brick arches and bold architecture will cement Liverpool Street’s status as a modern temple to transport.”

Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris Hayward, added: “This redevelopment of Liverpool Street station is a major step forward for the Square Mile.”

If the proposals go ahead, work would start at the beginning of 2029 and last seven years, with the new station completed by mid-2036.

The long-discussed plans have caused controversy in the past, with previous plans even including a rooftop pool although this has now been scrapped.

And there are fears that the upgrade works could cause a “decade of chaos” due to closed platforms.

This would affect passengers travelling to airports like London Stansted, as well as those using the Elizabeth Line.

London Liverpool Street Station is the UK’s busiest, recording a record 98million passengers from 2024/25.

In second is London Waterloo, which has nearly 28million fewer passengers.

It’s not the only huge train station expanding – London St Pancras plans to double passenger numbers to 60million.

The station is home to the Eurostar, and will eventually welcome Virgin’s European trains when they launch as well.

And here’s a large train station in the UK that was inspired by Italy – and has been named one of the best.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the double standard allowing Israel to expand its military while other countries in the region are demanded to reduce their defensive capabilities. Araghchi spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, a three-day event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.